QedWikiDemo

From MashupCamp

Introduction

Most of the attendees of Mashup Camp 2 can be classified as Mashup Enablers, Mashup Assemblers or Service Providers. IBM's niche in the Mashup arena is around Mashup Makers which

• provide an assembly experience for Mashup Assemblers to create their Situational Application, Mashup or Mashboard.
• provide Mashup Enablers with an expandable mashup runtime

IBM's mashup maker technology is called QEDWiki. This technology was introduced in Mashup Camp 1 and IBM has returned to camp with a number of QEDWiki demos.

The primary focus of this session will be to provide an overview of QEDWiki and the assembly of some sample mashups. QEDWiki is a Wiki-based framework that seeks to enable the creation of situational applications or mashups. IBM's target audience for their mashup maker is the knowledge worker who needs to interact and integrates with an overwhelming amount of information on a daily basis. QEDWiki represents a next generation Wiki which combines Do-It-Yourself IT (DIY-IT) with the flexibility of user-oriented information architecture to create an easy-to-use integration platform for rendering mashups.

QEDWiki is an application runtime environment for collaborative and situational (ad hoc) dynamic content development. It enables quick and easy web programming and deployment of Wikis for non-programmers who are domain experts. Once the IT community sets up the basic Wiki, individual groups can quickly aggregate, deploy and collaborate based upon their requirements. As a result, minimal maintenance is required from IT.

Aside from providing demos. IBM is interested in feedback from camp participants on:

• Publishing and hosting of Widgets
• Assembly experience improvements for the knowledge worker
• Value proposition of QEDWiki as a framework for mashup enablers

Session Agenda

• Quick Introduction to Situational Applications
• QEDWiki Demonstrations
  • Hardware Contractor Demo
  • ACORD Insurance Demo
  • NAB Resource Utilization Demo

Discussion (Q&A)

Q: Why Wiki as a container for creating Mashups vs. portals?

A: Portals may be too complex for end users. QEDWiki can utilize many different backend data sources. There is also a collaborative aspect to creating QEDWiki applications where multiple users may contribute to creating a mashup.

Q: Is the product going to be open sourced?

A: This is to be determined.

Q: What is a QA process behind creating an application?

A: QA policies shall be established by IT organizations actually using the technology.

Q: Why did you pick PHP as a component model?

A: As IBM we want to expand into communities that can work with our technologies. PHP is one of the largest communities. Simplicity is another reason for using PHP and PHP is simple.

Q: Who created widgets for the demos?

A: Many of the widgets were custom created to suite a demo. However, widgets are really simple PHP scripts and do not take long to create.

Q: How important do you see having a robust security model for QEDWiki?

A: QEDWiki uses Wakka wiki engine that provides basic security model and user management.

Q: Would it be possible to automatically generate the widget code for a Web Service?

A: QEDWiki has a generic component that allows accessing Web Services using their WSDL definitions.

Q: Please tell us how to improve the UI experience and the framework!

A: <your suggestions go here>