| Results from Searching for Mashups That Might Be Useful To Businesses Richard Torian February 15, 2010 I. Introduction. The purpose of this article is to: 1. Present conclusions about the current availability (as of the article date) of mashups on the Internet that can be accessed and used freely. Excluded in the search for business-useful mashups were mashups judged to be primarily of interest and targeted to individual consumers. An exception to this is mashups where consumer and business interests might overlap such as in travel-related mashups. 2. Identify, describe, and provide links to those found mashups judged to be of some use to businesses. II. Conclusions about the Availability of Mashups on the Internet Uniquely Useful To Businesses. These are the conclusions that were reached after spending several hours and using dozens of search terms seeking mashups uniquely useful to business: 1. The number of mashups uniquely-useful to businesses and are readily accessible and freely available on the Internet are remarkablely few. 2. On the other hand, hundreds, if not thousands, of mashups are available that are designed to meet individual consumer interests. In some cases, such as in seeking travel-related information, consumer and business interests overlap, and such mashups also offer usefulness to businesses. 3. Because of the uniqueness of each business from other businesses, and because each business has unique internal data and decision-making needs, many mashups likely to be useful to a business will be unique mashups to that business. Therefore, there is a need for a business mashup customization service, a service where mashups can be designed uniquely for one business. Several companies are pursuing this service business. 4. Governments maintain many databases that can be useful to businesses (as well as individuals). Government programs to develop such mashups hopefully will be more common, and perhaps eventually become a standard government-provided service. An example of one such government mashup program is the Kent County, England program, identified in III F below. III. Mashups On the Internet Judged to be of Some Use to Businesses. After hours of searching on dozens of search terms, only a few mashups were found that can be accessed by going to a website and are free to use. Searches were done using dozens of search terms. All search terms included the word mashup plus another word (or words) representing either a business function (e.g. sales) or a mashup-related tool (e.g. API). The following identify thirteen mashups, describe them, and provide a link to the website where the mashup resides. The mashups have been categorized by general categories related to business operations. A. Travel and Location 1. This mashup, a MashupAwards winner, developed by Michael Young, provides the latitude and longitude, as well as zip code, for an entered street, city, and state address. Because latitudinal and longitudinal information can be required in use of other geographical-related (mapping) mashups, this mashup could be useful to business. http://81nassau.com/demos/geocode/ 2. Route Blast provides distances between locations. Such distances could be useful in preparing travel expense reimbursements. http://www.routeblast.com/ 3. OpenStreetMap provides a street map for many cites, worldwide. Search on the city and a list of cities with the name used in the search will appear. Choose the city from the list and a street map of believed to be excellent accuracy will appear, providing the city is of sufficient size. http://www.openstreetmap.org/ B. Statistics 1. The World Bank provides this mashup that allows clicking markers on a map to get to World Bank data about a country’s business environment. This mashup provides a very useful and satisfying tool to efficiently access a lot of information about a country’s business environment. http://rru.worldbank.org/besnapshots/. 2. This We Know searches US government data bases for information about a US location. Such statistics as demographics and home ownership are provided. http://www.thisweknow.org/ 3. This mashup from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempts to show how the Boston area compares nationally in the following areas: innovation; education level; income; housing costs; population density; culture; accessibility (mass transit); and recent job growth. Data bases used in the comparisons are described. A heat map is used to indicate above average, average, and below average results by color. Such a visual presentation provides a meaningful representation of where the Boston area is in position to the national averages. http://mobilab.mit.edu/mashup/futureboston/ 4. FedViewer.com shows, using a heat map presentation, trends in approximately 700 economic measurements that the Federal Reserve Board follows. Trends in the data are shown on a month by month basis by color changes. For example, chemical production output is shown to be trending up sinse August 2009, perhaps a surprise. http://www.fedviewer.com/home 5. City-Data.com provides from mostly government data bases information about the zip code (or city or county) entered. Dozens of categories of information and statistical data will be presented, if available in the data bases used. http://www.city-data.com/ 6. Geocommons offers the user access to dozens, if not hundreds, of data bases which include locations associated with the data. Because of this, a data base can be selected and the data quickly mapped to show visually the location trends in the data. A search engine is available to search the data bases for data of interest. In addition to the data bases available at Geocommons, users can upload their own data from a spreadsheet and map the data, providing the data is associated with geographic information. http://geocommons.com/ . C. Rules and Regulations Govpulse provides access to US government agency releases, e.g. regulations and rules that appear in The Federal Register, by location, by government agency, and by topic. Selecting a location will gain access to Federal Register related to a entries within 50 miles of the selected location. http://govpulse.us/ D. Purchasing FindYourAuto.net shows available cars and tracks on eBay within the user’s provided location parameters. Most, if not all, data provided on eBay about the vehicles carry over to the FindYourAuto site. The locations of the vehicles are mapped, helpful in arranging on-site inspection. http://findyourauto.net/ E. Industry Sector Information The mashup from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows Untied States locations of facilities of interest in the alternative energy sector. Alternative fuel statistics (e.g. biodiesel, E85) and alterative energy production facilities (e.g. hydrogen and ethanol plants) can be mapped. http://rpm.nrel.gov/transatlas/launch F. Company Information Kent County, England’s Pic and Mix project is an example of a mashup project that can be developed by a government which could be potentially useful to businesses. At the Pic and Mix site, one mashup that is available is mapping all local businesses by sector type. Along with the location, name and contact information is provided. http://picandmix.org.uk/ The above identified and linked to websites with mashups of potential use to businesses do not include the several mashups that the author has created. These mashups include the following: Assistance in purchasing. Click here and here. Product information. Click here, here, and here. Company information. Click here and here. Education and training. Click here and here. Profits and returns. Click here. Human resources. Click here and here. Accounting assistance. Click here. Travel information. Click here and here. These mashups, which the author have created, can also be click to from one, or more, of the content pages found on this website. To get to these content pages, go to this website’s homepage (click the logo in the left corner above) and click “Links, RSS Feeds, and Ads”. |