I blogged about a nice example of what happens when you let go.
http://is.gd/1Xi2
Open museum data + Flickr + independent developer + goodwill = good outcomes for everyone
(Hopefully I'll see some of you Brits in the next 2 weeks!)
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
mob - 0413 457 126
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Martyn Farrows
Sent: Wed 27/08/2008 6:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: APIs and Developer Platforms: A Discussion on the Pros and Cons (was: Re: Uses of APIs for cultural organisations?)
This is a good point Richard. In our experience, there are a limited
number of formats/protocols/standards which are suited to creative re-
use of data on the web and as Mia pointed out, the technical issues
generally are easily solved. RSS, Atom and even more specific ones
such as OAI-PMH are all in widespread use.
As others have already pointed out, the more difficult issue is 'what'
data to expose rather than how to expose it (assuming your collection/
content management system is up to the task). Simple data feeds such
as 'events' or 'news' are relatively low risk as the data doesn't
carry, for example, licencing issues. Content feeds of images and
contextual metadata (captions, dates, descriptions, etc) carry IP but
as long as the 'agreement' with the end user incorporates respect for
appropriate licencing (and the feed itself only contains appropriately
licenced content), there shouldn't be a problem.
I suspect that if we try to get agreement on what QLs and RFs are
suitable, there will never be agreement! Personally, I'd like to see
as much data available as possible, using whatever formats are
available - and let the 'user' decide what's useful. Building in a
feedback loop to get evaluative data might also highlight areas of
data which is really valuable to an audience and which might not have
been identified as such previously (of course, the opposite may also
be true ;-)).
In any case, the most important things with any API if you want to
encourage creative re-use are:
- make it open
- document it properly
Sounds obvious, but a 'closed' and/or un-documented (or poorly
documented) API is pretty useless (and there are lots out there).
Martyn
On 26 Aug 2008, at 17:52, Richard Light wrote:
> In message <[log in to unmask]
> >, Mia Ridge <[log in to unmask]> writes
>>
>> I think the point about mashups is that we're making data available
>> for others to use rather than creating meta-collections for the
>> sake of it - we can't possibly anticipate or resource applications
>> for every user requirement, but we can reduce the 'IT bottleneck'.
>>
>> I suspect the issue is generally around terms of use, copyright and
>> licensing implications, content quality, etc, rather than technical
>> issues (which are generally more easily solved).
>
> There is also an issue of scale, which is related to the number of
> distinct query syntaxes and response formats that are developed.
> Imagine yourself as the creator of an uber-mashup for museum
> information: if you have to program for N query languages and N
> response formats in order to grab data from N museums, you will
> rapidly lose the will to continue. Conversely, if there is just one
> QL and one RF; no problem to add as many museums as come forward
> with data. Clearly the real-life situation would be somewhere
> between these extremes, but you see my point: fewer formats is/are
> better.
>
> Do we have a clear idea of which QL[s] and RF[s] we agree to be
> suitable for delivering museum data?
>
> Do we even have a clear idea of what we mean by "museum data"? I've
> been playing around with RDF recently, and I'm becoming aware that
> while it's fine for data qua data, it is not a good medium for
> delivering rich content, i.e. the sort of marked-up semi-structured
> text you get in most web pages and many museum catalogue
> descriptions. Do we want to give the world coherent prose, a mass
> of historical assertions, or something else?
>
> Richard
> --
> Richard Light
> XML/XSLT and Museum Information Consultancy
> [log in to unmask]
>
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-------------------------
Dr. Martyn Farrows
Director, Lexara
M: +353 87 7917410
E: [log in to unmask]
W: www.magicstudio.com
Skype: symphony.sid
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