Problem addressed

Map sites are among the most popular services available on the Web today: people use them for locating places, planning trips, finding points of interest and so on. Maps would be even more useful if they could be augmented dynamically with all kinds of location specific data, so the map user can make his specific selection and combination. This data can be provided by many different data providers. Although there are some map providers that offer access to data providers, they mainly are located outside Europe and use closed source platforms. Hence there is a need for a European based open source platform for geo-referenced data. However, the use case does not use open source technology only and it is not bound contractually to use it.

Contrail solution

The Distributed Provision of Geo-referenced Data implements a 3D Virtual Tourist Guide (VTG) through Web access to interactive digital maps and geo-referenced multimedia content. Users can zoom maps on a specific area of the globe and visualize them at different levels of detail, depending on available detailed information about the region. Layers can cover the territory partially or completely. Added value is given by Points Of Interest (POIs) related to tourism (like hotels, restaurants, museums), historical information about monuments or places, weather forecasts, images shared by users, etc. The Virtual Tourist Guide service relies on the concept of Federation offered by the Contrail framework. It enables an open and distributed platform where companies and institutions, that are willing to share their maps or geo-referenced content, are allowed to add new terrain layers and POIs to VTG infrastructure. This will greatly enrich the quality of experience of the final users. The service is managed by an Application Provider that monitors the quality of the overall service. Several Data Providers (including both Content Providers and Spatial Data Infrastructures) can join the service federating their private or public IT infrastructure: still maintaining full control over their data they can provide geo-spatial data and geo-referenced content from different sources to a single viewing environment. Main features of VTG are: User-friendly interface for an immersive navigation experience Search and fly to geographic location Dynamic activation of POIs

Data Providers are encouraged to contribute their services, since the Contrail technology guarantees a high level of security, protection, and reliability in data storage and management. The VTG platform could lower the initial investment needed for Data Providers: they could rent IT infrastructure from a Cloud provider in the Contrail Federation or they could easily federate their own private/public Cloud with Contrail. Quality of Service (QoS) is assured by transparent scalability and elasticity mechanisms provided by Contrail Federation. All this at reasonable costs!

Expected benefits of using Contrail

Dynamic platform with open API's that can be easily joined by data and content providers. Locality of data assured: content providers can tell where their data may be used and by which user categories Data providers through federation keep full control over their own data.