Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
WSO2 Unveils Open Source Mashup Server
1/30/2008
WSO2 is offering a new open source mashup server and has rolled out a beta of a new hosted mashup service, as announced Monday. Both fall under Apache open source licensing and the WSO2 Mashup Server 1.0 represents "the first open source [server] solution for mashups," according to Jonathan Marsh, WSO2's director of mashups.
The new server separates content and presentation and is based on XML and Web services protocols. This arrangement adds flexibility, allowing mashups to consume other mashups, which Marsh describes as "recursive mashups." Some mashup platforms don't have an easy way to do this, Marsh explained. However, the WSO2 Mashup Server has application programming interfaces (APIs) that facilitate this process, and the programming is done through JavaScript.
"WSO2's mashup server is optimized for Web services and XML throughout the architecture," Marsh explained. "So it normalizes feeds in HTML and data sources into XML, brings them into the mashup logic, which is [programmed in] JavaScript, and the result of that is automatically deployed as another Web service with rich metadata. We also provide tools for building HTML interfaces for that service, for building feeds for that service, or for bridging into eventing protocols such as instant messaging and e-mail."
Programmers can use Notepad or any simple text editor to code mashups in JavaScript using the administrative user interface of the WSO2 Mashup Server. The product is targeted toward Web developers who want control, Marsh said.
WSO2 Mashup Server is a lightweight Web service development environment that can scale up from the individual desktop to team and enterprise levels. WSO2 offers further scalability across the Internet cloud with its beta launch of Mooshup.com. The free hosted mashup service offers a community-wide Web site where people can get and run mashups over the Internet or upload their own mashups.
Marsh said that Mooshup.com is free but that the company may consider adding premium offerings there in the future. Anything there is open source, though.
"If you post a mashup on Mooshup.com, it's free and it's also shared, so you'd not want to put your crown jewels up there," Marsh said. "For this beta, if you upload a mashup, we ask in return that these be made available under the Apache open source license."
WSO2, which is well known for its open source service-oriented architecture solutions, added a mashup server to its enterprise product line largely because mashups and Web 2.0-style technologies offer a way to decentralize IT and get "situational applications" faster into the hands of business users.
"We are seeing individuals in an organization building situational applications as development becomes easier and easier, and situational applications are tasks built to solve a particular problem of the moment, and they're also called mashups," Marsh explained. "We're finding that the best person to own the way data is provided to the enterprise is the person who is the owner of that data himself."
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
