Define 'enterprise mashup' and win a $50 gift card

In this space, we argue a lot about definitions (or lack thereof) of terms and buzzwords, so it's refreshing to see that someone is willing to ante up a reward for a good, working definition of at least one emerging term.

Chris Warner over at JackBe just announced that his company is offering a $50 Amazon gift card a week, along with the honorary title of 'Mashup CEO,' to anyone who can provide a nice, solid, definition of  "enterprise mashup" -- and put it in terms a beginner can understand.

What inspired this effort? Chris says that a few weeks ago,  JackBe CEO and co-founder Luis Derechin appeared on Fox Business News to explain to the world the meaning of enterprise mashups. But Luis wasn't entirely happy with the way he described it. (Chris provides a link to the original program here.)

Luis described it this way, which, actually, I think was a pretty good way to put it:

"A mashup is a dynamic Web application that brings together data stored in many different applications for better decision making. ... A good example is data stored in a customer relationship management application, then an accounting application, and then maybe a production application. Bringing those together to get a 360-degree view, along with with news about your customer... in order to be able to make a clear and precise decision at any moment."

Chris also adds that his company came up with the following definition a couple of years ago:

"Dynamic Web-based applications that combine multiple data sources in real-time for increased awareness and improved decision-making while meeting the stringent governance and data security requirements of enterprises."

But Chris says that there needs to be a better way to explain the concept to the rest of the world: "Not bad, I think. But we need something a bit sexier for the next time we end up on TV. Remember, our goal is to craft something for the non-techy, the non-insider, the uninitiated."

Hence the "Beat the CEO" to define enterprise mashups contest.  I like Chris's tweet-able suggestion: "Web 2.0 meets Excel." But, as my colleague Dion Hunchcliffe then pointed out to him, you still need to define "Web 2.0."