IBM Mashup Center to Offer Online Trials

Published: June 19, 2008

by Dan Burger

The invitations to IBM's Mashup Center are out, but Big Blue has yet to determine when it will allow us to come play in its Web 2.0-oriented sandbox. The trial version, hosted by IBM and available on a trial basis on an IBM Web page is supposed to be ready "within a week or two."

When that day comes, it should offer some creative opportunities for non-programmer types to learn how composite applications can be assembled and used in a collaborative work setting. Widgets and templates can be combined with drag and drop convenience to bring together databases, unstructured information such as e-mails, Google gadgets, and office productivity tools. Creating these mashups will be accomplished with IBM's browser-based tool that is described as being able to create, deploy, and share customized Web applications in minutes.

A prominent role in the Mashup Center will be played by IBM Lotus, which will be supplying collaborative applications such as Connections, Quickr, Sametime, and WebSphere Portal.

The fact that IBM is hosting the software on its own site (IBM Lotus Greenhouse) means users can experiment with various technologies without installing anything on their own systems. The IBM Lotus Greenhouse Web site will be home base for the Mashup Center. The general availability of Mashup Center software is predicted to be in the third quarter of 2008.

According to IBM, the capabilities will also include managing information feeds from enterprise sources and being able to output in many different forms, such as RSS, ATOM or XML.

Pricing and a precise release date were not disclosed.

Additional information about the Mashup Center can be found at www-306.ibm.com/software/info/mashup-center/.

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