It's a Mashup!

I had a look at Mashups this week and to be completely honest I must admit that simply could not understand their purpose. No matter how many times I look at them or reread the definition on the ISYS1166 CCC website it seems that the information just isn't sinking in! 

Despite my difficulty to grasp the concept of Mashups I did have a look at Programmable Web which proved to be quite an interesting website.

From Programmable Web I was able to gather that Mashups are websites that are composed using information from other websites. (please forgive my pathetically simple definition! I'm not even sure it makes sense!) 

Continuing with my travel theme from my Google Maps post, I found a groovy little Mashup that lists Bed and Breakfasts from around the UK. This will definitely come in handy when planning my epic UK dream holiday!

I also found another great Mashup about Japanese castles: 

 I absolutely loved this Mashup! It had so much specific information about every castle in Japan including pictures, videos, history and visiting information. It also brought back many fond memories of my time in Nagoya on exchange where I was lucky enough to visit the magnificent Nagoya Castle.

 The final Mashup I looked at briefly was called 'Place My Past,' a genealogy and historical Mashup that allows users to create their family tree and then search the world map for historical events linked to their family, or create one of their own. 

Unfortunately, despite the Mashup claiming to be free, in order to use the map tool I was constantly prompted to pay $50 subscription to the website so and therefore I gave up my genealogy pursuit!

I enjoyed looking at all these Mashups but, as stated above, I am having great difficulty comprehending them and feel extremely limited and inadequate when  trying to define them. I hope that in the future I will be able to understand Mashups and learn to use them in my career as an archivist.