Information highways

This chapter looks at what the information highway means for geographic data which stands to gain enormously from the improved access and sharing potential of the information highway, if the right techniques and standards can be developed. The next section looks at the network itself, from the perspective of an American academic, and at some of the tools and methods that now inhabit it. The subsequent sections discuss applications of the network, and the network in the context of spatial data, including projects and initiatives that have emerged over the past few years to exploit its potential for handling and accessing geographic information. -from Author