January 2012
52 posts
Local, Geo Landscape Roundup - January 24th, 2012
From the Foursquare Blog
Hey LA, now its your turn to save $5 on every Restaurant Week meal! - (01/23/2012) - New York Restaurant Week partnership with American Express, saving Card members $5 on every lunch and dinner they have at over 300 New York eateries. Today, we’re excited to extend the same deal to hungry explorers in Los Angeles: Spend $21 hundreds of restaurants participating in...
Engaging My API Developers Immediately with...
When new developers register for the CityGrid API, I get an email with their name and email address. I want to make sure each developer knows I’m here, and available to help them get up and running as quick as possible.
Emailing them as soon as they register seems a little too pushy, but following them on Twitter, with my personal Twitter and the CityGrid API Twitter account makes sense. So...
API Evangelist Strategy for CityGrid
When I started with CityGrid as their API Evangelist, I wanted to make sure and share as much of my strategy with my audience here, in real-time. Of course I’ve been so busy executing I have forgotten to tell the story about what I’m doing.
So let me take a few moments to kick off telling the story of what I’m doing to build awareness of the CityGrid Places, Reviews, Offers and...
How Do You Make Money From Your Apps?
One of the areas of API development I’m focusing a lot of energy on in 2012 is around monetization. I want to help define the playing field, of how API owners make money from their APIs, as well as how developers make money from their apps.
Both areas are extremely critical for the success of any API ecosystem. If the API owner does not have a clear path to generate revenue, the API...
HTML5 Developers Dominate at the Facebook...
I just wrapped up two separate Facebook Hackathons, one in New York and the other in Boston. Both events started with presentations from various Facebook team members, demonstrating different aspects of the Facebook platform.
After the Facebook workshops, there was a presentation by Jim Zimmerman of Thuzi, a preferred Facebook mobile development shop from Florida. During both his talks, he...
The Power of the People Demonstrated Using the...
A recent image from ProPublica.org demonstrates the power of the people via the Internet, when it came to influencing our Government. The image shows which members of Congress changed their position after the blackout protest of January 18, 2012.
This shift, demonstrates the power we the people have via the Internet and how important it is that we protect this right, and keep the Internet...
Internet at Conferences and Hackathons Shows How...
I was at the Facebook Mobile Hackathon at a hotel in Boston today, and during the event the Internet started going in and out, and eventually stopped working.
Since every demo was using the Facebook platform they required live Internet. It basically brought things to a screeching halt, when nobody could present, or hack.
This was a small event, but it hurts just as bad, no matter the event...
AT&T's new Cloud API Platform
This is a guest post by Travis Spencer, a Software engineer specializing in federation, SSO, cloud computing, Web services, & enterprise architecture.
This week, AT&T announced the release of a new API platform that is made up of various components designed to simplify mobile Web application development and utilize resources only available through them. Specifically, the new offering is...
Email as a Content API
I think email is highly underrated as a content API. I know its not what we traditionally think of as an API, but has a lot of potential as a basic interface into an application.
An example of this is If This Then That (iftt). I use iftt to syndicate content to some of my blog platforms. As part of my blogging strategy I want posts I publish on API Evangelist, to also show up on my Blogger,...
The Secret to Amazons Success Internal APIs
Last year there was an accidental post from a Google employee about Google+. The internal rant was accidentally shared publicly and provides some insight into how Google approached APIs for their new Google + platform, as well as insight how Amazon adopted an internal service oriented architecture (SOA).
The insight about how Google approached the API for Google+ is interesting, but what is far...
Rules for Hackathon Organizers, by Ravi Singh
I just wrapped up the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon in Las Vegas. I had a great time hanging out with developers at the Palms Hotel, and watching everyone compete for the 30K in prizes.
My primary goal at these events is to get to know developers and hear what they have to say. I was fortunate to connect with one such developer, Ravi Singh (@Code4Ever), and he was so kind to share...
Definition of Hack
I’m spending a lot of time traveling around the country going to hackathons. I find myself constantly explaining what the term hack means.
I’m blown away by the number of people, even in the tech industry that still see hack as a negative term. At the AT&T hackathon in Las Vegas , I encountered quite a few hardware folks in town for CES, attending the event. I was asked by one guy, “Are...
Hashtag For Your Hackathon
There are a lot of reasons for throwing a hackathon, and what value you get out of a hackathon will vary depending on who you are.
