Data Integration Blog

Renat Khasanshyn, the founder and CEO of Apatar, will speak on the future of enterprise data mashups at Dr. Dobb’s Architecture & Design World 2008 conference, the independent event dedicated to software architecture, design, modeling, and UML. The event will be held on July 21-24, 2008 at the Hyatt McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, and include 75 focused sessions on real-world topics, visionary keynotes, in-depth training, and networking with peers, industry leaders, and world-class speakers.

In his presentation, Renat Khasanshyn, the founder of the Apatar Open Source Data Integration project, will explore how enterprise architects, developers, and business users can leverage existing mashup technologies to build and deploy data mashups. The session will focus on tips and best practices and also highlight the major challenges preventing mashup design tools from being implemented across the enterprise sector. Finally, Mr. Khasanshyn will walk the audience through the process of building “Cold Call Assistant for Salesforce.com,” the mashup that won the 2007 IBM Business Mashup Challenge.

Session information: what, where, when
“Enterprise 2.0 and Data Mashups: Bridging the Information Gap”
Renat Khasanshyn, founder and CEO of Apatar, Inc.
July 24, 2008, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Track: Service-Oriented Architecture
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, 2233 S. Martin L. King Drive, Chicago, IL
Audience Level: Intermediate

https://www.cmpevents.com/SDUM8/a.asp?option=G&V=3&id=575532

Visit http://drdobbsarchworld.com/ to learn more about the conference.

The article “Tension emerges between SOA and mashup camps“makes a very good point about SOA vs. mashup relations.

Mashups make SOA real to business users - nothing wrong with that

…you have SOA practitioners on one hand, calling mashups ungovernable and Web 2.0 camp saying “SOA poisons the mashup well”.

Mashups are simple, convenient and helpful. I don’t see any reason for them not to be popular. If SOA is a complicated concept, how is it not natural for users to  favour a nice and sweet shortcut?

SOA is seen as complex, while mashups seen as an easy shortcut to agility.

“…The approach is not a black and white SOA vs. mashups choice for enterprise integration, but rather, use of mashups for the last mile of integration that may, in many cases, utilize data services, feeds, or other sources that more often than not are exposed as Web or RESTful Services.”

So it’s not the SOA vs. mashups, it’s the SOA crowned with mashups that would be the right solution. With this approach the corporate world will be able to “see and feel and touch service orientation.”

Dion Hinchcliffe wrote an article discussing the recent mashups’ popularity boost.

“Penetration of mashups in the enterprise is just beginning as their benefits begin to be understood.”

Mashup Tools and Platforms Circa 2008 (The diagram by Dion Hinchcliffe from the article mentioned above)

Well, I couldn’t agree more. Mashup technologies are the next generation approach to infromation integration and management.

The figure above illustrates the mashup market distribution very well, But! =)  Apatar is placed in the code mashup section for developers, which doesn’t exactly illustrate its real market placement . Apatar is a strictly data mashup tool designed for business users. It can, of course, be used by developers, but with the sole purpose of simplifying their work and avoiding writing code. Apatar positions itself as a No-Coding tool aimed at making mashups easy and available for consumers and power users (not developers). So, Apatar should’ve been somewhere in the upper left side of the diagram. =)

Here’s how you can overdo it with mashups. Ok, an internet umbrella…

Pileus is an umbrella connected to the Internet to make walking in rainy days fun. Pileus has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass, and it provides two main functions; A Social Photo-sharing and A 3D Map Navigation.

…erm…hello!! What in the world? When it’s raining, you usually try desperately to watch your feet so as not to step into water, so as not to trip, so as to know where you’re going. Just how are you supposed to watch the umbrella and walk properly? Or are we supposed sit on a bench under the rain and enjoy it? Sorry, I’d rather go home and get online, or use WiFi in a coffeeshop inside… but outside in the rain?…no.

The photo function is connected to a major web service “Flickr”. A user can take photo with a camera on the umbrella, and pictures are uploaded to Flickr in two minutes with context tags via a wireless Internet connection. User can also enjoy theirselves watching photo-streams downloaded from Flickr with simple operation of wrist snapping.

Come on, what’s wrong with the good old camera?

3D Map Navigation is powered by “Google Earth”. Detecting a location data from GPS, it shows a 3D bird view around the user. User can walk-through a city comparing the 3D views and real sights, and the map is always updated by GPS and a digital compass. As it has a large screen, it create virtual reality but not immersive.

I’ve got GPS on my iPod, thank you very much.

Now these two functions can be switched by simply fliping a switch. As a future direction of its development, putting a context data on the Internet (e.g. geo-tags on photos), it will be able to provide social local-navigations, social local-ads, and real-time in-place communications. The product aims to provide an augmentation of everyday life synchronizing information on the Internet and the real place.

mm…that’s more like it. Wouldn’t mind knowing what’s around while walking in the rain…To jump inside and have a cup of coffee, wait for the rain to pass. That’d be nice.

Did you know you could listen to your favorite song, watch the video, read reviews, related information and see what it costs on Amazon all in one interface? Musicmesh mashup allows you to do it all. The design and speed could be better, but the idea’s new. Do check it out over here.

I just stumbled upon this article that might be quite helpful in understanding and getting into the whole mashup theme. The article chews it out for you by giving extensive examples, including architectural components and key points to consider when developing your first enterprise mashup. This is a great beginning if you’re clueless about mashups. =)

Summary: A mashup is a technique for building applications that combine data from multiple sources to create an integrated experience. Many mashups available today are hosted as sites on the Internet, providing visual representations of publicly available data. This article describes the history and architecture of mashups, and explores how you can create mashups for use in your enterprise. We also impart some wisdom gained from projects with customers and systems integrators who have implemented mashups for the enterprise.

Google and NewYork Times have created a mashup that shows you what’s happening AND where it happening. Sweet! Now you’ll be able to see the latest news for any spot in the world you want. Going on a trip to Spain? Wanna know what’s been up there? Just click on Spain and there you go!

The New York Times offers geo-coded news, and Google Earth offers the platform for reading that news in a 3D browser.

To experience this new way of getting your daily dose of news, launch the latest version of Google Earth and make sure the “Geographic Web” folder is turned on. Click on a New York Times placemark and you will see the latest news and features pertaining to that geographic region. Want to see more than just headlines? Click on the “Show this layer” button at the top of the preview bubble and you’ll get a list of news articles dating back one month.

Now, fly around Earth and catch up on news of your favorite places. Whether it’s your dream vacation destination, a country you are fascinated with, the latest U.S. presidential primary cities or your hometown, just fly and enjoy. You can also try viewing The New York Times layer along with photos from Panoramio, videos from YouTube or any number of other options from the Layers panel to experience the full range and depth of information available to you in Google Earth.

Don’t worry about staying on top of things. This layer is updated every 15 minutes to offer the latest headlines for those with a big news appetite.

Google is notorious for its mashups, that’s fine, but when you see that even first-class news papers (news papers, not software companies!) like NY Times do mashups… you can’t but notice this global mashup tendency…So, If you are still not a part of it, I’d recommend to brush up on your ability to mashup!