Mashups: The new breed of Web app
An introduction to mashups
I was not familiar with the term “mashup” so this was a great article for getting an overview of the technical aspects. I had a vague idea that is dealt with music, but really never realized the full extent of Web 2.0 and how much I used it all the time. I learned that a mashup is formed with external data sources to create new services. For example, ChicagoCrime.org draws data from the outside. It composites crime and maps the data visually. There are also video, photo, news and shopping mashups that I use often. Kathryn showed us shopstyle.com and polyvore.com during class which is a good tool for creating mood boards. From this reading I became familiar with the term “screen scraping”. It is a tool that extract’s the user data. There are some deficiencies with screen scrapping because of updates and dependence on outside data. People are needed to fix and clean up the data because the automation isn’t accurate. Mashups include data input from the public but it has to be monitored for incorrect data. There are security concerns and people who disable Javascript can’t contribute data. Then the article addresses the topic intellectual property, rights managed material and overall consumer privacy versus public domain. In our generation I believe the public domain space will become more and more popular.
Calm Technologies 2.0:
Visualizing Social Data as an Experience in Physical Space
This article addressed connectivity of an object to a website. It mentioned geotagged images (include the geographical latitude and longitude) where the image was takenon a map. Vlastaras writes, “[…] every time somebody visits my website, an led light blinks once in my room, and I get a warm feeling of a visitor.” This shows how people can have a physical experience from the virtual site. The bell and fan examples discussed I found extremely fascinating because they connect the site visitor to physical office space.
Why Things Matter
Julian Bleecker, Ph.
“Blogject” are essentially objects, that blog. Julian claims that they participate in the exchange of ideas. Further she explains that Blogjects don’t just publish, they circulate conversations. She used an interesting example of how a Pigeon that Blogs a mash-up through GPS, GSM communications technology. A sensor tracks pollution and tracks it on Google Maps. Julian explains that Pigeons can tell us about the quality of the air we breath. Who would have thought that birds have the ability to effect change. She points out in the article that behaviors change especially when we are threatened. She concludes that a Blogject is “to make, disseminate and enhance meaning, to draw attention and to be assertive.” She claims it is a design imperative and I agree it can be a beneficial thing in our generation. She questions how the Internet of Things can become like a framework for us (society) to develop and design habitable things and improve our world.
Grey Album Producer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It
Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up took two weeks of nearly nonstop work.
By Corey Moss
This article addressed my initial idea as to what a mashup is. I listen to music by http://norwegianrecycling.net/ and they have fantastic examples of mashups. They do it to videos and songs. It’s quite remarkable and I highly recommend listening to them. Don’t Stop Believin is my favorite! Corey article addresses an artist who mixed albums. When the mashup-er heard Jay-Z’s cappella version of The Black Album, he decided to blend it with the Beatles’ well-known The White Album and compose The Grey Album. The mashup-er measured the amount of beats per minute for each track and layered the separate tracks.