As I explore the hackathon phenomenom in 2012, I’m trying to track on what value hackathon organizers, API owners, mobile platforms, developers and other participants get out of hackathons.
I will be tracking on the different reasons people attend hackathons...
API Evangelist Tour Schedule for January
In 2012 I will be stepping up my coverage, participation and sponsorship of Hackathon events across the United States. In January I will be attending 9 events across 5 cities.
Here is my current travel schedule:
01/08/2012 through 01/14/2012
01/07 - San Francisco
Designing & Developing for Mobile Workshop
01/08 - 01/11 - Las Vegas
ATT Mobile Hackathon
01/11 - 01/13 - Portland,...
Top 10 API Evangelist Posts for 2011
2011 was an interesting year for APIs. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be at covering all major API events, but I got some traction with some posts I didn’t anticipate.
Here are my top 10 traffic posts on API Evangelist for 2011:
Apple iCloud API
Considerations When Planning Endpoints for your RESTful API
Google Launches OAuth 2.0 Playground
iCloud Storage APIs
The Need for...
Government Opened Data via APIs in 2011
One of the most important fronts of API development is Government. All of us API and data guys have all been screaming for city, county, state and federal government to open up their data via APIs for years now.
In 2011 I would say many government officials listened, and opened up almost 100 government APIs, according to ProgrammableWeb:
Aadhaar UIDAI Authentication - Online authentication...
2011 APIs as a Tag Cloud
I pulled a list of the 2023 APIs that were added to the ProgrammableWeb API directory in 2011. I took the description column and used Wordle to generate a tag cloud for 2011. I think tag clouds can provide a 100K view of where people are focusing their APIs.
from API Evangelist - Blog http://bit.ly/xhplie
January 2012 Hackathons - December 26th, 2011
Here is the latest update of the hackathons I’m tracking on for January. You can view these on the events page and I have a Google Calendar you can subscribe to.
I added 13 new hackathons, doubling the number of hackathons in January to 26!
Designing & Developing for Mobile Workshop
01/07/2012
San Francisco United States
NYC BigApps 3.0 Developer Day
01/07/2012
New York United...
APIs Can Decouple Business Information and...
I’m reading The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood right now. So far its a great read. Very thought provoking stuff.
I just read this passage on how the first dictionary transformed the way we were able to think about, understand and re-use words:
…the meaning of words come from other words. It implies that all words come from other words, taken together, form an...
API Management Service Provider Roundup for 2011
As 2011 comes to an end, I’d like to take another look at what I learned about the API management service provider space in 2011. I started the year engaging 3Scale, Apigee and Mashery, trying to find a platform to build the Mimeo Connect API platform on. Then spent the entire year getting to know each of the API management service providers, and the products they offer. At the end of the...
Facebook Mobile Hack Coming To Boston and New York
Facebook just announced that they are hosting Mobile Hacks in Boston and New York:
Facebook Mobile Hack - New York on January 18th
Facebook Mobile Hack - Boston on January 20th
The event is centered around both native and HTML5 mobile web.
Its an all day event, with each project presenting to a panel of expers, and prizes awarded to the best apps.
from API Evangelist - Blog...
Quick Walk Through the World of Location & Places...
Photo Credits
I took a walk through what I am calling the locations and places API landscape today. Most of these APIs I’m familiar with, but as the CityGrid API Evangelist, I’m getting an opportunity to immerse myself into this new local, social mobile world.
As I immerse myself in this semi-new world I want to share my findings with everyone else. If you have any suggestions make sure and...
Business of Google APIs 2011
ProgrammableWeb says Google has 94 APIs. I roughly count about 75 going through Google Code. I’m more concerned with public web APIs, and Google has Android, Chrome and other non-web APIs, so its hard to tell.
In any case I would consider Google to the largest public web API owner around. I don’t think any other single provider, owns the number of, as well as size of public APIs, that Google...
January 2012 Hackathons
These are the hackathons I’m tracking on for January. You can view these on the events page and I have a Google Calendar you can subscribe to.
AT&T Mobile App Hackathon Las Vegas
01/08/2012
Las Vegas
PDX Weekly Hackathon
01/12/2012
Portland
Penn Apps
01/13/2012
Philadelphia
Arduino Camp & Robot Hackathon
01/14/2012
New York
Hackathon for Social Good
01/19/2012
New York
Wikipedia -...
The FCC Lanches API Curation Platform Called MyFCC
The FCC just launched a new platform that allows anyone to create, save and manage a customized page, built from widgets that pull content from FCC APIs, called MyFCC.
