Launch of the Powerhouse Museum Collection API v1 at Amped

[Mason, Ingrid]

fyi.

By: Seb Chan, Digital, Social & Emerging Technologies, Powerhouse Museum

Date: 18 October 2010

This weekend just gone we launched the Powerhouse Collection API v1.  For the uninitiated the API provides programmatic access to the collection records for objects that are on the Powerhouse website. For the technically minded, Version 1 returns JSON, JSONP, YAML and XML through a RESTful interface – chosen mainly so that interested people can “make something useful inside an hour”. Upcoming versions of the API are planned to return RDFa. (Already Allan Shone has independently added YQL!)  Now you may be asking why this matters, given we’ve been offering a static dataset for download for nearly a year already?  Well, the API gives access to roughly three times the volume of content for each object record – as well as structure and much more. Vitally, the API also makes internal Powerhouse web development much easier and opens up a plethora of new opportunities for our own internal products.  The main problem with APIs from the cultural sector thus far has been that they are under-promoted, and, like the cultural sector in general, rather invisible to those who are best placed to make good use of the API. Having had experience with our dataset being used for GovHack, Mashup Australia (one of the highly commended was a Powerhouse browser) and Apps4NSW last year, we rushed the launch to coincide with Amped – the Web Directions free ‘hack day’ that was being held at the Powerhouse.

More: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2010/10/18/launch-of-the-powerhouse-museum-collection-api-v1-at-amped/

 

Ingrid Mason

 

Museum Metadata Exchange

w. http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/museumexchange/

e.  muse...@phm.gov.au

 

Digital Project Manager
Powerhouse Museum

w. http://www.powerhousemuseum.com 

e.  ing...@phm.gov.au

p.  02 9217 0432

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