Web 2.0 Mashups Almost Ready For Enterprise

Dion Hinchcliffe, in a blog post over at ZDNet, talks about the increasing business value of 'Mashup' projects. Some of these, he believes, may soon or already be ready for use in an enterprise environment. He demonstrates one of these upcoming projects, showing off IBM's QEDWiki in a Flash demonstration. The software allows users to create their own mashups from canned widgets, turning data into simple applications with fairly straightforward functionality. From the article: "The motivations for mashups are quite different inside of organizations, where application backlogs and demand for more software that will improve collaboration and productivity are often rampant. If this state of affairs is true, far from having too much software, most enterprises don't have enough to satisfy demand, despite the prevalence of mountains of existing enterprise systems, many of which are underutilized. The arguments for letting users self-service themselves with end-user application tools and getting IT out of the critical path for the backlog of simpler applications are extensive." How important do you think 'self-made' software will be in the future?

Comments

Stop it with the "mashup" b.s.

[popo]

I'm about to be bored watching this all happen again. Sorry if this sounds like flamebait, but it really isn't intended to be. Here's how I read this -- we've got very few new ideas. We've got RSS, aggregators, social networks and content and we've got endless permuations as always. In an effort to generate excitement (and VC) we're inventing new buzzwords and "paradigm shifts" as fast as we can say "Flooz". There's nothing "new" about aggregating various technologies or sources into a single offering. (Hello? This is Slashdot people!) If it makes anyone feel "2.0" to call combined technologies and different content-sources wrapped up in userfriendly packages with community features "mashups", then make yourselves delusionally happy. I'll wait for the "mashup" explanation right after you finish defining Web 2.0.

I think I'll recombine the same technologies next year and call it a "smoothie".