Jeremy
I'm with you and Mike on this. An API should be an essential requirement
- not optional. Those of you who will be in Montreal at MW08 will be
hearing me go on and on and on about APIs possibly being a *practical*
alternative to the never ending (dis)agreement on 'standards'.
If you require an API key to access the API then EDL can manage who is
using the data and also offer keys with different security levels to
different types of users.
One of the projects I'm working on at the moment down here in the
colonies is a cross government data combining project that is providing
secondary APIs to primary data sources that are in locked down
enterprise systems in static content . . . (but more on that later)
As regards UGC it would be prudent to have a T&C that specificially
requires that UGC be flexible enough to allow any reuse with
attribution. (A CC with attribution license may be a good option).
Seb
Sebastian Chan
Manager, Web Services
Powerhouse Museum
street - 500 Harris St Ultimo, NSW Australia
postal - PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238
tel - 61 2 9217 0109
fax - 61 2 9217 0689
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Ottevanger, Jeremy
Sent: Thursday, 7 February 2008 10:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: APIs and EDL
Hi Mike,
Well I knew if there was one person who'd be in favour of this it would
probably be you! I like your rule of thumb. Being pretty inexperienced
in actually programming against web-based APIs myself, much more used to
hacking around the back, this has an appealing simplicity.
I guess the next question for something like EDL is, which of the
functions should be accessible to whom? As content contributors we'd
want to get at all our own stuff (and the user generated content built
up around it). We'd also want, perhaps, to manage this content via API
calls, although the multi-layer approach to content aggregation into the
PNDS and Culture24, via the IAP and on to EDL may preclude this. How
about non-contributors? Would they be able to access the same content
(from LAMs and UGC) as those organisations that had submitted their
catalogue records to EDL? For me the answer is yes, but there could be
restrictions. I'd like the local history society to be able to pull out
relevant content in a search engine embedded on their site, and show
that stuff on a map. Should they be able to pull in the UGC around those
items too? I don't know. Maybe the tags, maybe not the artworks. Does
the API complicate rights management?
If the overall architecture is API-centric, probably only parts of those
APIs would be appropriate to open to general users, a bit more to
contributors, and all of it to content aggregators. I guess.
Thanks for the input, Mike, talk soon.
Jeremy
Jeremy Ottevanger
Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
Museum of London Group
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London. N1 7ED
Tel: 020 7410 2207
Fax: 020 7600 1058
Email: [log in to unmask] www.museumoflondon.org.uk
Museum of London is changing; our lower galleries will be closed while
they undergo a major new development. Visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk to
find out more.
London's Burning - explore how the Great Fire of London shaped the city
we see today www.museumoflondon.org.uk/londonsburning
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Mike Ellis
Sent: 06 February 2008 13:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MCG] APIs and EDL
Hi Jeremy
I know that you and I have talked briefly about this before but I just
wanted to add slightly more public support for this.
The notion of an API in *any* content-rich application should be moving
not only in our sphere of knowledge ("I know what an API is") but *fast*
into our sphere of requirement ("give me an API or I won't play").
Whatever the context, however the application is going to be used (or
not), we should (I'm passionate about this and would actually say
*MUST*) be very firmly pushing our institutions in this direction.
Applications - either web or not - which don't give us easy,
programmatic access into our data should be resisted. The siloing of
data - which we're all too familiar with - has come from lack of
standards and proprietary ("no in, no out") systems.
I did a presentation a while back in which I bang on endlessly about
this - see
http://www.slideshare.net/dmje/web2-and-distributed-services-mike-ellis-
v2. If anyone wants me to come and give a similar one, I'd be delighted
to do so...
So yes. EDL should have a feature-rich API. A good rule of thumb for
this functionality is to ask: "how much of what can be done by back-end
and developer built web systems can be done and accessed via the API?"
In an ideal world it'd be 100%. If it's 0 then run away, fast!
I'll be in contact with you off-list to continue the conversation ;-)
Cheers
Mike
Mike Ellis
Solutions Architect
Eduserv
[log in to unmask]
tel: 01225 474300
fax: 01225 474301
www.eduserv.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Ottevanger, Jeremy
Sent: Tue 05/02/2008 12:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: APIs and EDL
Dear all,
Some of you will know of the European Digital Library, an EC project
that is currently in a prototyping phase (known as EDLnet
http://www.europeandigitallibrary.eu/edlnet/). It is part of the wider
Digital Libraries Initiative
(http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/wh
at_is_dli/index_en.htm) and shortly after that I get lost in the maze of
EC projects, initiatives, directorates etc. Anyway, its final form is up
in the air, but essentially it is hoped that it will aggregate digital
content from museums, libraries and archives across Europe. Quite what
will be held, the technical architecture, how the content will be
accessed and maintained and many other questions are working their way
through the system, but one day it may offer a partial solution to
cross-collection searching, at least for a subset of European-owned
material. Apologies to those who know more about this subject, I'm
almost certain I've misrepresented it!
I got interested in the project when I attended a meeting late last
year, at which the organisers were brainstorming user requirements and
ideas for the interface. I went along with a particular axe to grind,
which was the need for an API. The basic rationale was that EDL will
have limited appeal for users if they have to go to a single portal site
to search, whereas it would serve a lot more people if it was the engine
behind many sites scattered around the web. For organisations that might
contribute content to the central repository, too, it would be a far
more attractive proposition if they knew that they could then access the
data themselves, embed EDL functionality in their sites or mash it up
with mediating content, maps etc. EDL could act as a sophisticated
online collections database for a small museum that could never
countenance building its own search engine, much as one can embed google
site search into your own page at present. This would be good for EDL
because it could be quite a strong motive for contributing content.
Overall I think that an API could actually be much more useful than a
"portal" website.
So to the purpose of this e-mail. An upcoming EDL "users and usability"
meeting, in March, will be looking more closely at the subject of APIs,
and in preparation for this I was hoping to get some thoughts from the
MCGers about:
* whether and why an API would be useful to them, or influence
their decision on whether to contribute content to EDL
* what features might prove useful
* any examples of APIs or of their application that they think
provide a model for what EDL's API could offer or enable
It would be nice to feel I could represent the thoughts of a good
portion of the practitioners in the UK, or at least more than myself
alone. Thanks in advance,
Jeremy
Jeremy Ottevanger
Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
Museum of London Group
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London. N1 7ED
Tel: 020 7410 2207
Fax: 020 7600 1058
Email: [log in to unmask] www.museumoflondon.org.uk
Museum of London is changing; our lower galleries will be closed while
they undergo a major new development. Visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk to
find out more.
London's Burning - explore how the Great Fire of London shaped the city
we see today www.museumoflondon.org.uk/londonsburning
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