It’s not as if there is an option to decide that mashups probably aren’t of interest to you, so you can mostly ignore them and they will go away.
Because this thing is already happening and it’s changing the way the people we all deal with are going to use their computers.

Fundamentally, I think it represents a final and irreversible shift away from the architecture of desktop/laptop computers and onto the internet itself. By providing open APIs, the big database owners – Google, Yahoo, Amazon etc have set up an ecosystem whereby the next generation of applications development centres around them rather than around Microsoft, Apple or Linux.

How will this shift in the big picture affect us?
That’s a topic worth exploring, in my opinion and I’d like to venture a few suggestions to get started.

1) Some new members will approach the existing communities having already had experience with rich, dynamic and compelling interfaces. If they are expected to fit in with an existing setup which looks dull and obsolete to them, they might just laugh out loud and then build their own cop2.0 instead.

2) The commoditisation of non-proprietary entry level computers will drive down the cost so that much of the rest of the world will be able to be connected.

3) It will matter even less which computer you happen to be sitting at today. Digital identity and synchronisation of workflows will be rolled out to everyone so that they bring all their own stuff with them when they join in.

4) Community links and ties will be more explicit, perhaps even to the extent that automated systems will be able to depict the existence of potential CoPs just waiting to be crystallised out.

5) Overall, perhaps there will be a tendency for CoPs2.0 to be more easily created and then dissipated again, with less clear boundaries and more rapidly shifting internal and external dynamics.

If none of this makes any sense at all then try reading “Mashup ecosystem poised to explode” at zdnet

“With mashups, much the same way blogging systems put Web publishing into the hands of millions of ordinary non-technical people, the barrier to developing applications and turning creativity into innovation is so low that there’s a vacuum into which an entire new class of developers will be sucked. It’s already happening. “

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Web 2.0 Wish for 2006 – Peer 2.0!

“It’s a new year and many around the web are making predictions. I don’t know if my Web 2.0 prediction for 2006 is an actual prediction or if it is wishful thinking. I do know I sincerely hope it will happen.

There will be a resurgence of Peer to Peer architectures.

Web 2.0’s rhetoric is that it supports collaboration and communication – yet web 2.0’s main architecture is centralized. It’s all centralized.

The masses are rarely well served by central control.

Your site goes down and your mission critical information is lost. With well developed Peer to Peer application, there’s always a backup. With well developed Peer to Peer, you aren’t held hostage if your company goes down.

RSS, in fact, can be seen as trying to bridge the gap between the flatness of the web and the communication of peer to peer systems.

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