"API" entries

A writable API for O'Reilly

Fluidinfo's new API allows anyone to add information to O'Reilly book and author objects.

Fluidinfo's new O'Reilly API contains information from O'Reilly, Amazon, Google Books, LibraryThing, and GoodReads. But most importantly, anyone can "write" their own information to the book and author objects.

A writable API for O’Reilly

Fluidinfo's new API allows anyone to add information to O'Reilly book and author objects.

Fluidinfo's new O'Reilly API contains information from O'Reilly, Amazon, Google Books, LibraryThing, and GoodReads. But most importantly, anyone can "write" their own information to the book and author objects.

3 ways APIs can benefit publishers

Discovery, experimentation, and unintentional consequences are all tied to APIs. It's like having LEGOs for publishing.

APIs aren't just for tech companies. In this post we look at three significant areas where publishers can benefit from releasing their own APIs.

Four short links: 4 March 2011

Four short links: 4 March 2011

Javascript AR, Android Patterns, Node.js Book, and SMS Platforms

  1. JSARToolKit — Javascript port of the Flash AR Toolkit. I’m intrigued because the iPad2 has rear-facing camera and gyroscopes up the wazoo, and (of course) no Flash. (via Mike Shaver on Twitter)
  2. Android Patterns — set of design patterns for Android apps. (via Josh Clark on Twitter)
  3. Preview of Up and Running with Node.js (O’Reilly) — Tom Hughes-Croucher’s new book in preview form. Just sorting out commenting now. (via Tom on Twitter)
  4. #Blue Opens for Business — a web app that gets your text messages. You can reply, and there’s an API to give other apps read/write access. Signs the text message is finally becoming a consumer platform.

The future of publishing is writable

Trends of smaller, easier, and more personal content signal a shift away from read-only publishing.

Terry Jones envisons a future in which we step beyond the default of read-only publishing via traditional containers and APIs. Data itself will become social, and we'll be able to personalize arbitrarily.

The black market for data

Data providers, developers and end users don't always share the same goals.

In today's world of open social media APIs, there's a rift between what publishers consider open versus what data consumers are demanding. That discrepancy is at the heart of data's black market.

The state of mapping APIs

Mobile, utility and server-side development will define the future of maps.

Map APIs took off in 2005, and during the ensuing years the whole notion of maps has changed. Where once they were slick add-ons, map functionality is now a necessary — and expected — tool. In this piece, Adam DuVander looks at the current state of mapping and he explains how mobile devices, third-party services and ease of use are shaping the map development world.

Four short links: 27 August 2010

Four short links: 27 August 2010

Audio API, Book Search Helps Publishers (Gasp!), Tracking Antiquities, Guaranteeing Diversity Fail

  1. Working Audio Data Demos — the new Firefox has a very sweet audio data API and some nifty demos like delay pedals, a beat detector (YouTube) and a JavaScript text-to-speech generator. (via jamesaduncan on Twitter)
  2. Estimating the Economic Impact of Mass Digitization Projects on Copyright Holders: Evidence from the Google Book Search Litigation[T]he revenues and profits of the publishers who believe themselves to be most aggrieved by GBS, as measured by their willingness to file suit against Google for copyright infringement, increased at a faster rate after the project began, as compared to before its commencement. The rate of growth by publishers most affected by GBS is greater than the growth of the overall U.S. economy or of retail sales.
  3. In History-Rich Region, a Very New System Tracks Very Old Things (NY Times) — Getty built a web database to help Jordan track its antiquities sites (and threats to them) with Google Earth satellite images. (via auchmill on Twitter)
  4. What Women Want and How Not to Give it To Them — thought-provoking piece about the ways in which corporate diversity efforts fail. Must read.
Four short links: 18 August 2010

Four short links: 18 August 2010

Place Context, iPod Hardware, Mobile Cognitive Surplus, and Music Hacking APIs

  1. BBC Dimensions — brilliant work, a fun site that lets you overlay familiar plcaes with famous and notable things so you can get a better sense of how large they are. Example: the Colossus of Rhodes straddling O’Reilly HQ, the Library of Alexandria vs the Google campus, and New Orleans Mardi Gras began at the headquarters of Fred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church. (via this piece about its background)
  2. Podapter — simple plug that takes mini-USB and goes into an iPod or iPhone. (via Tuesday product awesomeness)
  3. New NexusOne Radio Firmware — a glimpse of the world that’s sprung up sharing the latest goodies between countries, carriers, and developers. For everyone for whose products the street has found a new use, the challenge is to harness this energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, and devotion. In terms of cognitive surplus, this far exceeds the 1 LOLCAT minimum standard unit. (via YuweiWang on Twitter)
  4. Echoes Nest Remix API — access to database of song characteristics and tools to manipulate tunes. See the Technology Review article for examples of what it’s capable of. (via aaronsw on Twitter)

Data as a service

A look at how services and widgets are democratizing data and visualization.

With "data as a service" APIs like InfoChimps, and embeddable data components like Google Public Data Explorer and WolframAlpha Widgets, we're seeing the democratization of data and data visualization: new ways to access data, new ways to play with data, and new ways to communicate the results to others.