Many successful social sites I have come across support some level of lightweight APIs for services and individuals to use in addition to their normal end users facing UI. Facebook (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/), using the Open Graph Protocol (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/) and javascript to extend facebook functionalities to you, for instance, to incorporate a “Like” button to your personal html page. Groupon has its own set of RESTFul APIs that supports Daily Deals query and integration of the “Deal” button to any website or applications (http://groups.google.com/group/grouponapi/topics?hl=en). Any deals that came through from the registered developer will receive a sale commission. LinkedIn has a set of Javascript based and RESTFul APIs for accessing profile and connection data for business applications (https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/connections-api). Twitter (https://dev.twitter.com/) allows querying of tweets from around the globe along with geo-coordinates of tweet’s origin which I believe is how part of the Crisis Mapping data came from for the recent Japan Earthquake (http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2011/04/20/crisis-mapping-japan/).
This is in tune with our Week 4 Mashup theme – part of the web 2.0 paradigm shift (http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=4). For that I discussed (https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/bookmarks/read/70920/week-4-silverlight-based-mashup-application) in depth of using various social site lightweight APIs to create the mashup app.
I think it is quite evident that exposing a social site functions through a set of lightweight APIs is part of the core requirements to reach critical mass. At the minimum, it serves as a promotional materials as a way to reach out the larger audiences. Or at a larger scale such as the case of Twitter and Facebook. lightweight APIs help to integrate the service itself into every part of the web increase the overall value of the website/service.
Dickson
The Landing is a social site for Athabasca University staff, students and invited guests. It is a space where they can share, communicate and connect with anyone or everyone.
Unless you are logged in, you will only be able to see the fraction of posts on the site that have been made public. Right now you are not logged in.
If you have an Athabasca University login ID, use your standard username and password to access this site.
We welcome comments on public posts from members of the public. Please note, however, that all comments made on public posts must be moderated by their owners before they become visible on the site. The owner of the post (and no one else) has to do that.
If you want the full range of features and you have a login ID, log in using the links at the top of the page or at https://landing.athabascau.ca/login (logins are secure and encrypted)
Posts made here are the responsibility of their owners and may not reflect the views of Athabasca University.