week 7

This week we learned that a mash up is a web application that uses content from a various amount of sources to create a single graphic interface. Mash ups are a more advanced version of portals. They are a way of working with data, e.g. pooling data from different sources such as for car insurance comparison sites.

Big Data is the combining of large sources of new data, e.g. government data, Google Maps and weather conditions. This is a term I am very familiar of from doing social computing. We learned about The Semantic Web, which allows information that can be read by a machine to be structured in a way computers can understand them. This was a new tool to me so i found this interesting,
There is many different types of mash ups; data mash ups, business mash up and consumer mash ups.  

Shane pointed out that there are limitations of mash ups as they may rely on information which may only be available for a limited time. We were shown tools such as: Yahoo Pipes - can be used to extract information from other websites to produce something new. In order to access the site's content however, Pipes needed the sites Application Program Interface (or API), and so we did not get to see the software in action. Map Builder which is a tool that can be embedded in a blog. And finally Google Maps API Family - We used this in our Lab this week in Newstead.
Shane also present us to a more recent and humorous Mash-Up called Unhappyhipsters.com


We were to brainstorm ideas for new mash ups before the end of class and my team was still trying to get to grips with what a mashup was. My idea was to have one place where you could compare all the different prices of fuel in your area.