Why do we Mash?

Today, JackBe announced the latest edition of our enterprise mashup platform, Presto. The release included many enhancements but two stood head and shoulders above the rest: Presto Connect, a JavaScript API that allows Rich Internet Application (RIA) toolsets to incorporate mashups into their apps, and the Presto Portal Integration Guide, a cookbook for incorporating mashups into WSRP-compliant portals (check out the short video of Presto mashups in a portal on JackBe TV or download the Portal Integration Guide with our Presto Trial Download). Like recent conversations about mashups and their value to SOA efforts, mashups bring speed to RIA development and a dynamic user-driven element to enterprise portals.

And this got me to thinking. Why do we mash? Mashups make Portals, RIAs and SOAs better but they are…dare I say it?...just software. They are not ends unto themselves, but tools we bring to bear on business issues and opportunities. What’s the business proposition of a mashup? Not coincidentally, JackBe asked a similar question in our Enterprise Mashup Industry Survey: ‘Could you briefly describe the business problem Enterprise Mashups will address for you?’. While we’re saving the complete survey results for a post-Thanksgiving treat, here’s a sneak peek at a few of the more interesting replies to the question:

• Correlate fluctuating commodity costs across various product groups and markets.
• Storage/Network Resource Management.
• Search of knowledge resources, combined with client information requests, to find talent/skills to work the issue.
• GIS/Disaster Management.
• Link real-time B2B buying data and commodity rate card with communication portal.
• Performance Dashboard.
• !%&#&@ business people won't leave me alone until I give them enterprise mashup capability.

[Yes, the last one is my favorite too.]

You must admit that even these few responses represent quite a range of business values. But I think these answers reinforce the basic proposition of a mashup: the IT folks establish a secure, governed framework for mashing and then hand the mashup remote control to the business folks who address their dynamic information needs in a self-service way. In short: we mash because it makes our business stronger. Or, as our friend Dion Hinchcliffe so aptly put it recently, ‘Mashups support growth and innovation.’

So, do you mash? If so, why?