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Mashing Up the Web Creates New Resources

January 2008

David Arsenault has seen the future of the Web, and he can't wait for it to reach the Department of Defense (DoD) and the intelligence community. "It's an innovation explosion," he says, "and nothing is going to stop it."

What's making this bright future possible is a new breed of Web application called "mashups." Consisting of interactive programs that draw content from multiple data sources, a mashup stitches together third-party data to create applications that are often richer and more useful than the sum of their parts. Examples of popular public mashups include housingmaps.com, which combines Google map capability with real estate Multiple Listing Service data, and Chicagocrime.org, which mashes up map software with the Chicago Police Department's reported crime database and local newspaper crime articles. It's all part of what developers call "Web 2.0," a second generation of Web-based services that invites collaboration among users.

But mashups aren't just for personal use, says Arsenault, a lead engineer in MITRE's DoD-sponsored federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). Arsenault and his colleagues Jay Crossler, Lisa Harper, and Rob Pitsko are exploring ways in which mashups will have far-reaching implications for the military. By allowing developers to build multi-service applications more quickly and easily, mashups can also provide valuable resources to MITRE employees as a whole, which in turn will let them serve their customers better.

Small pieces, loosely joined

Arsenault describes traditional software as "monolithic," or built on one large piece of logic, even if it appears to be multiple services. A mashup, on the other hand, is like an application built with LEGO products—multiple pieces, each one a different service, that can be linked together, swapped for other pieces, and reused again and again to build something slightly different each time. "If there's a mantra for Web 2.0, it's 'small pieces, loosely joined,'" Arsenault says, referring to the idea proposed in the book of the same name by David Weinberger. "Web 2.0 and mashups are as much about application design philosophy as they are about specific technologies."

Developers put these small pieces together by using application programming interfaces (APIs), which are source code interfaces that specify the details of how one computer program can interact with another. According to Crossler, also a lead engineer in the DoD FFRDC, APIs are not new; however, they were previously closely guarded secrets that could only be obtained by purchase. Newer "open APIs" make combining two or more services simply a matter of dragging and dropping. "It's completely reinventing the industry," Crossler says. "This allows programmers to build toolsets and business operators to combine those into capabilities and programs."

That's the premise of the team's "Tagged and Geotemporal Reporting" (TAGR) project, which is developing a Web-based platform for multimedia reporting and sharing. Now in its second year as a customer-funded research program, the project is focused on creating and deploying real-world mashups for military intelligence officers and operators (see "From the Ninth Ward to MITRE" below). The ease with which these mashups can be built cuts down significantly on the software's time-to-field requirement, and capabilities can be reconfigured quickly to meet the specific requirements of a particular mission or moment.

The goal of TAGR is to create a simple, map-based system for mission reporting, one that combines Google mapping capability, GPS, and photo and video recording. The TAGR team has designed a toolkit for military and intelligence operators to mix and match these services and build applications that meet their needs exactly and adapt to quickly changing requirements. For example, soldiers who patrol set routes can use it to make reports on the people, events, or issues discovered during that day's patrol. Ultimately, it's hoped that the reports can provide a comprehensive look through both space and time to keep track of trends as well as potential concerns for each route.

Mashups at MITRE

This style of development has implications far beyond the military, according to Arsenault. Just as mashups can be built to accommodate ever-changing military needs, they can do the same for an organization. "You can build a portfolio of services that can quickly be combined in different ways as business conditions change and new opportunities arise," Arsenault says. Building software from modular services also allows for greater organizational flexibility. Rather than being locked into using one vendor or platform, developers can mix and match various technologies to get the best results.

With all this in mind, Arsenault is spreading the mashup gospel throughout MITRE. In 2006, he hosted a meeting of other researchers doing related work. "We realized that among those of us proposing research projects to support our customers, there were some commonalities—we were all building data that others could use," says Arsenault. To capitalize on their similarities, the meeting gathered all the principal investigators to discuss how they could share one another's services. A "Mashup TEM," or technical exchange meeting, was held at MITRE at the end of January and highlighted recent advancements in the concept for an audience of more than 100, including several of our government customers.

Arsenault is also working on the creation of a "mashup hub," where MITRE developers can showcase their services, complete with documentation, code samples, and APIs. Using these services, anyone at the company can create his or her own new applications. "We're hoping to influence MITRE staff to think in terms of building services first, then building applications with those services to solve specific problems," he says. "The idea is to give to the community first."

In addition to encouraging collaboration and bringing together researchers with similar interests, Arsenault and his team envision the mashup hub as a way to archive services beyond the end of the projects that created them. "By having a place to keep these services alive for future teams to use," says Crossler, "everyone doing research at MITRE will be able to work a lot faster."

From the Ninth Ward to MITRE

When she's not researching interaction design for MITRE, Lisa Harper is following her other passion: training and handling search and rescue dogs. Her experience as a volunteer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 inspired the "Tagged and Geotemporal Reporting" (TAGR) project, which is designed for the military and local rescue organizations to more effectively use location-based multimedia.

Harper, a principal artificial intelligence engineer, was part of a team sent by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to assist in search and rescue operations in New Orleans. When she arrived, Harper found that aside from radios, most local agencies could afford little in the way of equipment to help volunteers with their task. "We'd go out in the field with paper maps we'd printed from Google Maps on our laptops," she says. Using these paper maps, the team sectored off the Ninth Ward and searched for victims; at the end of her 10-day stint, Harper turned over the maps and other data to the Emergency Operations Center. Two months later another rescue team arrived from Virginia; however, almost all of the carefully collected data had been lost. "There's a very poor handoff of information, and that leads to an incomplete situational picture," says Harper.

Upon returning to MITRE, she began looking at different ways for teams—for example, soldiers reporting on their daily patrols—to exchange information. As it enters its second year, the TAGR project is focused on reconfiguring its services to be even more easily deployed to real-life situations. "I'd be thrilled if TAGR produces Web services and application-specific mashups that enable first responders to share and exchange mission-oriented information," Harper says. "There is a desperate need for this sort of technology, and MITRE is in a position to make a difference."

—by Tricia Bailey

Related Information

Articles and News

Technical Papers and Presentations

Tactical Multimedia Geo-temporal Reporting (TAGR) [PDF, 1.26MB]

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