The world heeds me not when I extol the virtues of convergence. “Con-what?” It’s the coming together of technologies, don’t you know, the new wave of…And I’ll stop right there. There’s better terminology for convergence as we tangibly use it online today; a term that’s been accepted by the multitudes, evidently, without getting my okay first. Hmph. If it wasn’t so important, I wouldn’t have mentioned it, but it is. If you want to see true tech evolution just keep an eye on the “mash-ups” that float freely (at least for now) down the old Internet River.
Granted, mash-up, like lots of things Web2.0 that include sharing and cooperation, skews to the broad and inclusive rather than the technically exclusive, like satellite radio with its special components that keep it a paid subscriber service only. It’s the combinations and permutations of downloading music, online-video sharing, and imagery photos – what can eager programmers with enabling platforms do with all this content, that’s mash-up. Take the content from one source and from another, make it work your way and you’ve got yourself some mash-up, sir! Here’s an example, as pulled up from any number of mash up directories online (if you can’t find one just stop reading this article, we’re done with each other.) - Bubblr, where you take photos from Flickr and make comic strips with them. Great site picked randomly and I’d never heard of it. It’s that easy.
Maps are huge fun and a large part of the mash-up movement. Most mapping mash-ups, like my favorite that provides maps with ski conditions all over the globe, combine visual context with the informational content. For instance, one of the first mash-ups was famously created by a guy who was tired of not knowing where the apartments he was checking out on craigslist were. Internet advertising is drooling over this kind of future (3-D or “storefront” mash-up for urban areas, can be found online and could be huge) and I’d consider click-to-call a kind of mash-up, where phones and Internet mesh, well certainly convergence anyway.
Google’s free software, Google Earth, plays right into the mash-up phenomenon. Google’s latest upgrades are stunning – now 1/3 of the planet’s population will be able to go online and see satellite photos of their homes from space. Their tech imagery is in color, so you can snoop around the blue waters of Montserrat.
Mash-up is unusual because it can also serve as a user-based R&D for Internet companies. Executives can look on in fascination and openly see how their products are being used. In fact, some mash-up pioneers feel used by the corporate enablers of the products they create with. Dharmesh Shah, a delightfully angry programmer, refers to the gnash-up: “A gnash-up is a mash-up that eventually causes gnashing of teeth because the developer thought she was building a viable business, when in fact, she was really conducting a controlled experiment for the benefit of Google and others.” In other words, Google (no evil) is watching with interest and will strike somewhere else bigger and badder when the time is right. I feel for Dharmesh as much as I’d understand the take of a Google or Yahoo. Maybe people serve as their mash-up. I dunno. Just check them out and have fun.
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