The German company Geofabrik is specialized to neogeography and open geospatial data. Now they provide the download of OpenStreetMaps as daily updated shapefiles.
The data on their server are regional hierarchical structured. All shapefiles are based on OpenStreetmap-raw data. This XML-based file format dist described in the OpenStreetMap-Wiki at OSM Protocol Version 0.5.

But not all layers of the available OSM data is converted special layers can be requested as additional service.
OSM data is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0-License.
[via Mapperz]
The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) have approved version 1.0 of the OpenGIS® Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard.

The WPS standard defines an interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes and makes it easier to write software clients that can discover and bind to those processes. Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially referenced raster or vector data. Publishing means making available machine-readable binding information as well as human-readable metadata that allows service discovery and use.
A WPS can be used to define calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced data from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a hydrological model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or it can be made available at the server. This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and manage the output from the calculation so that the client can access it.
The OGC’s WPS standard will play an important role in automating workflows that involve geospatial data and geoprocessing services.
The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.
[opengeospatial]
Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.
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