WiserEarth API Developers

Congratulations to everyone for helping achieve this goal! 

I've been wondering about how the community will come to use the API.  I'm interested in seeing the API serve both directions, in other words not only see applications that take from the directory but also enabling the API so people can put data into the directory programmatically.  Of course this raises technical questions about how we identify duplicates, etc.

I am assuming that we'll be able to programmatically add organizations as well as programmatically access the data about organizations.  The benefit to many of us will be that the presentation layer is no longer constrained by the wiser format and layout.  So we will be able to access the community directorydata and display it within a style, appearance and layout that fits well with other third-party applications. 

Is anyone else thinking about how the API can add data to as well as access from the directory?

It would be cool if someone would create a Drupal/Joomla/Wordpress/other-CMS module/widget/extension that help people to write an info once (event, job, resource, solution) and get it posted both on their website and onto WiserEarth. I imagine that someone must be a registered member of WiserEarth and will need to log-in / authorize the module prior to posting.

As for read-only access, this mobile application idea by Paul Mackay is a good one.

Hey all--

When we first started thinking about launching OpenWiser, one of the great dreams of many of the folks involved is to integrate external geographic data to search and filter the WE database. 

For instance, my NGO has many local groups with their own webpages hosted on our own platform, not on WE. They are small, ad-hoc, grassroots groups of volunteer activist groups--not established NGOs.  However, they would benefit enourmously by linking up with geographically proximate NGOs that would be sympathetic to the cause--the value of institutional support cannot be underestimated for grassroots groups.

My dream: creating a default content block on each of these local groups web hubs.  In this block, a list of links to relevant (i.e. filtering by "areas of focus") and geographically proximate (i.e. filtering by location) NGOs. 

Anyone want to help spec this out and get the ball rolling?

-Jon-

Hello all

Great news! I've pushed it to the geeks at home (Mondeca) and at least one of them is interested. Not sure anyone would be available tomorrow so far (19h00 Paris time). As Angus, Peggy and Bowo at least now, my focus is on linking WiserEarth data into the Semantic Web linked data universe. So my personal roadmap for that would be, there again, bandwidth permitting (sorry to have been off WE for weeks).

• Set a model (OWL ontology) of WE data, certainly organizations first, of course
• Based on that model, write a RDF wrapper for the data. Not sure myself how to do that, but people at home do know (thomasthomas).
• Next step would be linking WE RDF data to existing RDF data sets, e.g., DBpedia for areas of focus and other key concepts, Geonames for localisation etc ...

Hey guys,

just to understand, since i had read on different places regrading the API and i couldn't find any link to the API, does it exists, is it already developed? I got an invitation from Juan Carlos Kaiten, since he saw that yalla ya! (my company) had already participated in a development of successufly API before.

if the API is yet to be developed, i can recommend a structure as this example that I had previously developed: http://api.producteev.com which provides a documentation site together with standards formats such as: xml / rss / json - of API - similar to twitter one (the website www.producteev.com)

The API we had created was already used in different mobile applications (Nokia, iPhone, Adobe AIR and now BlackBerry is on its way), and open social apps - so the standard we used seems to be the right choice.

let me know if we can help in any way.

Activism Network (www.activismnetwork.org / www.campusactivism.org) has had an API for a couple years.   It's got groups, people, events, resources, issues (aka a tagging system), and schools (universities, colleges, and most US high schools).

The simpler api is read only. But there are also ways of logging in and editing data that you control (the software is split into a server and client - so you could install the client on your own website and access all the data using that).

Documention is somewhat limited since there hasn't been much interest in it yet.  I'll probably improve the api, the documentation, and try out a mashup with wiserearth in the future. For instance, you should be able to have a groups/organization search that works on both of our data.

Old developers site (examples are out of date, but it gives you an idea of what is possible)

http://www.activismnetwork.org/developers/

 Aaron

@bvatant: I mentioned Freebase before, but noticed your post and am wondering if figuring out how to import and maintain a copy of the WE data in Freebase would be one approach to providing a form of RDF wrapper? It supports accessing data in an RDF manner (http://rdf.freebase.com/).

Some interesting reference slides here (http://www.slideshare.net/jamietaylor/freebase-rdf-and-the-semantic-web-1455414).

Some reasons listed by Freebase why it could be beneficial to WE to syndicate WE data there. I wonder how significant increased connections and potential traffic might be...

From http://www.freebase.com/solutions/index

Data Syndication

Do you have data that belongs in Freebase? Join data providers like MusicBrainz, TVDB, and the Oxford Bottled Beer Database who have discovered that syndicating your data with Freebase has benefits like these:

• Outsourced maintenance

  You gain the expertise of the Freebase data team and community, and a rich set of tools that everyone can use to access and improve it.

• Connecting to the data web

  We connect your data to other databases. This means it gets bigger, better, and more discoverable over time.

• Traffic and brand awareness

  We provide detailed attribution that allows more people to discover your site. This will appear not only on Freebase, but on any Freebase-powered site throughout the web.