MobUser

With the MashupCamp coming up I am reminded how much Web 2.0 trends will drive mobile technology. When I originally started to design mWorks I had it in my mind to create a platform that would allow me to pull together interesting web services in a way that was intuitive and useful on any mobile device. Today, web services are now passé and terms like Ajax and Mashup are gaining in popularity; but this does not change the fundamental technology and concepts upon which mWorks was originally designed.

But I digress, I plan to attend the MashupCamp and compete in the mashup event to create a “mobile” mashup. To do so I have started to research available web services that could be used. As with any Moblet designed to run on mWorks; its less about programming and more about information planning. Questions like: What is the problem you are solving for the user? and Where will the information to solve this problem come from? are most important.

My research (with help from a co-worker Shannon Perkins), has turned up an interesting list of services and sources of services. Shannon pointed me to http://www.programmableweb.com which has an impressive list of XML APIs for creating mashups. Technorati and Feedburner also have some interesting APIs for navigating and browsing blogs and feeds. Sites like Flickr and TextAmerica have some interesting API’s for accessing a wealth of image content, and Google and Yahoo both have API’s for a variety of things. In addition there are some UDDI registries for for premium Web Services such as StrikeIron and XMethods.

At this point I am inclined to go with a really compelling RSS reader that is a mashup of various XML APIs and content sources. After creating the Moblet I will post it here for anyone to download. Wish me luck!