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his paper covers the topic of Web 2.0, focusing on the use of geospatial and geographic data. Web 2.0 has not arisen due to a major change in technology. The label Web 2.0 applies to recently developed types of web applications and ways of using the web; however, advances in technology, such as the extensive use of XML, have enabled them.
The type of web applications that are available -and which ones dominate -has been transformed as have the ways that people use the web. For example, Web 2.0 allows users to keep track of items of interest. For years users have noted their favorite web pages. Now they can give tags to their favorite pages, photos, videos or other items as part of an interactive, social network. More formally and more pertinently to our topic, items can be geotagged, giving their physical location. Individuals can also make maps for their own use. Finally, the ease with which programmers can access information from websites using "services" has also led to the development of mash-ups. A mash-up is a web application created by mixing the information from two or more sources. Many existing data mashups involve data available from map sites.
In this paper we will look at both the Web 2.0 technologies and applications in somewhat more detail. We will also consider the critical area of geographic data standards and the availability of public-sector geographic data, particularly in the United Kingdom. Finally, we conclude with some developments that are likely in the near future.