Networked Media Production week 4

Ok, Mashups and API's. This week Michael mainly talked about how software on the internet interacts with other software (Application Programming Interface) and how programmers use API to connect with other software, and in turn provide a bridge or access to it's own software for others to connect with. Now it's time for my ridiculous analogy for API's that may help better understand how API's work even though my knowledge is pretty limited. When building applications, 'API's' are like sports agents, and 'software' are like teams that have an underground science lab that clones it's players to share with other teams (software). Programmers are like the general managers that build a team using specific players that they find useful. The team (software) releases it's sports agent (API) , and the agent then provides access between the general managers (programmers) and the players, the general manager then uses these players to build a team of it's own. API's can also be used to connect information from one source to another, so pretty much an API is the bridge connecting to it's own software, and is used to gain and also provide access to other software. Wolfenflickr was a good example which was shown in the lecture, how it uses API to connect with flickr. If I have completely lost the plot in trying to express my knowledge on API's so far, then there are these two websites that helped me understand the basics on how API's work - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/43487/Application_Programming_Interface and also - http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-to-leverage-an-api-for-conferencing1.htm

When building an application or service that combines multiple services from multiple software to create a new service or application, it is known as a Mashup. - This link gives a pretty basic and useful explanation on Mashups - http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_a_mashup.html . A good example was the website Ben showed us in my tutorial - http://oakland.crimespotting.org/#types=AA,Mu,Ro,SA,DP,Na,Al,Pr,Th,VT,Va,Bu,Ar&lat=37.798&zoom=14&dtstart=2010-02-27T23:59:59-07:00&lon=-122.273&dtend=2010-03-06T23:59:59-07:00&hours=0-23 - It shows the map of Oakland, California, and has the location of recent crime as well as a list of the types of crime committed. How it works is that it receives crime data reported by Oakland Police and published on the map for people to locate. Can be quite useful for people who plan on living in Oakland to locate where most crime is committed so that they can move into an area of Oakland where crime is rarely committed. But looking at the map myself I can say now that Oakland doesn't look like the safest place in the world.