As a proof of concept acitvity the JRC team has set up in 
the pathfinder phase the European Wide Service 
Exchange (EWSE) a testbed for potential users and 
services. The aim is to increase the number of data, 
products, information and services advertised through 
the EWSE to be transfered to the Enabling Services 
when released. EWSE shall also test new technologies 
and give user feedback for the improvement of 
developments. 
Already now the EWS gives an impression on how a 
future information highway based system could look like. 
At the moment it offers Queries, a Tradeshow, a Geotool 
and a Calendar. The Tradeshow is organised as a 
number of pavilions in which the customer can visit 
different shops on different floors (see fig. 5). Some 
shops offer already now interesting pilot services as wind 
and temperature maps produced by ECWMF. 
A service provider can interactively (EC-JRC, 1995d) 
create its own shop in a pavilion. By online access even 
to the level of the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) 
source code almost complete control over the 
appearence of the shop is possible. 
An attractive highlight of EWSE is a virtual 3-D flight 
around the Earth based on satellite images (fig. 6) 
The EWSE is the prototype of a future European service 
platform which shows the potential but also the 
limitations of the actually available technology if the user 
tries to access EWSE by modem or other low bandwidth 
connection. 
4. DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
The lack of a reliable communication infrastructure is a 
major problem in developing countries (DCs). On the 
other hand there is a high demand on Earth observation 
data and derived products like maps or agricultural and 
hydrologic data. A study on this subject found out that 
,...à Whole variety of activities is going on and many data 
and directory services are available, but the coordination 
is insufficient. It is widely accepted, even by people who 
are running data systems in this field, that DCs and 
donor countries are often unaware of what already exists, 
and they often act without the best information" 
(Geoscan, 1995). 
The international Internet connectivity has been 
investigated and is shown in fig. 7. As a principle online 
access is not possible in most DCs but off-line services 
as e-mail are often more reliable than fax (Geoscan, 
1995). Many organisaions as Worldbank, UNEP and 
FAO put strong emphasis on the improvement of the 
information infrastructure in DCs and support local 
Internet projects. So the situation is going to improve. 
Gaps could also be filled by satellite based systems as 
UNEP's MERCURE 
The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), 
an international forum for the coordination of space- 
related Earth observation issues has during its Plenary 
session in Berlin expressed its specific interest in 
Supporting DCs. The German Space Agency, DARA, 
initiated a feasibility study on a space information for 
DCs. The study investigated the existing systems, 
networks and requirements of DCs concerning Earth 
519 
observation data. The result was that "DCs are primarily 
interested in value-added information for project 
purposes... Many diversified data systems are already in 
existance in developed regions of the world, but in a 
rather uncoordinated fashion. By themselves, they are of 
little use to developing countries (Geoscan, 1995)". 
An Information Locator System (ILS) was proposed as 
solution to facilitate the search for value added 
information, project results and data sources. An ILS 
does not contain data itself but pointers on other data 
bases. 
At the last CEOS Plenary DARA was asked to perform a 
pilot project for an ILS. The pilot project is led under 
DARA contract by DFD/DLR with subcontractors Kayser- 
Threde, Munich and DSS/DASA, Friedrichshafen. 
The pilot project will run for two years. In the first year an 
ILS pilot system will be set up, using as much as 
possible tools already existant, as the EWSE. For the 
second year some pilot users in DCs will be involved to 
gain experience with the system and to deliver feedback. 
As CEOS is a non profit organisation the necessary 
system maintenance has to be minimal and users must 
have the possibility to enter own information (DC and 
donor organisations). 
Internet WWW addresses: 
ISIS can be accessed via http://www.dfd.dlr.de. 
The internet address of EWSE is http://ewse.ceo.org/. 
CEOS documents can be found in the CEOS Infosys 
under http://ceos.esrin.esa.it/Cceosinfo. 
References: 
Lotz-Iwen, Göbel, Markwitz, 1995, ISIS - Fernerkundung 
für jedermann, Wichmann Verlag 
DHV, ESYS, Synoptics, 1995, Infrastructure Survey of 
Earth Observation related data sets, Projects and 
Services within European Research Organisations 
ESYS, 1995, Market Analysis for the CEO Programme, 
Final Report 
EC-JRC, 1995a, Centre for Earth Observation, CEO 
Concept, CEO/160/1995 
EC JRC, 1995b, Work Programme of the Specific 
Programme for Environment and Climate, Supporting 
Information for Area 3.3 (CEO), CEO/173/1995 
EC-JRC, 1995c, Centre for Earth Observation, Plan for 
the CEO Design and Implementation Phase, 
CEO/166/1995 
EC-JRC, 1995d, How to Create an Internet Presence on 
the EWSE 
GEOSCAN, 1995, Feasibility Study for a Space 
Information System in Support of Developing Countries, 
DARA contract, presented to the CEOS Plenary Session 
1995 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996