Can You Have Info 2.0 Without XML Syndication?

Catching up on some older news - IBM announced a new initiative along with some associated technologies within the meme "Info 2.0". Amazingly, information that I have seen so far does not seem to mention the role of XML feeds (e.g., Atom) - at least not yet - and where XML syndication plays in its Info 2.0 framework. I remain amazed (underwhelmed?) that no major vendor has stepped into the feed server aggregation/management space where Attensa, KnowNow and NewsGator remain the most credible enterprise options.

Info 2.0 is a technology (or information fabric layer) for simplified integration of data and content via Information Mashups. Info 2.0 uses simple interfaces and intuitive tools to connect information from custom and packaged business applications, the web, spreadsheets, and databases – making information assembly and access easier for both IT and non-IT users. Info 2.0 extends and complements existing investments in information architectures. Moreover, Info 2.0 is focused on enterprise users, so now mashups can be not only created for external users, but also for departmental users within a company. Info 2.0 provides a data organizational element needed (such as data standardization and data cleansing) to mashups and other Web 2.0 applications to create software in the enterprise and SaaS (Software as a Service) on the web.

Why is Info 2.0 needed? Info 2.0 can be used for business advantages, as it speeds up users' ability to access and use information. Traditional architectures don't cover this use case for 2 reasons:

(1)Many data sources are not covered by enterprise integration architectures, such as departmental content, desktop content, email content, etc.

(2)Data sources are typically accessed in an enterprise application manner when they need to be accessed in a situational application manner (created for a group of users with specific needs; applications that have a shorter lifespan based on that need).

Lauren Cooney : Weblog

Comments

[Lauren Cooney]

Hi Mike,

We've only released one product of 3 for Info 2.0 on AlphaWorks (QEDWiki) with Mashup Hub and DAMIA to come later in July. And you'll be hearing more about XML syndication... DAMIA *does* support XML feeds, as well as Atom and RSS (as special cases of XML feeds). We'll be releasing more info about this soon... so stay tuned, and feel free to ping me if you have questions.

Cheers,
Lauren
IBM CTO Office
Information Management Group

[Mike Gotta]

Lauren, merely exposing feeds is not what I was pointint out - there is no feed management capability that one finds in specialized vendors. I'm not sure you can even be credible with any type of Info 2.0 message without XML syndication being at the forefront of such a framework. I find the absence of feed management and supporting analyts (around feed and item aggregation, correlation, and augmentation) that one would find within Feedburner for instance, a shocking and incredible oversight.

[Volker Markl]

Hi Mike,

Info 2.0 will be having XML analytics through its Damia component. Damia (Data Mashup Fabric for Intranet Applications) is a technology invented by IBM Research for augmenting, merging (correlating), sorting, grouping, transforming, and aggregating generic XML feeds (i.e., XML documents with a repeating element. Atom is a special case of an XML feed with 'entry' as repeating element, RSS is a special case of an XML feed with 'item' as repeating element.). In a typical scenario, a user of Damia specifies a data flow over XML feeds through a browser-based GUI Editor. The resulting feed produced by Damia data can then be formatted and syndicated in various ways, e.g., RSS, Atom, or generic XML feeds.

In addition, the Mashup Hub component provides functionality for managing feeds. Some of the feed management features include search, as well as community based features like tagging, rating, commenting, and usage statistics about feeds.

Volker Markl
IBM Research

Volker Markl is spearheading the Damia project at IBM Research.