A '''Web Map Service''' ('''WMS''') is a standard protocol developed by the [[Open Geospatial Consortium]] in 1999 for serving [[georeference]]d map images over the Internet.<ref name="release">{{cite book |last=Scharl |first=Arno |author2=Klaus Tochtermann |author2-link=Klaus Tochtermann |title=The Geospatial Web: How Geobrowsers, Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society |publisher=Springer |year=2007 |isbn=1-84628-826-6 |pages=225}}</ref> These images are typically produced by a [[mapping server|map server]] from data provided by a [[Geographic Information System|GIS]] database.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wms |title=Web Map Service |publisher=Open Geospatial Consortium |access-date=2009-03-23}}</ref>
==History==
The [[Open Geospatial Consortium]] (OGC) became involved in developing standards for web mapping after a paper was published in 1997 by Allan Doyle, outlining a "WWW Mapping Framework".<ref>{{cite news |author=Doyle, Allan |year=1997 |title=WWW Mapping Framework |publisher=Open GIS Consortium }}</ref> The OGC established a task force to come up with a strategy,<ref>{{cite news |author=Cuthbert, A. |title=User Interaction with Geospatial Data |year=1998 |publisher=Open GIS Consortium}}</ref> and organized the "Web Mapping Testbed" initiative, inviting pilot web mapping projects that built upon ideas by Doyle and the OGC task force. Results of the pilot projects were demonstrated in September 1999, and a second phase of pilot projects ended in April 2000.<ref>{{cite book |author=Peng, Zhong-Ren |author2=Ming-Hsiang Tsou |title=Internet GIS |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2003 |pages=191}}</ref>
The Open Geospatial Consortium released WMS version 1.0.0 in April 2000,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=7196 |title=OpenGIS Web Map Server Interface Implementation Specification (Revision 1.0.0) |date=2000-04-19 |publisher=Open Geospatial Consortium |access-date=2009-04-10}}</ref> followed by version 1.1.0 in June 2001,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=1058 |title=Web Map Service Implementation Specification Version 1.1.0 |date=2001-06-21 |publisher=Open Geospatial Consortium |access-date=2009-04-10}}</ref> and version 1.1.1 in January 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=1081&version=1&format=pdf |title=Web Map Service Implementation Specification – Version 1.1.1 |date=2002-01-16 |publisher=Open Geospatial Consortium |access-date=2009-04-10}}</ref> The OGC released WMS version 1.3.0 in January 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=14416 |title= Web Map Service Implementation Specification – Version 1.3.0 |date=2004-01-20 |publisher=Open Geospatial Consortium |access-date=2010-10-26}}</ref>
