IBM’s “beta” Mashup Environment Available

IBM has been talking about enabling enterprise mashups for some time. Now, there’s some technology to play with: QEDWiki. (QED in this case is “quick and easy done.”) It’s built on an open source wiki and includes “widgets for information sharing, and a user interface supporting drag and drop mashup capabilities.”

QEDWiki is available as a service at alphaWorks, the company’s emerging technology portal, sort of a “lab.” And, it is a hosted service, not a download like many of the other alphaWorks offerings. It’s been available since December 6 of last year and anyone can play with it (with registration). Among the widgets is AccuWeather’s weather tools. IBM partnered with that company last year.

Also of interest is an IBMers thoughts on when to use mashups and when to use other integration tools. David Boloker, CTO of the company’s emerging Internet technology software group, and IBM’s resident Ajax guru is paraphrased:

mashups are best if you’re only going to use the assembled apps or processes only a handful of times, whereas if you are looking for more permanent integration, or looking to automate a highly repetitive task or process, composing or orchestrating services is a more maintainable solution.

- Computer Business Review Online