Here’s a tech term that’s being bandied around in library circles a lot these days: Mashups. What does it mean? According to Wikipedia;
“A mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and JavaScript includes. The etymology of this term almost certainly derives from its similar use in pop music. Many people are experimenting with mashups using eBay, Amazon, Google, and Yahoos APIs.”
As it states, mashup is a term from the world of music – used to refer to a popular trend where kids take two songs and mash them together to make a new song.
This CNET article provides a pretty intro to mashups.
There are lots of mashups that include Google maps… so many that a blog has been started, which just talks about innovative uses of Google maps in mashups.
Stephen Abram from SirsiDynix blogs about library uses of mashups on his blog.
We missed Mashup Camp though… next year!
Comment By: joshua m. neff
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:37 pm
There’s another cool blog that keeps up with all kinds of mashups: programmableweb.
Comment By: Brenda
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Thanks, Josh! I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the potential all of this holds, so that site is a great resource.
Comment By: Brenda
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:41 am
Here’s a useful post by John Blyberg on the topic of mashups: http://www.blyberg.net/2006/02/22/conversational-programming/