Open and decentralized access across location-based services

Abstract

Users now interact with multiple Location-Based Services (LBS) through a myriad set of location-aware devices and interfaces. However, current LBS tend to be centralized silos with ad-hoc APIs, which limits potential for information sharing and reuse. Further, LBS subscriptions and user experiences are not easily portable across devices. We propose a general architecture for providing open and decentralized access to LBS, based on Tiled Feeds -a RESTful protocol for access and interactions with LBS using feeds, and Feed Subscription Management (FSM) -a generalized feed-based service management protocol. We describe two client designs, and demonstrate how they enable standardized access to LBS services, promote information sharing and mashup creation, and offer service management across various types of location-enabled devices.