Web APIs A Step towards Greater Mobility of User-Created Data across Social Networking Websites and Their Implications for Research in Information Behavior Anatoliy Gruzd <agruzd2@uiuc.edu> Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign October 20, 2007 SIG USE 7th Annual Research Symposium Mobility and Social Networks in Information Behavior

H ow many online communities are you an active member of?

H ow many online communities are you an active member of?

Traditional data exchange/sharing approaches ‘ Copy & Paste’ leads to the creation of multiple copies of the same materials ‘ Hyperlink’ interrupts users’ current task(s) and consequently reduces their productivity

‘ Copy & Paste’

leads to the creation of multiple copies of the same materials

‘ Hyperlink’

interrupts users’ current task(s) and consequently reduces their productivity

Presentation's Outline Web APIs Web Mashup Tools Changing Users’ Information Behavior

Web APIs

Web Mashup Tools

Changing Users’ Information Behavior

What is a Web API? Web API (Application P rogramming Interface) – a mechanism that allows a site to provide a “ back door ” access to its content and services via a standardized machine-readable protocol . APIs allow users to: access/change a web site’s local data, or integrate external data into the local site using a program that may reside elsewhere.

Web API (Application P rogramming Interface) – a mechanism that allows a site to provide a “ back door ” access to its content and services via a standardized machine-readable protocol .

APIs allow users to:

access/change a web site’s local data, or

integrate external data into the local site

using a program that may reside elsewhere.

Flickr’s API in Action Example from http:// elsewhere.adactio.com/

Example from http:// elsewhere.adactio.com/

Flickr’s API: Behind the Scene 1 3 2 <entry> <title> Millennium Park </title> <link rel=&quot;alternate&quot; type=&quot;text/html&quot; href=&quot; http://www.flickr.com/photos/ abc /10142/ &quot;/> <published> 200 7 -09-07T04:30:14Z </published> … </entry> http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/ photos_public .gne? id =13796597@N04

The use of Flickr’s API with Social Networking websites User’s Homepge Social Networking Web sites Upload photos Request via API

Presentation's Outline Web APIs Web Mashup Tools Changing Users’ Information Behavior

Web APIs

Web Mashup Tools

Changing Users’ Information Behavior

Tools to Ease the Work with Web APIs Combine and visualize data from various sources, creating so-called Web Mashups Dapper http://www.dapper.net/ ProfileFly http://profilefly.com/ Yahoo! Pipes http://pipes.yahoo.com Microsoft Popfly http:// www.popfly.ms /

http://www.flickr.com/photos/primath Data source

http://www.popfly.ms/shell.aspx?projectType=mashup#test%20flikr1 Step 1. Create a web mashup

http://www.popfly.ms/users/primath/test%20flikr1 A web mashup in action

http://apps.facebook.com/photo-shoot/ Step 2. Integrate a web mashup into Facebook

Presentation's Outline Web APIs Web Mashup Tools Changing Users’ Information Behavior Managing information overload Collaboration Peer influence

Web APIs

Web Mashup Tools

Changing Users’ Information Behavior

Managing information overload

Collaboration

Peer influence