GeoClue is a software framework

Software framework

In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...

 which can be used to enable geospatial

Geospatial

Geospatial analysis is an approach to applying statistical analysis and other informational techniques to geographically based data. Such analysis employs spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets, including geographic information systems and...

 awareness in applications. GeoClue uses the D-Bus

D-Bus

In computing, D-Bus is a simple inter-process communication open-source system for software applications to communicate with one another. Heavily influenced by KDE2–3's DCOP system, D-Bus has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release. An implementation of D-Bus supports most POSIX operating...

 inter-process communication

Inter-process communication

In computing, Inter-process communication is a set of methods for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC methods are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared...

 mechanism to provide location information, but there is also a Qt Mobility API in the works. Through this it aims to simplify development of location aware applications and promote code reuse

Code reuse

Code reuse, also called software reuse, is the use of existing software, or software knowledge, to build new software.-Overview:Ad hoc code reuse has been practiced from the earliest days of programming. Programmers have always reused sections of code, templates, functions, and procedures...

 within the free software and open source communities

Free software community

The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...

 by defining a logical boundary between the applications and underlying location providers. GeoClue is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License

GNU Lesser General Public License

The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...

 and is currently available for Linux.

GeoClue ships in several Linux distributions including Ubuntu

Ubuntu (operating system)

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...

, Debian

Debian

Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...

 and Fedora

Fedora (operating system)

Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...

. It is also the positioning service of the MeeGo

MeeGo

MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project. Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet...

 mobile Linux distribution and the GNOME

GNOME

GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...

 stack.

GeoClue provides access to multiple position providers:

• GPS: Position information from a Global Positioning System
  Global Positioning System
  The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
  
   receiver (via gpsd
  Gpsd
  gpsd is a daemon that receives data from a GPS receiver, and provides the data back to multiple applications such as Kismet or GPS navigation software....
  
   and gypsy)
• GSM: Position information from cellular network connection
• Plazes: Position information from the Plazes
  Plazes
  Plazes AG is a Berlin, Germany based geosocial networking site. Plazes allows users to post their location and current activities and share this information with other Plazes users via computers or mobile telephones. On 23 June 2008, Nokia Corporation announced plans to acquire Plazes.-History...
  
   Wi-Fi
  Wi-Fi
  Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
  
   location service
• Hostip: Position information based on IP address
  IP address
  An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
  
  
• Manual: User-provided position information

In addition to position information, GeoClue can also be used for geocoding

Geocoding

Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes...

, or converting between human-readable addresses and coordinates.