After three exciting years, the FAST project now finally comes to a close. From the start, our goal was to put the tools to create small but complex Web applications – call them enterprise mashups or situational widgets or gadgets – directly into the hands of end users, without having to rely on programmers and developers to do the job for them. Looking back at everything now, we feel that our work was very successful: we did the research, the design and the development to produce these tools, and we spent significant efforts to test and evaluate them, focussed a lot on usability, and made sure they really work for the people who should use them. If you want to see for yourself, have a look at a recent blog post about FAST in a Nutshell, or just dive right in and try out our demo!
Marking the end of the project, we have also released the final version of our regular newsletter, which will give you more details about the latest developments in our toolset (such as debugging features, improved deployment and semantics-based recommendation features), a wrap-up of recent dissemination activities, and a complete list of all scientific publications done during the course of the project.
So, what is next for FAST? While the official project duration is over, we expect our tools and research to be carried on in other contexts now. E.g., to mention a number of follow-up projects that FAST consortium mebers are involved in: in the 4Caast Project, FAST-created gadgets can either play the role of an application provider, or the FAST platform can be used to assist the mashing-up of different applications. Similarly, the Cloud4SOA project can apply the technology and lessons learned for semantic interoperability of application components in FAST. On the other hand, projects such as Puzzled by Policy will be able to apply the FAST platform (or a derivative) to empower citizens to make better use of public sector data and services.
Goodbye FAST – Long live FAST!
