[p2pu-dev] P2PU API

Tue May 31 04:41:28 UTC 2011

I've got a lot to say on this topic, but unfortunately don't have much time
to respond right now. I'll think about this a bit more over the next few
days and try to add a bit more meat if I can.

I can't think of many drawbacks or risks aside from the attention diverted
from other tasks. There are so many benefits to having an API: reporting,
automated courses, visualizations, mashups... the list goes on. I think one
of the most interesting and important benefits is that having an API will
make us think about what we're building in terms of an API. We can even go
so far as to build things using our own APIs.

The effort is non-trivial, and I think the first version of the API would
need us to get a bit more settled on the structure of courses / study
groups. I would love to get the dev group together somewhere convenient for
another code sprint to get something out the door. I think we could get a
pretty good idea that way without using up a lot of paid staff time.

--
contact info:
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@johndbritton - http://twitter.com/johndbritton

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM, Jessy Kate Schingler
<jessy at jessykate.com>wrote:

> i agree with stian;s characterization. let's call the statistics stuff a
> reporting API, and the other an extension API (as in, people could use it to
> extend the ways people interact with p2pu).
>
> pros/cons/risks... for a reporting API: it gets down closer to personal
> user information. it might be harder to anonymize, and we should be clear in
> our documentation how we are doing this. on the other hand, it's going to be
> read-only, and i think it will translate into direct benefits viz. our
> ability to communicate what is happening at p2pu on a quantifiable level,
> report back to funders, etc. it could also help get other researchers
> involved in studying what's happening at p2pu.
>
> can people think of others uses for a read-only API?
>
> for an extension API to be particularly useful it's going to need to be
> read-write, which is inherently more complex. an extension API would
> definitely be cool and i would LOVE to see what people build with it.
> however, i feel like a statistics API would probably have more immediate
> benefit-- there's a genuine demand for it, whereas we haven't had a direct
> demand for an extension API.
>
> Jessy
> --
> http://jessykate.com
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 5:50 PM, Alison Jean Cole <
> alisonjean.cole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> When the details of Philipp's questions are sussed out we should make sure
>> to get these development priorities into the roadmap (
>> http://wiki.p2pu.org/w/page/36991876/Roadmap-2011) (which needs cleaning
>> and updating).
>> ALISON
>> new.p2pu.org/en/alison/ <http://p2pu.org/users/alison>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Pippa Buchanan <Pippa.Buchanan at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> I hadn't thought about visualisations - but yes, that would be cool and
>>> incredibly useful for SoW when reporting back to our other stakeholders :-)
>>>
>>>
>>> On 30 May 2011 16:05, Stian Håklev <shaklev at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I could see two different use-cases for APIs (and I'd love to hear about
>>>> others). One would be to give access to system statistics, and let people
>>>> create cool data visualizations, etc faster than if they had to have all
>>>> their code written in Python and included int he official platform. The
>>>> other is if someone actually wanted to develop a stand-alone client for
>>>> P2PU, for example for a mobile platform. I'm more interested in #1, and it
>>>> seems more doable (we are a much less stable platform than Twitter in terms
>>>> of functionality, and I don't immediately see the use of a stand-alone
>>>> client, neither do I expect anyone to put tons of time into developing one).
>>>> But I'd love to hear from others what uses you expect.
>>>>
>>>> Stian
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 19:53, Pippa Buchanan <Pippa.Buchanan at gmail.com
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Can I add in an additional question for this - as I know it would
>>>>> provide more clarity when explaining the benefits for me and other less
>>>>> actively geeky community members. I'm only feeling 23.768% geek today :-)
>>>>> *
>>>>> How do we imagine the API being used?
>>>>>
>>>>> *Er, am I right in assuming that an API would allow people to build
>>>>> tools to pull and push data onto the system? So theoretically a tool might
>>>>> be built to allow offline creation of course and group content such as
>>>>> tasks?
>>>>>
>>>>> Or a wordpress plugin might be built using the API which would allow
>>>>> users to submit a blog post as a response to a task?
>>>>>
>>>>> Obviously, the great thing about APIs is that they really allow
>>>>> interesting mashups to occur which we can't really predict - but it is
>>>>> really helpful to know what types of things could obviously be developed
>>>>> using this.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 30 May 2011 09:05, Philipp Schmidt <phi.schmidt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> A P2PU API has come up on various threads. It's an interesting idea.
>>>>>> Can we get a little more concrete on the following points, so we can get
>>>>>> feedback from community and board, as well as determine prioritization vs.
>>>>>> other development needs?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * What are the concrete benefits to P2PU? (drawbacks, risks?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * What is the effort needed to implement, support?
>>>>>> - paid staff vs. volunteer contributions
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * What are the actual next steps to move this forward?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best - P
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> http://reganmian.net/blog -- Random Stuff that Matters
>>>>
>>>>
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