Open Location Platform Unlocks the Values of Integrated Smart Technologies with IoT and Big Data for Smart Cities
A platform specializing in geospatial data is often referred to as a Location Platform (LP) or Location Based Services (LBS) platform. Different from Geographic Information System (GIS), which is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data, LP provides location-centric development environment with actual hardware/software upon which a piece of software is built or for which it is destined, and offers much more benefits in terms of supports to business. Upon LP, external LBSs can build, and new services can be made with all the services existing within one environment.
Specifically, open LP allows a third party to build softwares for LBS using the interfaces based on open standards, such as application programming interfaces (API) and Software Development Kit (SDK). In open LP, softwares can be used by a third party to functionality for location-based development in other ways than the original programmer intended, without modification of the source code. Moreover, developers of a third party can integrate with open LP to add features or change existing functionality that the platform vendor had not completed or even conceived of. The opposite is called closed LP, where the interfaces are controlled by the vendor rather than based on open standards, and the vendor restricts convenient access to non-approved applications or contents. In comparison with closed LP, open LP can bring much more values in terms ofproviding a foundation for innovation and advocating collaboration across different vertical markets.
In the upcoming IoT era, data would be everywhere. Open LP not only supports deployment of Location Intelligence (LI) to ingest and process real-time geolocation data, but also encourage built-in smart solutions from a third party through collaborations to make the data actionable for a seamless connection and integration with hardwares and devices, which unleashesthe real value of IoT— the smart IoT. Nowadays, sharing and collaboration is the key to the innovation impacting global economy and our daily lives.
