With IT becoming more and more abstracted from the user, and the user becoming the focus, so do mashups where users begin to contribute "applications" as opposed to taking what IT has deigned their lot in life to be (sounds medieval).
One of the most profound changes wrought by the Internet is the consumerization of IT. Before 1995 we found our most advanced computing environment in the workplace. Since then, consumer-focused technology has become the leader in innovation and we now have better technology at home than we do at the office. IT departments have yet to come to grips with this transition.
The consumerization trend has many facets, including creating secure corporate-controlled environments on personal technology like cellphones and laptops, and expanding do-it-yourself IT, the trend toward users assembling their own solutions.
This last trend is most interesting because to exploit it, IT departments must change their relationship with users to promote innovation and creativity. It turns out that mashups, simple end-user created applications, are playing a catalyzing role in the transformation. (The name mashup comes from popular music, where it refers to a song constructed from parts of other songs.)
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