Russell talked about Mashup Fever that has afflicted the web 2.0 world. He is right about all the things he lists. here are some of his quotes

…very little real IP being created … very little in terms of new ideas … this all just seems so lazy and ultimately non-creative…

I have to agree with him. A lot of the mashups are just that. Mashups. Hurried bits of half finished prototypes that mainly serve of the purpose of expressing an idea. Quite a few of these ideas are not very original either.

There are few things going on here i think.
First, There is very real phenomenon of an open, service based, community based, internet application framework coming into place.
Second, This web 2.0 world is being “marketed” by a fairly adept marketing machine from oreilly.
Third, The marketing is actually working, inviting lot of new people grappling, understanding, and familiarizing with this space. Quite a few people are recognizing this fundamental change and want to position themselves well in the emerging world.
Lastly, this sudden set of activity and buzz 2.0 or bubble 2.0 is leading to a lot of Meme. It is unclear for a lot of newcomers to recognize what’s really new and what’s a rehash. Consequently you have a lot of wannabees passing off simple extensions or reworks as “innovations”.

I think all these mashups are eventually doing a dis-service to the web 2.0 paradigm. Having said that, we are working on a mashup as well. I guess chad calls it a super-mash-up. It’ll be out soon.

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