SirsiDynix Institute Webinars

Mashups: A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

03.06.07

link to archived presentation

all notes below were taken by Starr Hoffman

 

Speaker: Darlene Fichter (read her blog)

Head, Indigenous Studies Portal

University of Saskatchewan Public Library

 

• played clip of song "The Monster Mash"

 

Mashups

• definition
• tour
• make a mashup
• library examples
• technical and social issues

 

(Poll: Who's Here?; enter your profession)

(Poll: Where do you work?)

 

Recipes on the Back of Jelly Bellys

kind of silly

how to make strawberry margaritas

 

Stupidest Term Ever!

"You're not mashing up, or if you are you'll get lumps.  You should be creating flavorful CA cuisine."

--Tom Reamy

 

Definition

• A mashup is a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a new service
  • content is typically sourced via an API or a RSS feed
• Term comes from pop music

 

Allow inexperienced web users to manipulate content in interesting, dynamic ways. 

Don't have to be able to program.

Main attraction for IT is potential for self-service by end-users.  They can combine things in the way that they need at that moment.

Build kits that allow people to create situational software.  Display data about advertising success in various locations, etc.

In library world, ability to show relationships between different things.  Show locations of article authors, etc.

Mashups are integrated into the browser--don't have to have extra software.  A safe sandbox for experimentation.  Don't need to access a server or experiment with live data sources (relief for IT).

 

Mashup Ecosystem

(graphic from Dion Henchquest)

 

• open data
• open set of services
• small pieces loosely joined
• you

 

Above: things that you need to create a mashup. 

 

Untitled

(Examples of mashups in action: several slides)

 

Half of mashups use maps, but a lot also don't.  Probably a future explosion in non-map mashups.

"Mashup" comes from pop music--vocal track from one song, instrumental track from another song to create a new song.

 

Example: Zip Code Map

Enter zip code: puts pushpin on map: made with zip code Census data, and Google Map API.

API: programmatic interface: set of routines to create mashup.

 

Example: Route Map for Deliveries for Library System

Include a photo of library, link ot website, address, phone number, click for driving directions.

Library route data + Google Map API.

 

Example: Daily Mashup

All things popular on a particular day; photos, links (social bookmarking sites), and news.

Flickr, Delicious, and (?)

 

Example: Newsmap

Can compare news from various countries.  Color-coded for types of news.  Shows visually that Canada had more world news reported yesterday than the US.

Can see a particular day in history.  Compares news across cultures.

 

Example: Earthquake

USGS M2.5+ Earthquakes

Shows in real-time earthquakes for past week; gives information about each earthquake's location, size, etc.

USGS data + Yahoo Maps API

 

Example: Book Carousel

beautiful mashup in library world

Brings new books in libraries, combined with book covers; can click forward and back.  Mike Cuningham, Cambridge University Libraries

Syndetics (book covers) + Data (top 20 new books)

constantly updated

 

Example: Crime Database

locations of various kinds of crimes (like arson); can see reputability of various areas (for living, business, etc.)

Google Maps + Citizen ICAM crim-watch site (which queries Chicago PD's site data)

 

Example: Frivolous Flickr Fun

Captioner

http://shadydentist.com/captioner

Colr Pickr (search by color)

http://krazydad.com/colrpickr

more flickr toys:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

 

Example: Housing Maps

Looking to purchase or rent; can choose location, price range, # rooms, some photos available.

Craigslist + Google Maps

 

Example: PlaceOpedia

Wikipedia + Google Maps

look for places and articles about them

 

Example: Data / Lib / Web Crunch

digital life aggregators

different things you're publishing in various sites; or on a specific topic

bookmarks, blog posts, photos

flickr, digg, delicious, 43 things, blogs, all consuming, blast fm (listening to)

 

Example: Group Maps for Online Communities

frappr.com/blogginglibrarians

Google Maps + community content

map created on frappr

everyone in conference, add yourself to the map

 

Example: LivePlasma

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Amazon API

(is this what Bookmooch uses?)

