Spatial Internet marketplaces: A grand challenge?

While the field of Spatial Information Systems continues to grow impressively as an information Technology sector, there remain several applications of very high potential value which require greater access to data and data manipulation tools than can currently be provided. This paper considers extension of the electronic market concept to Spatial Internet Marketplaces. A Spatial Internet Marketplace consists of a large number of providers offering data and specialised processing services and customers who buy those services as required. An infrastructure of a limited set of standards for services and of specialist services to aid in planning and executing tasks alleviates the problems of using a very large and heterogeneous collection of services. Key issues in the design and implementation of a Spatial Internet Marketplace are analysed to identify a number of core research challenges.