The recently announced MicroSoft popfly mashup and web page tool looks good. So far the reaction I've read seems to be that this is only for individuals and maybe small companies who lack development resource. Microsoft would seem to agree.
I don't see why it shouldn't be even more widely used than that. I'm sure that many people with a keen interest in online but who can't code (like me!) would love to get their hands on this type of service.
With the right user interface it should be easy to pull together mashups and web pages without having to spend hours with the code. So, why couldn't this approach be used in all businesses?
It would democratise creativity for anyone in an organisation that has an interesting idea and wants to try it out online. An element of collaboration and reuse is also good for innovation. It looks like a space to play with ideas in a framework which I imagine will be well tested and robust.
There will always be a need for excellent developers, especially for complex products. However sometimes for ideas in the early stages you just want to pull content (API's?) together quickly, get them out there into the real world and see where the interest is. Popfly might be a good way to achieve those goals.
Of course I haven't tried it yet! I've requested an alpha log in along with the rest of the world so will see how long it takes as I think it's a pretty limited alpha.
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