IBM unveiled <A HREF="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22425.wss">a preview of its new mashup platform</A> to allow non-technical users to create situational applications in minutes, empowering line of business professionals to get the information they need no matter where it resides. The IBM Mashup Starter Kit, available today on IBM alphaWorks, enables line of business users to assemble their own Web 2.0 mashup applications, solving business problems without aid from information technology specialists.

The IBM Mashup Starter Kit contains two key technologies. The IBM Mashup Hub is a mashup server that stores information feeds such as in the RSS, ATOM or XML formats to enable reuse and collaboration. Mashup Hub can also merge, transform, filter, annotate or publish information in new formats. From there, the newly-enhanced QEDWiki serves as the user interface and allows non-IT users to "mash" information from any data source to create a single view of disparate sets of information in minutes. Together, this package of software collects and processes information that ultimately provides data for next generation applications.