Skyway Software, the expert in simplifying software delivery, is listed as a key Composite Application vendor in Application Architecture, 2008, as published by Gartner in their annual Hype Cycle report. This Hype Cycle report covers a broad collection of Web 2.0, cloud computing, and service-oriented architecture technologies and methodologies and provides Gartner’s predictions for the most important technologies during the next 12 months based on several key technology characteristics, including maturity, adoption, and impact.      

According to Gartner, composite application techniques and methodologies will see mainstream adoption soon (many already are here, including Skyway Builder) and their business impact will be high.

“Our listing in Gartner’s Composite Applications category highlights our expertise in model-centric delivery of Rich Internet Application and Web Services,” says Sean Walsh, President and CEO of Skyway Software, “and our customers, including TDAmeritrade and Landesbank Baden-Wurttemburg, currently use Skyway Builder to develop, test, and deploy new applications – and to extend existing applications – more quickly and more accurately than ever before.”         

Once again, we are very pleased with Gartner’s ongoing recognition of Skyway Software.

In one of the most natural mashups of a poem and a fine art painting, the “Mowing” by Robert Frost gives voice to “The Veteran in a New Field” painting by Winslow Homer.  I can imagine Robert penning his thoughts into his lyrical poem after gazing at this painting - closing his eyes and hearing the whisper sound of the scythe as it made its back and forth rythm across the hay.  With this mashup, we get a moment in time full of the imagery and voice of a quiet contemplation of man and his interactions with nature.

The Veteran in a New Field (1865) - Winslow Homer

Mowing - Robert Frost
There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;
Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,
Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound—
And that was why it whispered and did not speak.
It was no dream of the gift of idle hours,
Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
(Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

from A Boy’s Will (1914)

In an interesting painting - poem mashup, we layer the allegorical meaning of Emily Dickson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” with Angelo Morbelli’s “Sunday Dawn” and provide context to the painting not envisioned by Angelo, while at the same time casting a visualization probably not expected by Emily.  With a little visual license, imagine Angelo’s Sunday Dawn as actually a depiction of Sunday Afternoon - to more appropriately fit with Emily’s theme. 

See if you can spot the visual elements of Angelo’s painting that enhance the theme in Emily’s poem - beyond her written words.  This is the power of a mashup - bringing unexpected and enhanced meaning to the individual works - in essence creating an composite work of art.

Sunday Dawn by Angelo Morbelli

There’s a certain Slant of light by Emily Dickinson
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
‘Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –

In a variant of the current Web 2.0 essence of mashups - combining data from two distinct areas onto a common web page to create a new composite application, I’ve wonder what new kind of composite work could be created by combining a fine art painting with a famous poem.  Could you change the emotions a painting evoked on its own or transform the messages within the poem?  In this entry, I’ve mashed up Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting “Young Girl Reading” with a poem by Emily Dickinson “A Book”. 

Young Girl Reading - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“A Book” - Emily Dickson
THERE is no frigate like a book
  To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
  Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
  Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
  That bears a human soul!

Its not a typo.  In his most recent blog, Joe McKendrick highlights the “pain” seen at an ISV and their willingness to try an unconventional tool with the hope of fostering broader collaboration.  I imagine Facebook cut a nice deal to get into a new vertical market and create a market extension for its core product, but I’m skeptical of their ability to replicate this approach and gain wider adoption.  And wouldn’t Serena benefit from some free “hey we use tools for collaboration, too” PR?  Am I missing something?  Read the rest of this entry »

One of the powerful technology concepts fueling the move into the Web 2.0 era is Mashups.  They outline an elegant approach to enhancing and evolving web applications into functionality not even imagined by the original web application developers.  A prime example is realty companies mashing the data about houses they are listing on top of Google Maps – this enables house hunters to see the normal text based information and inside images of the house that they normally expect to see on the realty website layered on top of satellite map views of the house and neighborhood.  Taken individually, each of the original web applications (realty site and map site) provide value and interest to two different sets of users – mashed up, they provide significantly more value and interest for a focused set of users (e.g., folks looking for information about available homes).   Read the rest of this entry »