OK, I’ve digested at least 50% of today’s Mashup University content, which means I’ll retain 10% and be happy.
Mashup University – day one wraps with … beer and snacks.
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Daily Archives: July 11, 2006
Mashup University – the UI is the API. ScrAPIs
Assaf Arkin is talking about scraping content. I have mixed feelings about it since extensive scraping of our nicely hand-edited content seemed to be part of the problem with Google’s faulty indexing of Online Highways which still persists, but Web 2.0 sensibilities suggest that most content is now fair game. My new notions are that scraping, if accompanied with attribution, is OK and good for users since it helps them navigate the mess more effectively.
Assaf “Scraping is not evil”. He’s using Ruby. Ruby review: He started with Ruby a year ago and likes it. He’s reviewing example code for a scrape of EBay data.
Chef Chu’s for Chinese food…and travel.
I’m informed by local Ned that Chef Chus is the place to eat chinese here in Silicon Valley. Probably won’t have a chance to check it out this trip. Apparently Chef Chu also arranges trips to … China. Cool
Jeremy Z adds this suggestion:
Chef Chu’s is good food, but my personal favorite is the House Of Orient down in Campbell: http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=21557385
It’s rarely crowded (though it should be), prices are good, and service is reliable.
Mashup University – LignUp
LignUp is demoing PropAlerts, which he says can beat MLS database by 48 hours to give users early warning of property listings. They also are working on Voice over IP to put users in touch with agents and using text to speech to … read alerts to users.
Why Voice Mashups? Communication as key element in biz process, significant revenue opportunities, more.
Mashup University – Higgens Trust Framework
The Higgens Trust Framework is very promising way to standardize personal information for use across multiple platforms. Yikes – that sentence means I must be writing from Silicon Valley. If I was in Oregon I’d say it “tells programs who you are”.
I tend to agree with those that think filling out yet another form is a barrier to participation, though the upside of such things is that they provide an incentive to make sure the content / program you are signing up to use is worthy of your time and attention *before* you sign up. Will this openup a new plethora of junk applications just fishing for clicks?
Mashup University – Commendo.com
Commendo.com‘s Voyager is an application that will:
“Assemble content in a different way in a personal library”. Experience in Enterprise Mashups. Look at web as a content repository for your personal use.
This looks really neat, though seems there may be challenges for turning this towards commercial use since the content you are nabbing is mostly copyrighted. HOWEVER, are they focusing on the developers creating a form of mashup API that is then distributed to others who are all using the content for personal use – clever and I think fully copyright cool. …I’m not sure if this is possible though and I don’t think it’s the key idea. They are geared to users not developers?
Allows personalization of the mashup and content experience.
Mashup University – Mashery, it’s more than just a logo
Mashery will support developer networks. Six weeks old. They are just getting off the ground but will try to facilitate the use of all those APIs out there. “Creating a series of services to provide to API vendors”.
I’m not sure that logo is going to be understood by the whippersnapper generation who a) don’t cook much and b) don’t use a potato masher when they do. But I like it for the symbolism!
Clay, cofounder of Mashery and former feedster (programmer?), is showing us a mashed up blog demo “core” that can be skinned to other applications. However… “We are not a Wiki Company, we are here to enable …. cool web services”.
Here’s a brief on Mashery’s funding
This is a cool concept I think, but ..dudes… you need a better demo pitch for the main mashup camp!
Intel – context aware SDKs
OK, this is good stuff. Intel’s talking about mashups that utilize location awareness where the device knows where it is. This may have some really cool travel applications! They’ll be demoing some stuff and I’m anxious to talk more with them about ways to integrate deviceOspheric information – ie the world of data, now mostly wasted, that is flowing in from navigation devices and other hardware.
They are really asking for feedback about the types of APIs that run at the base level – ie sort of machine level – that address challenges like connectivity. For travel this might take the form of answering the following questions:
*Where am I located right now?
* Where is the blog/website/device located that has the information I need?
Mashup University – Jeff Barr from Amazon
After the break it’s Jeff Barr from Amazon.com. (I missed the beginning where he may have coverdd some other stuff)…. Now he’s talking S3, Amazon’s super robust storage solution. Jeff’s presentations are always great because he’s a very good communicator as well as experienced technical guy. Jeremy Zawodny, Tim O’Reilly , and Matt Cutts are super impressive this way as well.
This short talk just focused on S3, but Jeff’s MIX06 talk was one of the best presentations I’ve attended in some time. He also has an interesting take on challenges facing Microsoft, where he used to work, but I’d ask him before I share those interesting nuggets of wisdom.
Joe Duck 