Mashups and Open Apis- Ideas that worked for us…

© PreventionWeb 2007 www.preventionweb.net

Open APIs and Mashups


Ideas that worked for us…

Sujit MohantyUNISDR Secretariat, Geneva

© PreventionWeb 2007 www.preventionweb.net© PreventionWeb 2007 www.preventionweb.net

What we wanted to achieve?

• To facilitate collaboration in the disaster reduction community.

• To avoid duplication of efforts in content collection and dissemination.

• To provide our users a way to generate and share their own content.

• To share content with other partners.

• To overlay data on partners data sources to have an integrated experience.


What’s open APIs and mashups?

• OpenAPI (Application Programming Interface)– Sets of technologies that enable websites to interact

with each other by using SOAP,REST, Javascript or any other web technology.

• Mashups– A mashup is a website or web application that

combines data from more than one source into a single integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API .

»Source: Wikipedia


Examples of open APIs allowing mashups

Screenshot from : www.programmableweb.com

• www.programmableweb.com is a site which tracks APIs and mashups.


More on APIs and mashups

• http://www.programmableweb.com• http://www.webmashup.com/• http://www.mashupcamp.com/• http://www.apifinder.com/• http://mashable.com/

Want to provide an API? Try• http://www.dapper.net/ • http://www.kapowtech.com/


So what did we do?

• Using a middleware technology or a SOAP API was complex for us.

• Used HTTP (GET and POST) and XML to provide web services to our partners.


Examples from PreventionWeb

• Web services for:– Academic programmes database– Guided shared links- (service for Information

Platform for Disaster Reduction)– Shared events calendar– Contacts management


Print as PDF with CADRI branding

Call to action for adding content

Print as PDF with NSET branding

Call to action for adding content

Partners website

HTTP+ XML

HTTP+ XML

By machine tagging

UNISDR regional websites

PW

API

Academic programmes in disaster risk reduction

PreventionWeb

CADRI site

NSET, Nepal site


Principles

• Distributed content• Distributed call to action• Distributed output (own branded)• Machine tagging in API


IPDR(Information Platform for Disaster Reduction) Guided links to all partner site

Printed version

Template for entry PW

API

Based on concept diagram of Craig Duncan, ISDR Secretariat, Geneva

Other partners site

ADRC, Japan site

PreventionWeb

NSET, Nepal siteAll partners* get links in their own style

* Currently 30


Questions?

Mashups and Open Apis- Ideas that worked for us…

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