Comments on: What are mashups for anyway? http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/ Usability, IA, UX and Design Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:32:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Stephen Downes http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12387 Stephen Downes Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:25:13 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12387 Right. Data independence matters, as does identity independence. Most mash-ups depend on (closed) site-based applications. This is partially an artifact of built-in limitations to HTTPRequest and partially business as usual. It's going to backfire. Yahoo has, in my view, made a serious tactical error that will impact the entire community. By forcing Flickr users to adopt Yahoo identities it has strong-armed what might be called the web design digerati. The people who build all these neat sites use Flickr, and now they've had the weaknesses of the model rubbed in their faces. They won't forget. Right.

Data independence matters, as does identity independence. Most mash-ups depend on (closed) site-based applications. This is partially an artifact of built-in limitations to HTTPRequest and partially business as usual. It’s going to backfire.

Yahoo has, in my view, made a serious tactical error that will impact the entire community. By forcing Flickr users to adopt Yahoo identities it has strong-armed what might be called the web design digerati. The people who build all these neat sites use Flickr, and now they’ve had the weaknesses of the model rubbed in their faces. They won’t forget.

]]> By: Rob http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12113 Rob Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:30:04 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12113 Bruce Sterling on music or movie mashups... Nobody's gonna listen to it in 10 years. It's novelty music, like "Monster Mash"... http://audio.sxsw.com/podcast/interactive/panel/2007/SXSW.INT.20070313.BruceSterling.mp3 Bruce Sterling on music or movie mashups…

Nobody’s gonna listen to it in 10 years.

It’s novelty music, like “Monster Mash”…

http://audio.sxsw.com/podcast/interactive/panel/2007/SXSW.INT.20070313.BruceSterling.mp3

]]> By: Olivier http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12077 Olivier Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:49:09 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12077 Out of the bunch, proto seems the more advanced...but it's desktop based ! teqlo is great on paper but the modules are limited for now and you don't have much control over what you build. Let's wait for the release. Yeah the QEDWiki thing is a pain. Out of the bunch, proto seems the more advanced…but it’s desktop based ! teqlo is great on paper but the modules are limited for now and you don’t have much control over what you build. Let’s wait for the release. Yeah the QEDWiki thing is a pain.

]]> By: tom http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12073 tom Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:26:55 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12073 Ah.. UPDATE: QEDWiki is presently being upgraded to version 1.1. The service will be unavailable until 3/15. Ah.. UPDATE:
QEDWiki is presently being upgraded to version 1.1. The service will be unavailable until 3/15.

]]> By: tom http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12072 tom Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:23:28 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12072 ...And another thing... what about all those poor mashup makers that use YouTube now that it is been sued for a billion... Mind you, although the QEDwiki site doesn't work.. You tube does... here's the video demo.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qIq9t9Gqs …And another thing… what about all those poor mashup makers that use YouTube now that it is been sued for a billion…

Mind you, although the QEDwiki site doesn’t work.. You tube does… here’s the video demo….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qIq9t9Gqs

]]> By: tom http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12071 tom Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:17:21 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12071 I didn't know about Proto but it seems like it's just for Windows right? And is essentially similar to Mac's widgets I guess. I tried going through the QED's registration process... how BAD was that? I think I entered my country 4 times then it errored... I guess the ugly sister of a mashup is joined-up-thinking... far less popular at the local dance.. Anyway, when I eventually registered, it didn't work... So what is it? I didn’t know about Proto but it seems like it’s just for Windows right? And is essentially similar to Mac’s widgets I guess.

I tried going through the QED’s registration process… how BAD was that? I think I entered my country 4 times then it errored… I guess the ugly sister of a mashup is joined-up-thinking… far less popular at the local dance..

Anyway, when I eventually registered, it didn’t work… So what is it?

]]> By: Olivier http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12069 Olivier Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:49:54 +0000 http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/03/14/what-are-mashups-for-anyway/#comment-12069 You summed up what i think about the mashup thing. A software application is by definition a mashup of different parts, wether it's dlls, libraries, APIs, there's nothing new here. Getting the data from the internet by scraping or calling APIs is a cool idea, and i subscribe to it, but what happens if you build a business and one of your source goes down ? you're screwed. I've yet to see a real mashup, done with little effort (not some geek using AJAX) that brings a real value for a user, most of them are gagdgets that you will visit only once. All those google maps mashup are so boring after a while. Like you said, the so-called complex mashups are not mashups to me, they're regular web apps using web services, RSS, XML. Recently I've been playing a lot with pipes, dapper, teqlo and proto, they're all great tools but it's painful to do something with it. I'd love to see the equivalent of yahoo pipes to actualy build a web page or an HTML control. Even IBM's QEDWiki is too technical to use. I see a market for mashup platforms, but how long since big players like macromedia comes up with mashup building tools integrated in dreamweaver for example ? You summed up what i think about the mashup thing.
A software application is by definition a mashup of different parts, wether it’s dlls, libraries, APIs, there’s nothing new here. Getting the data from the internet by scraping or calling APIs is a cool idea, and i subscribe to it, but what happens if you build a business and one of your source goes down ? you’re screwed. I’ve yet to see a real mashup, done with little effort (not some geek using AJAX) that brings a real value for a user, most of them are gagdgets that you will visit only once. All those google maps mashup are so boring after a while. Like you said, the so-called complex mashups are not mashups to me, they’re regular web apps using web services, RSS, XML.

Recently I’ve been playing a lot with pipes, dapper, teqlo and proto, they’re all great tools but it’s painful to do something with it. I’d love to see the equivalent of yahoo pipes to actualy build a web page or an HTML control. Even IBM’s QEDWiki is too technical to use.
I see a market for mashup platforms, but how long since big players like macromedia comes up with mashup building tools integrated in dreamweaver for example ?

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