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What Can Mashups Offer?RSC 3.0 Conference, October 2007

Brian KellyUK Web FocusUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/rsc-conference-2007/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/rsc-conference-2007/

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

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About Me / About This Talk

Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus – a JISC/MLA-funded post• Advises on Web technologies – emerging

technologies, standards & best practices • Based at UKOLN – a national centre of expertise

in digital information management• Regular blog posts on UK Web Focus blog at

<http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/>

This talk:• Introduces the concept of mashups• Provides some examples• Suggests why RSCs should engage in making

use of mashups

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What is A Mashup?

A mashup is:• A Web application that combines data from more

than one source into a single integrated tool; a typical example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps

• Three general flavours:1. Consumer mashups: e.g. Google Maps apps, with

emphasis on presentation

2. Data / enterprise mashups: merging data from internal and external sources

3. Business mashup: combination of above: combines data integration, presentation plus addition functionality, such as collaboration features

From Wikipedia

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How I Use Mashups (1)

Some simple mashups which we can all create

• Location of the organisation

And note benefits over conventional maps

• Location of other organisation – in this case, places I’ve spoken at

These examples require me to copy JavaScript code and tweak parameters or edit simple XML files

These examples require me to copy JavaScript code and tweak parameters or edit simple XML files

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How I Use Mashups (2)

I store a copy of many slides on SlideshareThe slides can then be embedded and viewed on other Web sites – no downloading needed

These examples simply need me to copy a HTML fragment to my own Web page

These examples simply need me to copy a HTML fragment to my own Web page

There’s also an interface in Facebook – so you gain the social networking benefits for free

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How I Use Mashups (3)

Blog context can be easily embedded in other applications Here’s the UK Web Focus blog (with one reader’s comment) ..

… and here’s the blog aggregated in the JISC Emerge community (with another comment)

Some people feel that content replication can be confusing and fragments discussion. I prefer to maximise access and encourage discussions from multiple communities.

Some people feel that content replication can be confusing and fragments discussion. I prefer to maximise access and encourage discussions from multiple communities.

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How I Use Mashups (4)

As well as content, you can integrate communication tools into Web sites

Embedded chat tools such as Meebo, Gabbly, etc. are growing in popularity

I’ve recently started to experiment with embedded video chat tools, such as TokBox – used at a recent conference to allow a remote speaker to participate in event

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What I’d Like To See

Northumbria University were early users of Google MapsNote how:

• Key locations (e.g. for Open Day) shown

• Personalised maps can be provided

They also have a national map & data for UK Universities (with Northumbria always shown)

Should RSCs do likewise, for colleges in their area?Should RSCs do likewise, for colleges in their area?

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Other Examples

Other examples of mashups (provided after a Facebook status inviting suggestions):

• Community building: Map showing locations of contributors to the Archives Hub service

• Country-specific Contacts: Aberdeen University providing links for overseas students to contacts in various countries

• Calendar Information: Details of Oxford University’s Continuing Education courses are (a) located on Google Maps and (b) listed on Google Calendar

• “They Stole OUr Learning Environment - Now We're Stealing It Back”: Various blog posts describing OU’s work with mashups, Web 2.0, …

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Not Just Data

It’s not just about repurposed data or embedding applications

The term mashup has its roots in music cf. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’s ‘Lyrics of one tune to tune of another”

A video example of this was created by Graham Attwell which juxtaposed:

• A JISC cartoon SOA approach to development and• The user’s perspective / informal learning

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Not Just 2D!

You can also create mashups in 3D environments, such as Second Life

This YouTube video provides an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qwu2nIKt4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qwu2nIKt4

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Creating MashupsYahoo Pipes is a popular tool for bringing mashup creation to the masses. You can:

• Explore existing Pipes, use, copy and tweak them

• Create new Pipes from scratch

See OUseful blog for details of how to do this

Other mashup creation tools include PopFly and the Google Mashup Editor

Other mashup creation tools include PopFly and the Google Mashup Editor

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Doing It By Hand

I create by RSS feeds manually:

• RSS feed of past & future events

• <META> tag for individual events

Various applications can render this data

<item><title>What Can Mashups Offer?</title> <link>http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/rsc-conference-2007/</link> <guid>http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/rsc-conference-2007/</guid><description>Brian Kelly will give a talk on "What Can Mashups Offer?" at the "RSC 3.0" annual conference at Ramanda Hotel Birmingham on 16 October 2007.</description> <geo:lat>52.545043</geo:lat> <geo:long>-1.846733</geo:long> <dc:date>2007-10-16</dc:date></item>

<meta name="geo.placename" content="Ramanda Hotel, Birmingham" /><meta name="geo.position" content="52.545043,-1.846733" /><meta name="ICBM" content="52.545043,-1.846733" />

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Supporting A Community

IWMW 2007 featured an innovation competition which encouraged lightweight development

Submissions• Where delegates are

from & what they’re blogging about

• Edge Hill students provide location of their home town

• Newport College have ported their VLE to Facebook

How about:• A mashup competition for colleges in

your region?• Use of mashups to support RSC events,

such as this one?

How about:• A mashup competition for colleges in

your region?• Use of mashups to support RSC events,

such as this one?

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But Why?

We’ve seen example of various mashups

Can you give some suggestions why mashups can be important?

How about:• They allow others to add value to your data - see

Paul Walk’s post on “The coolest thing to do with your data will be thought of by someone else”

• You can build richer services that you could do one your own, by making use of existing applications

• New insights can be provided• It relates to the JISC IE (Information Environment)

vision of seamless access to education & research services

• ...

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The Challenges

What challenges to deployment of mashups can you envisage?

How about• How do we learn how to deploy mashups? • What about the legal obstacles?• Are mashup services sustainable?• What about institutional barriers?

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Addressing The Challenges (1)

Approaches:• Learning: Video, podcasts, tutorials, etc. on tools

are available.• Legal barriers: A need for risk assessment and

flexibility (and try to provide Creative Commons licences for your resources)

• Sustainability: What happens if Google becomes bankrupt (or more realistically, changes its terms & conditions). Again risk assessment and flexibility.

• Institutional inertia: Beware the ‘ownership fundamentalist’ who feels the need to own all data and software (more of a problem for HE?) Try things - “seek forgiveness, not permission”

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Addressing The Challenges (2)

But what about:• Firewalls which

may block embedded objects?

• The accessibility of embedded objects esp. with embedding using Flash or JavaScript?

Are these insurmountable barriers, or are there ways to overcome such limitations?

Are these insurmountable barriers, or are there ways to overcome such limitations?

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Conclusions

To conclude:• Mashups are a key part of Web 2.0• Exploit the notion of ‘the Web as a

platform’ – the data and the application can be anywhere

• The technical infrastructure is now in place

• RSS is important – it’s not just news syndication

• An opportunity for experimentations, leading to service deployment

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Questions

Questions are welcome