There is no such thing as a mashup

DJ P said “there is no such thing as a mashup” first about DJ’ng, and with the ever-so-popular Grey Album by Dangermouse, the word was tagged, and started being used in the technology realm.

DJ’s first called the blending of two songs ‘mixes’, or ‘a mix.’ It’s a very basic part of DJ’ing that, to some, was not deserving of a new title to make it more than it was.

Is walking a ‘mashup’ of legs and concrete? Do we call a computer a ‘mashup’ of a processor, memory, and a hard drive?

These are simply tools. These tools can be used to create new systems and products we’re still dreaming of.

Specifically, Google Maps is a tool to display geographic information on a map. It’s a nice service which also allows us to navigate that map. We are appreciative of Google for providing a nice API. Other APIs allow us to extract and interact with data (Flickr, Yahoo everything, EVDB, Amazon, ESRI, etc), allowing for a deeper interaction with humanity.

We are people using tools to help us interact with and shape our world. To call it a mashup makes it a passing fad.

–jake

Comments

[Tyler Mitchell]

Whew, finally some good solid reasons for me to avoid the term 'mashup' - I appreciate it :) It's always come across as so fad-ish and I cringe every time I hear it - now when someone asks me why I'm twitching in the corner during a talk about Google Maps mashups...I have a clearer answer for them!

Tyler