Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Web APIs on Monday 14th March

In the old days it was DJs, A&R folks, labels and record store owners that were the gatekeepers to music. Today, we are seeing a new music gatekeeper emerge... the developer. Using open APIs, developers are creating new apps that change how people explore, discover, create and interact with music. But developers can't do it alone. They need data like gig listings, lyrics, recommendation tools and, of course, music! And they need it from reliable, structured and legitimate sources.

In this presentation we'll discuss and explore what is happening right now in the thriving music developer ecosystem. We'll describe some of the novel APIs that are making this happen and what sort of building blocks are being put into place from a variety of different sources. We'll demonstrate how companies within this ecosystem are working closely together in a spirit of co-operation. Each providing their own pieces to an expanding pool of resources from which developers can play, develop and create new music apps across different mediums - web, mobile, software and hardware. We'll highlight some of the next-generation of music apps that are being created in this thriving ecosystem.

Finally we'll take a look at how music developers are coming together at events like Music Hack Day, where participants have just 24 hours to build the next generation of music apps. Someone once said, "APIs are the sex organs of software. Data is the DNA." If this is true, then Music Hack Days are orgies.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Big Data creates problems and opportunities that do not exist when dealing with smaller datasets. You will learn how to scale, utilize, and visualize Big Data as well as create and integrate Big Data related APIs. We will talk about how to scale your data, expose your data through APIs, integrate existing data from the data marketplace, and communicate your data through visualization.You will find out what techniques and strategies work best when working with Big Data. Many developers have learned how to scale their systems for high levels of concurrency. However, scaling for Big Data has its own unique challenges. Sometimes strategies that would make no sense for smaller systems work great when dealing with larger datasets. This Workshop is geared towards PHP developers, but all are welcome.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Over the last year, NPR's total page view growth has increased by more than 80%. How did we get that much growth? Our API.

The NPR API went live to the public in July 2008 and was designed with the philosophy of Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE). Through COPE, NPR has been able to quickly and efficiently distribute content to virtually anywhere, including NPR stations, partners and the general public.

The biggest impact that the API has made, however, is with our mobile strategy. The API has enabled NPR product owners to build specialized apps on a wide range of platforms and devices, liberating them from being dependent on custom development to access the content. Through this process, we built our iPhone and iPad apps, mobile sites, open sourced Android app and HTML5 site, some of which were turned around in a matter of weeks!

Delivering more than one billion stories a month and serving thousands of product owners, partners, stations and public users, the API has clearly become the centerpiece of the NPR's digital media and mobile strategy. In this session, you will learn all about the guts of this mission-critical system (from a technical and business perspective), our publishing processes, our moblie strategy and other related aspects of our digital distribution approach.

LEVEL: Intermediate

The days of consumers sitting at a full-sized monitor browsing a website populated with your content alone are quickly evaporating. In order to succeed you need to take your experience and your brand to where your users are – mobile devices, collaborative applications and mashups, gaming consoles and third-party platforms. Branded websites as we know them are fast being replaced by mashups of content from multiple sources layered together or targeted experiences that take advantage of the immediacy, location awareness and ubiquity of mobile apps.
This change is no cause for panic. In fact, for those that remain innovative, nimble, and open to new ways of developing business it can be one of the best opportunities to come along since the web itself.

This session presents how to engage end users with your brand when designing online experiences means placing your data or functionality on others’ web properties (ones you don’t control) and vice versa.

We’ll explore how others have been able to build their brand while embracing the concept of platform and how you can redefine partnerships and engage developers creating the apps that define the next wave of digital engagement. The session will cover concepts critical to online success like web services, platform development and APIs including a tour of some of the best examples of brands and pervasive experiences proliferating the digital network.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Open APIs are sweeping through public media, just like the rest of the world, but folks at NPR, PBS and others are thinking even bigger. Public media is in an unprecedented project to build an open API called the Public Media Platform (PMP) that will help developers create applications that bring personalized public media content to new platforms. Come learn from the leaders of the PMP on how this project is rolling out, where it is headed and how it can benefit you. We will be discussing how public media is creating the right technology layer, as well as balancing business rules to build new opportunities for our media to be For, By and Of the People.

LEVEL: Intermediate