Throughout the book, I use a number of related terms (mashup, remix, recombine, data, and services) to describe differing aspects of reusing intellectual and creative work to build derivative works. Of course, reuse—whether in the form of artistic appropriation, scholarly attribution, literary quotation and allusion, parody, or satire—has a long history throughout human intellectual, creative, and commercial endeavors. Some terms, such as reuse (as in software reuse or code reuse), have been in popular usage for a while. Others, such as remix and mashup, have more recently arisen in the context of discussions around Web 2.0 to apply to the combination of data from disparate sources, often via the use of XML and XML web services. In some ways, mashups has won out as the term to refer to web interfaces and applications that combine content into something new, whereas the term remix is generally about reusing media while still having broader usage (as in remix culture).

The boundary between mashup and remix is a bit fuzzy, though. Mashup and remix are terms that have their origins in popular music.^[7]remix is an alternate version of a song, while a mashup brings together elements of two or more songs. The term mashup has expanded recently to describe the combination of video from multiple sources in a new video.^[8]remix to describe scenarios that are about reusing or repackaging data without combining it with other content (for example, using the Flickr API to make a web page that has only Flickr images), and I would reserve mashups to refer to combinations of data from a variety of sources (for example, combining Flickr photos with photos from Picasa). But the lines are fuzzy and, in my opinion, not worth the effort to draw too carefully.

Broadly speaking, I focus in this book on software mashups, mostly but not exclusively on web mashups that are remixing data and services. By data, I mean any digital content, whether it is on a computer network, on your computer, or on any other device. By services, I roughly mean services as in service-oriented architecture and software as a service, meaning web services and any applications that can be reused.

Whereas mashups are strongly associated with Web 2.0, parallel developments going under such names as composite applications are occurring in enterprise computing and service-oriented architectures. Composite applications are also concerned with weaving together data and services, though they usually integrate corporate data and supply chains sitting behind firewalls instead of public APIs from Google and Amazon. Although mashups and composite applications share common techniques, they are driven by vastly different cultural factors.

This book focuses on personal information instead of information reuse from an enterprise perspective. Personal information is distinct for its heterogeneity, its connection to personal information management, the need for mass customizability, and the many permutations of hardware, software, and data derived from the unique needs of individuals. Nonetheless, if there are opportunities to draw upon synergies with enterprise Web 2.0 without going far afield, I will do so here.