At first glance MyFCC might look like just another dashboard or start page, but it goes much further, as an API curation platform.
To understand, you have to go back to the beginning and see the scope of the problem being...
Conferences, Hackathons and Meetups in 2012
In 2012 I’m going to be stepping up my travel schedule. I”m planning on attending as many conferences, hackathons and meetups as I possibly can.
My emphasis will be on hackathons and meetups, but there are still some very worthy larger conferences that I will make sure and be at.
I believe that in 2012 there will be some serious innovation occurring around Hackathons in cities around the...
Google Affiliate Network API
Google just launched their new Google Affiliate Network API, which allows publishers and advertisers to automate various tasks related to the Google Affiliate Network.
The Google Affiliate Network is the affiliate network, formerly known as Doubleclick Performics, which was part of Google’s Doublick acquisition in April of 2007.
Using the new Google Affiliate Network APIs, developers can...
Kin Lane is the API Evangelist for CityGrid
Here we are, wrapping up 2011. I concluded my first full year immersed in the business of APIs, which started back in September 2010 with my first blog post on API Evangelist, then by December I was the API Evangelist for Mimeo.
In 2011, I spent the entire year evangelizing for Mimeo, while also paying attention to the wider business of APIs, while writing for ProgrammableWeb and API...
RESTful Business Architecture
In my quest to fully understand the underlying principles of Representational State Transfer (REST), i’m re-reading Roy Thomas Fielding original dissertation, Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures, where he first introduced the REST architectural style.
His dissertation explored the junction of two disciplines in computer science: software and...
Google Deploys a Single, Centralized Terms of Use...
Google has made another step towards a more common API infrastructure in line with their API Discovery Service, API Explorer, and API Console by launching a single terms of service for all Google APIs.
Google has rewritten their terms from the ground up with the goal of making them easier to understand for application developers.
At the moment it seems as though most of the APIs that use the...
What Does a World with 100K Open APIs Look Like?
I recently pulled the title, description and tags for all the APIs in the ProgramableWeb directory into a local MySQL database. At the time of this writing there are 4,480 public APIs in the directory.
My goal is build a better search and discovery interface, so I can get a handle on all these APIs. Which ones I should be paying attention to, recommending to developers and generally just have...
Zappos Opens Up Their Internal Hackathon to Public
Hackathons are growing into a popular way to spark innovation around hardware, data and APIs within developer and hacker communities. I count over 40 hackathons going on in December alone, and this is just what I can discover and keep up with in my research.
Hackathons are also being used by many companies to drive innovation internally between departments. Businesses like LinkedIn and Zappos...
The Mainstream New York Times Audience is Ready...
There was a post a couple weeks back in the New York Times Bits Blog called, “TaskRabbit Looks to Expand Cities and Offer an A.P.I.”
Its a pretty straightforward post about the San Francisco based start-up, that gets you in touch with friendly, reliable people who can help you get just about anything you need done. At first glance, it is a pretty standard post. However I feel...
Switch From SimpleGeo Places, Let CityGrid Pay You...
With Urban AirShip shutting down SimpleGeo there are many developers left with the decision of where to go next, to get their places data, as well as context, storage and geocoding services.
CityGrid does not provide context, storage and geocoding services, but we can provide rich places data that developers can use in their web and mobile applications.
Developers can make up to as many as 10...
Building Hyp3rL0cal Web and Mobile Apps
I needed a way to tell the story of the CityGrid API from the perspective of cities across the United States. The way I tell stories is through programming and hacking on APIs, so I needed a project that would allow me to hack on CityGrid’s places, reviews and offers as well as play with different ways of using the web, mobile and custom advertising we offer.
So I created Hyp3rL0cal, my...
Urban Airship Shutting Down SimpleGeo
Just three months after Urban Airship acquired SimpleGeo, they are shutting down the places, context and storage service.
Urban Airship is merging SimpleGeo services into their mobile customer engagement solution to offer location and context-based services as part of the package.
Users of Urban Airship will be able to take advantage of location and context to better segment and engage their...
Foursquare Launches Web Version of Recommendations
Foursquare just took another step with local recommendations by launching a new web version of Foursquare Explore.
Last March during SXSW 2011, Foursquare launched explore for iPhone and Android mobile, allowing users to find things to do nearby, and now has brought this same functionality to the web.
Explore’s suggestions are powered by places you’ve been and frequented, the places...