Example:  Weather Bonk

Google Maps + local weather station data

includes photos for some locations

(MISSED SOME DATA HERE; GO BACK FOR THIS)

 

Q: How do I find other mashups?  Google "mashup?"

A: Absolutely--but I'll be showing other methods later, programmable web has a dashboard that shows new mashups.  Some have toolkits for making mashups.  "Where I Should Eat Lunch Today." -- location, maps, roulette wheel.

 

Q: How do you find where the creator's data is being queried from?

A: Sometimes you can tell from source code; not always.  Usually tells somewhere on the site itself.  As lbirarians, we are probably looking for the data sources more than non-librarians, who may just take it as reliable without asking. 

 

Facts and Figures

from programmable web

(MISSED SOME DATA HERE; GO BACK FOR THIS)

 

Types of Mashups

programmable web chart: mapping types are 43%

non-map exmaple: doctors after-hours phone messages translated into text messages

 

Mashup Matrix

programmable web data

open available data sources

idea of popular data sources, and what they're being combined with

LOOK AT THIS AGAIN

 

Typology of the Mashup

• presentation
• client-side data
• client-side software
• server-side software
• server-side data

 

top three layers are most usable for non-experienced end-users.

 

Where to Start

• point & click, & publish
• "cloning"
• just program it

 

Point & Click means no looking at code.

If you're comfortable looking at a little bit of code, you can clone a mashup.  Just change a few pieces and create a new mashup!

 

APIs/Web Services

1. get an idea
2. sign up for a developer token
   1. aws.amazon.com
   2. www.google.com/apis/maps/
   3. api.search.yahoo.com
3. read the fine print about use

 

How to use data...

 

Example: CommunityWalk

build it there, take it to your own website.

satellite overview (don't need to know lattitude/longitude)

show places where people watch for migrating pelicans

way to give a tour of buildings mentioned in literature, historic buildings with photos, links back to library material

 

...just imagine ways in which this info would be interesting to people!!

 

Example: Western Springs History

Google Maps + local data

way to list all historical places in a specific location

ways to put names on the right side of the map

 

(Code to the WSH Site)

API key in red box; need to get her own API key to put in here (add your URL)

didn't have geographic locations in this file; command that "get"s data in xml

Darlene is not a programmer, but if you've used HTML, it may not be uncomfortable to do

 

data.xml

there's a URL in this code; location of further information

there's the descriptive text

lat/long markers

address (house #)

lat/long was the key piece in this code

 

Example: Find a Library

Darlene made this one; created an account and cloned from a restaurant tool

pipes (beta)

gives RSS feed for location

made ability to type in location and find nearby libraries

very powerful if you're a programmer

can combine into a feed for your users

can exclude certain things (example: "public libraries")

librarians are good about thinking about things in terms of operators, which is helpful

 

Try More Tools

• teqlo
• QEDWiki (IBM)
• dapper
• data mashups
• pipes
• coghead

 

QEDWiki builds mashups within wikis, very exciting.  Good screencasts (tutorials).

Look for a video or demo on each site.

 

Just Do It

• lib-web-cats
• Directory by Marshall Breeding

 

in an hour or two, he added a view list on the map

(examples of code)

(steps in the process)

 

Mashing Up the Library Contest

talis.com/tdn/competition

Go-go Google Gadget!

by Blyberg

holds, checkouts, new books, popular items--can be added to user's Google Homepage

 

Technical Issues

• in its infancy
• need a better registry for APIs
• scale and dependencies issues
• how much to invest?

 

in its infancy...

(audio cut out; time limit reached)

 

Social Issues

intellectual property issues...

 

Unintended Consequenses

client-side scripts that modify pages

 

Find Out More

Google Maps Mania

Mashup Dashboard

 

Thank You

darlene.fichter@usask.ca

blog: http://library2.usask.ca/~fichter/blog_on_the_side/