Information systems in business

XML Mashup

XML Markups: Uses and Risks

Web 2.0 is the only web there is these days, and most consumer-oriented firms of substantial size (and many smaller firms as well) have found ways to explicitly and directly take advantage of the user-adaptability and third-party interactions that define this over-arching internet development. In order to strategically maximize the potential of information sharing and utilization, it is necessary for firms to share at least portions of their data and programming code, especially in the creation of hooks for commonly used XML programming languages. There are many advantages to the creation of these hooks, depending on the specific business and operational focus of an individual firm, and many different ways that other users can make use of these hooks. There are also certain risks involved in allowing room for XML mashups, but in the end these mashups are usually more advantageous to the firm (again, depending on individual circumstances) than they are risky.

The reasons that a firm might specifically choose to create hooks for XML mashups are legion, and though many reasons are specific to individual firms, industries, or operations, many are more ubiquitous in nature. In fact, one of the reasons that such hooks might be created these days is simply because they are expected -- a large number (perhaps the majority) of websites and applications include such hooks, so consumers and other users that seek these hooks out by be disappointed to find them lacking, possibly to the point of turning away from the firm and its products or services. One thing that firms have to gain from including these hooks in their programs is simply to kindle or keep consumer interest.

XML hooks allow user and third-party programmers to use and share the data provided by the originating firms in a variety of different ways, making mashup programs that utilize the data as well as other programming language in ways that could lead to many different advantages for the original firm. Many XML add-ons are now often included by originating firms themselves, who use things like RSS feeds and other updating techniques that keep users consistently in the loop of new developments or opportunities put forth by the firm. XML mashups can also provide a variety of new uses for existing data, adding value to a company's data and programs that they might not have known existed or that they might not have been able to fully utilize on an internal basis. Mashups also by their very definition and existence lead to greater levels of integration and collaboration between various entities (companies, programmers, etc.), and thus can lead to faster and/or more innovative results on certain projects than would otherwise be achieved through the individual efforts of a single entity. None of this can be effectively achieved without purposeful hooks left in data programs, and thus adding these hooks can be of great benefit.