Mashmashmashmashups! Oh, how we love them so.
My first “exposure” to mashups was MashupCamp in Mountain View last autumn. Seeing the different technologies mashed together, the ease of development of web 2.0-type websites, and how different techies used open APIs was absolutely mindblowing.
When we first embarked on the adventures of LiveUmbrella (before LiveUmbrella even existed), we wanted to do a “mashup” of types. When Giftomi was being born, we decided to use Tokbox as the core technology for our product.
When Giftomi was born, he went through some growing pains, one of them being the reliance on another company’s technology. After implementation of Tokbox, because their API was not steady yet, Giftomi had some difficulties with a smooth sailing and we’ve had to revise our product a couple times to adjust to the… well… adjustments.
Tokbox has been very supportive, and LiveUmbrella stands by the motto that, if we all hold each others’ hands, we’ll all succeed in the end.
The benefit of using Tokbox’s API is not having to spend loads of development time and being able to get the product out quickly. And of course, the negative sides of using someone else’s technology is not having control over the stability of our core.
As a team, we probably would have chose an alternative route (such as using the Facebook video for the application) and finding another option for the website when it is implemented. However, the extreme care of the Tokbox employees, reachout, and support has overwhelmed us with love. We are very happy with the business relationship that is being developed as of recent, and look forward to this exciting learning experience.
I would think our experience with mashups has been the same as many others in the space, but thought I’d share our views for shits ‘n giggles… and for another opportunity to say how fabulous Tokbox employees are. Seriously. :)
-LadyLeet
