Really simple mash-ups

Abstract

Mash-ups are applications - typically web applications - designed by combining data from several web services into a new tool or expression. New mash-ups emerge every day. Different End-User Development environments for mash-ups are available. However, the identification of mashable web-services, their exploration and the definition of data aggregation from heterogeneous web services still requires familiarity with programming representations and environments. Can the provision and usage of mashable web-services become as easy as the provision and usage of RSS feeds? What is needed is (1) a web server that allows providers of mashable web services to define data-formats describing their interface and users of the same web services to identify mashable data sources and (2) a simple standard to annotate the result of web services so that mash-ups editors can support even non professional developers in pruning and aggregating the data according to their needs. The article presents our bid on how this vision can be realized. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.