Local, Geo Landscape Roundup - January 9th, 2012
From the Foursquare Blog
The foursquare-powered art thesis! - (01-09-2012) - Take a look! Know of any cool foursquare projects? Post them in the comments!
API Highlight: Use your check-ins to track your carbon emissions! - (01-05-2012) - bunch of people have been using foursquare to track their New Years resolutions, from staying fit to eating healthy. If one of your resolutions is to be...
Service Offered by Local, Social, Mobile API...
To kick-off my role as API Evangelist at CityGrid, I took a quick walk through the world of location and places API.
The CityGrid API centers around places API which provides rich local business data via a RESTful API. So getting familiar with other location and places API is critical to my role.
While going through each of these APIs in the space I flushed out what I’d consider the high...
Local, Social, Mobile Elections 2012
As the Iowa caucuses, the first official vote of the 2012 primary season, come to a head, the republican candidates are working are to make their case to communities across the state.
Whether via local cafes, truckstops, social networks, web sites, newspapers or polls everyone want to get their finger on the pulse of how people feel in each city and community across the state.
It is January...
Local, Geo Landscape Roundup - January 2nd, 2012
From the Foursquare Blog
3-2-1 foursquare Follow Friday, New Years Eve edition! #4sqFF- (12-30-2011) - Still figuring out your plans for celebrating the end of 2011? Check out these New Years Eve lists from New York, North Carolina, Miami, India, and all around the world! Know of celebrations going on in your town?
From the Facebook Developer Blog
Facebook Platform SDK Support- (12-30-2011) -...
Local, Geo Landscape Roundup - December 26th, 2011
from Hack Education http://bit.ly/wHaNVZ
The Secret to Amazons Success Internal APIs
Last year there was an accidental post from a Google employee about Google+. The internal rant was accidentally shared publicly and provides some insight into how Google approached APIs for their new Google + platform, as well as insight how Amazon adopted an internal service oriented architecture (SOA).
The insight about how Google approached the API for Google+ is interesting, but what is far...
Email as a Content API
I think email is highly underrated as a content API. I know its not what we traditionally think of as an API, but has a lot of potential as a basic interface into an application.
An example of this is If This Then That (iftt). I use iftt to syndicate content to some of my blog platforms. As part of my blogging strategy I want posts I publish on API Evangelist, to also show up on my Blogger,...
Switch From SimpleGeo Places, Let CityGrid Pay You...
With Urban AirShip shutting down SimpleGeo there are many developers left with the decision of where to go next, to get their places data, as well as context, storage and geocoding services.
CityGrid does not provide context, storage and geocoding services, but we can provide rich places data that developers can use in their web and mobile applications.
Developers can make up to as many as 10...
The Secret to Amazon's Success, Internal APIs
Last year there was an accidental post from a Google employee about Google+. The internal rant was accidentally shared publicly and provides some insight into how Google approached APIs for their new Google + platform, as well as insight how Amazon adopted an internal service oriented architecture (SOA).
The insight about how Google approached the API for Google+ is interesting, but what is far...
The Secret to Amazon's Success, Internal APIs
Last year there was an accidental post from a Google employee about Google+. The internal rant was accidentally shared publicly and provides some insight into how Google approached APIs for their new Google + platform, as well as insight how Amazon adopted an internal service oriented architecture (SOA).
The insight about how Google approached the API for Google+ is interesting, but what is far...
January 2012 Hackathons - December 26th, 2011
Here is the latest update of the hackathons I’m tracking on for January. You can view these on the events page and I have a Google Calendar you can subscribe to.
I added 13 new hackathons, doubling the number of hackathons in January to 26!
Designing & Developing for Mobile Workshop
01/07/2012
San Francisco United States
NYC BigApps 3.0 Developer Day
01/07/2012
New York United...
Rules for Hackathon Organizers, by Ravi Singh
I just wrapped up the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon in Las Vegas. I had a great time hanging out with developers at the Palms Hotel, and watching everyone compete for the 30K in prizes.
My primary goal at these events is to get to know developers and hear what they have to say. I was fortunate to connect with one such developer, Ravi Singh (@Code4Ever), and he was so kind to share...
Definition of Hack
I’m spending a lot of time traveling around the country going to hackathons. I find myself constantly explaining what the term hack means.
I’m blown away by the number of people, even in the tech industry that still see hack as a negative term. At the AT&T hackathon in Las Vegas , I encountered quite a few hardware folks in town for CES, attending the event. I was asked by one guy, “Are...