EnterpriseMashupUseCases

From MashupCamp

Session Notes: Mashup Use cases

Repurposing part of a mashup

Automated data collection

Vertical search/ web automation/ data aggregating multiple sites - Centralize the data, filter, manipulate, etc - Aggregate airline information - Monitor tourism portals – aggregate the info and display

Opportunistic/situational application - User has problem right now (think popfly) - Not a long life cycle

A mashup is taking unrelated data and creating something unexpected and new. Tools not originally intended to play together. Is the differentiator “if it is totally new and never thought of”? How important is creativity to the definition?

Web development vs. mashups; is it just semantics? Hacks vs. traditional development? IT is usually averse to using the term “hack”; are hackers usually the top developers?

Companies are finding that line personal are the best at finding innovation in the areas they work in - How do you engage to take advantage of this? Tools such as QED wiki are trying to empower folks in this manner Admin assistants are mashers – usage of Excel Central IT needs to let go of control – let users solve the problem. Tech account manager works escalations - Mailbox is filled up with esc and other “stuff”. Time mainly spent on mailboxes; not on other stuff. Need a mashup to segregate the content, display business-related information in a different area

Does a mashup need to require something from more than once source? Can it also a single tool used in a completely different way?

“Long tail” – enabling users to address it

Most web services that are available are very technical; very development oriented. Can IT build a layer on top to make them usable to business users?

“Lego blocks” concept; currently services are too granular. Need larger grain blocks to make them accessible to business user. Keep fine grain blocks avail to developers Wsdl is fine; services are too low level. Frequently missing semantics.

Opportunities to collaborate within a corporation? - Wikis - Quarterly gathering sessions - Investing 70% res into business projects; 30% strategic for smaller projects that employees have identified - Decision by consensus can bloat; miss the original intention (too many cooks concept) - Brainstorming ideas with a group of people to generate new ideas - Some leaders are more collaborative than others - Ideas can come whilst working normal IT tasks - Provide infrastructure to allow users to pursue their ideas – sandbox - Blog as the corporate home page – reduce the email traffic - Weebly.com a recommended prototype site for web development; drag ‘n drop interface

Is enterprise mashup just a marking term? No – there are different types of mashups. Something new comes from something old. Opportunity to collaborate within a business Is mashup the new type of dashboard/portal? Gadgets on a page? No; real combinations are going on here

3 types of mashups: - Aggregate: isolated environments in one view - Integration at the data level (aggregating and combining) - Mashing at the execution level (business logic included) Mashups can be building blocks for other mashups

Building layers of mashups - can be brittle. It this ok? If the life cycle of a mashup can be very short.

Lack of control over the pieces. Can still provide business community with the blocks they need to solve problems inside the firewall. Exceptions are solid, stable services such as Amazon, DnB, etc

Need SLA – but does that make it no longer a mashup or just application development? Self-service IT – IT provides infrastructure, users solve the problems using tools like weebly, popfly (this is further in the future)

Large vendors are already working on this (MS, etc) “mixing space” (such as used for music mashup) is what is needed – something readily accessible to the business user

Visual tools are a must – at as high a level as possible. Intuitiveness required

Facebook as an example: It is a mashup; combining content (e.g. MBFF) using profiles, Google maps. Creativity is there – new applications are created

Access to information via these applications; build good mashups by getting information via several venues

Let people build, then they will want to build more

IT offers support; applications/mashups built by users meant those users are on their own; taking risks is part of it

Reliability of information from external sources can be suspect.

Audi: mixing info inside corporation with outside parties. Firewalls are an issue. Mobilizing stuff: content too big for hand-held devices; need normalized format suitable for them

How does centralized IT know what building blocks to provide? - Requirements should come from the user – not for big applications but for pieces of functionality (allow reuse)

Mashups are providing information for business decisions