Curated

News

These are news items I've curated in my Google Reader, Twitter and bookmarking using Pinboard. Sometimes I add a little commentary to each post.

I use many of these curated links in my research and writing. If you are interested in receivig data feeds of all my curated, please let me know.

XMPP-FTW XMPP and JSON for the Web

blog.superfeedr.com on 05/13/2013

Excerpt: XMPP always had a special place in our heart. It’s an amazing protocol which comes with presence, addressing, as well as PubSub baked in. It’s no surprise we’ve had an XMPP API since day 1 at Superfeedr. Now, though, XMPP scares a lot of people because of it’s X part: it uses XML as its data schema. Knowing that, Lloyd, an extremely talented web developer invented a very elegant solution for people to discover XMPP without dealing with the XML at all, thru XMPP for the Web (XMPP-FTW). XMPP-FTW is actually a proxy XMPP client which converts all the XML into a json API. It sits between the XMPP server and any app which can consume JSON. It supports the code XMPP protocol as well as a bunch of other features, including Superfeedr.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, JSON, Real-Time, Story, XMPP

The Revolution Will Be Forked · GitHub

github.com on 05/11/2013

Excerpt: We are humbled to see that the White House drafted and released the official Open Data Policy of the United States on GitHub! The Presidential Memorandum calls for the creation of the aptly named Project Open Data, with the goal of making government data "available, discoverable, and usable – in a word, open". Today's news marks the first time a government entity has published law as a living, collaborative document. We're excited to see how the Open Data Policy evolves with the input of the community, and we hope this is just the first of many.... read the full post.

Tags: , , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Federal Government, GitHub

Project Open Data

project-open-data.github.io on 05/11/2013

Excerpt: An API – application programming interface – at its most basic level, allows your product or service to talk to other products or services. In this way, an API allows you to open up data and functionality to other developers and to other businesses. It is increasingly the way in which agencies and companies exchange data and services, both internally and externally. What are APIs used for? APIs are launched primarily to give partners that are outside the agency or company “firewall” access to data and resources. But recently, APIs are also being used by more and more of the general public, including non-developers.... read the full post.

Tags: , , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Federal Government

iOS SDK 1.5.2

quickblox.com on 05/11/2013

Excerpt:... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, BaaS, IOS, Mobile

Twitter valued at $9.8 billion by GSV Capital’s investment, and that’s actually down from last year

feedproxy.google.com on 05/11/2013

Excerpt: GSV Capital Corp. values its shares in Twitter at around $18. 50 per share, Bloomberg today reported, valuing the social service at – using a diluted share figure of 530 million – around $9. 8 billion. We know how GSV values its Twitter investment as it is a public company, and thus listed the following in its most recent 10Q: This figure is large, but not surprising. Blackrock recently purchased shares from Twitter employees at a price that valued the company at $9 billion. The Wall Street Journal tried to make the case that Twitter was worth $10 billion using some odd math, but that the company is prized among investors is no secret.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Statistics, Twitter, Valuation

Alarm.com buys energy software startup EnergyHub

gigaom.com on 05/10/2013

Excerpt: The move shows how energy efficiency services sold to utilities and energy providers are becoming an increasingly attractive business. The news follows the announcement earlier this week that smart thermostat company Nest acquired an energy data company called MyEnergy. Alarm. com is a Virginia-based 13-year-old company that makes wireless security and energy management systems that use cellular networks and mobile apps to enable customers to manage their homes. The security systems have connected video cameras, and door, window and cabinet sensors, while the home management system has connected thermostats and controllable lighting. Alarm.... read the full post.

Tags: , acquisitions, API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Energy, Internet-of-Things

All Hail The New Python Library

blog.context.io on 05/10/2013

Excerpt: One of the first things I wanted to do after joining the Context. IO team is to update the Python library to have 100% coverage of version 2. 0 of the API. You can find it on our Github here. I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think. The only non-standard library that it’s dependent on is the Oauth2 lib. You can grab that here. Here’s how you instantiate the main object with your credentials: The module is fully docstringed out, so you should be able to play around in the Python interpreter and help() objects and methods to see what all you can do. Here’s how you can query the API for an account. accounts = context_io. get_accounts(email='johndoe@gmail.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Python

APIs Are The Doors To Web Services - And They Need Locks

readwrite.com on 05/10/2013

Excerpt: The proliferation of mobile devices has created a firestorm of demand for Application Programming Interfaces (API) to act as data gateways between devices and services. But fire can also be a destructive force, and mis-managed APIs can hurt application performance, alienate developers and even lead to costly and damaging data breaches. API Security Is Critical Among other things, APIs serve as gateways to Web-based services like Twitter or Facebook. They are the specifications that let developers build applications that communicate directly with those services. You can think of APIs as doors; they let data in and out of a Web service. Just like physical doors, leaving APIs open can let anyone wander in, for whatever purpose.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Security, Story

Appery.io Is Now Using jQuery Mobile 1.3

blog.appery.io on 05/10/2013

Excerpt:... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, BaaS, JQuery

AssureSign Version 4.5 Production Release

www.assuresign.com on 05/10/2013

Excerpt: This release does not contain any large interface changes. Initial internal changes are being made to allow for on-premise installations to use certain enterprise grade Single Sign On (SSO) mechanisms. Note that a realtime view of system status is available at http://status. assuresign.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack