Web 2.0 and Social Networking for the Enterprise

6. Mashing Up Data and Applications

It is a common joke that mashups always have to contain a map. The business question that stems from this might be this: How many maps do we really need? Surprisingly, the answer to this question can be a lot, potentially. Of course, this doesn’t mean topographical maps in the Google Maps sense, but mapping data in any form is visually appealing to end users and often allows a better understanding of what might be happening within a particular dataset. Essentially, a mashup occurs when we combine data from two or more sources. As noted, there is often a visual aspect to mashups. However, data mashups can also occur and combine pure data from multiple sources that result in a combined data stream.

It’s ...