The measurement of Geospatial Web Service quality in SDIs

Abstract

Currently, increasingly large number of Geospatial Web Services are being built in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). Although services make it easy for users to access desired information, the quality of Geospatial Web Services will greatly affect the willingness of users in access of these services. Therefore, in order to improve the use of service-oriented architecture for distributed geospatial data sharing, proper measurement of the Geospatial Web Service quality is highly valuable. In this paper, we propose to evaluate Geospatial Web Service quality from Geospatial Web Service activities and Geospatial Service usage. The Geospatial Web Service activities contain four layers: Geospatial Web Service commitment, Geospatial Web Service description, Geospatial Web Service process, and Geospatial Web Service outcome layers. To measure Geospatial Web Service quality score, we consider both objective measurement and subjective measurement. Objective measurement is generated from the comparison of actual service performance with application requirements. Subjective measurement determines users' attitudes towards the consumption of services. In conclusion, this study brings new perspective in evaluating Geospatial Web Services in SDIs. It provides a solution to calculate the Geospatial Web Service quality score from both objective and subjective measurement.