API Workshop
The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities hosted a two-day workshop on developing APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for the digital humanities. The workshop gathered 50 digital humanities scholars and developers, who along with industry leaders demonstrated their APIs during this “working weekend.” We discussed ways that existing and future APIs could be leveraged for digital humanities projects. The workshop format consisted of morning presentations and afternoon unconferencing. We also scheduled time for lightning talks. Some participants sought to explore hands-on hacking of APIs following presentations; others discussed ways that they could use an existing API. The workshop included participants of varying skill levels and technical knowledge, and engaged both developers and project managers. Questions can be directed to Dave Lester: dlester@umd.edu.
Speakers
George Oates has worked on the web since 1996, in a variety of roles that normally revolve around front-end design and online community. She is the project lead for Open Library, a program of the Internet Archive. In her lead role at Open Library, Ms. Oates is responsible for the overall site design, project management, grant management, and community development. Since January 2011, Ms. Oates has served as the Research Associate for Smithsonian Institution Libraries, where she works with SIL data and staff on bibiometric informatics projects. You can learn more about her projects at her blog, ABitofGeorge.com.
Mano Marks has been on Google’s Developer Relations team for the last five years, and is the lead Developer Advocate for Google’s Geo APIs. He has traveled the world helping individuals, corporations, governments and aid organizations use Google’s mapping technologies to communicate their message to the world. Before Google, Mr. Marks had an eclectic career that involved getting a Masters in History, a Masters in Information Management and Systems, and working as a data manager in NGOs for over a decade. You can learn more about Mr. Marks in his Google Profile.
Raymond Yee is President of Data Unbound LLC. He is author of the leading book on web mashups, Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services (Apress). He has been a contributing writer for ProgrammableWeb, the web’s premiere resource for tracking developments in APIs and mashups. At the UC Berkeley School of Information, he taught Mixing and Remixing Information, a course on using APIs to create mashups. He has co-written three influential reports on how the US government can improve its efforts to make data and services available through APIs. Raymond served as the Integration Advisor for the Zotero Project (a widely used open source research tool) and managed the Zotero Commons, a collaboration between George Mason University and the Internet Archive.
I'm the developer/community relations person for Freebase.com, a free, creative-commons-licensed repository of structured data about over 12 million entities. I work with software developers, data contributors, and other interested community members to help them connect their data with Freebase, use Freebase's APIs to build data-centric applications, etc. My background is in open source software development and open/free culture in general.
Peter Keane is the Senior Software Developer and Analyst in Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Keane holds a Bachelor of Art degree in English Literature from Harvard and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from UT Austin. He is also an American blues and folk musician, and has produced four albums.
