Spatial Internet Marketplaces from a Database Perspective

Internet marketplaces have recently been proposed as a new and interesting model to make data and computational services available to a broad public (Abel 1997; Abel et al. 1997; Günther et al. 1997). Unlike electronic commerce (on-line shopping) where services are only requested over the Internet, Internet Marketplace services are both requested and delivered through the Internet. The key idea of Internet Marketplaces is that providers make a range of services available on the Internet and customers rent them whenever necessary. Such a market model offers a range of advantages over conventional marketplaces and is attractive for both customers and providers (Gaede 1998).