The Contribution of Reference Modeling for Organizing Enterprise Mashup Environments

A new kind of Web-based applications, known as Enterprise Mashups, has gained momentum in the recent years. The vision is that business users with no or limited programming skills are empowered to leverage in a collaborative manner user friendly building blocks in the envisioned Enterprise 2.0. However, the transfer of this concept into practice is still a serious issue. Whereas most research focuses on technical aspects, we point the organizational dimension of implementing Enterprise Mashups. In particular, we claim that new capabilities are needed within the implementing organization that have yet to be discovered. For that purpose we propose a reference model for organizing Enterprise Mashup environments. We also report on two applications of this model within the projects SAP Research RoofTop Marketplace and FAST. In summary, we reflect on the usefulness of the reference model for making Mashups happen in enterprise environments.