http://alokastudio.com/useit/2006/08/amazon-sucks/ A blog about simple, humane technology Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:51:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://alokastudio.com/useit/2006/08/amazon-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Paul Miller Tue, 01 Aug 2006 23:03:30 +0000 http://alokastudio.com/useit/2006/08/amazon-sucks/#comment-4 Carl I couldn't agree more that we need to find ways to make the valuable resources and services of the library available in ways that promote the library, the local area, and more. Open APIs? Yes, definitely. Appearing appropriately alongside data from Amazon et al? Too right. Data available for use and integration in all the ways you suggest, and so many more? Can't happen soon enough! With an early research prototype we called Whisper (http://www.talis.com/tdn/whisper), we demonstrated some of what you're looking for. Click on the 'Discover' tab and have a search or two. You'll note data coming back from libraries that hold the book, Amazon, and other places. Behind the scenes? APIs just like some of the ones you asked for. See <a href="http://www.talis.com/tdn/platform" rel="nofollow">http://www.talis.com/tdn/platform</a> for details on the current set, and check back soon for even more. And no, your local library may not be listed right now in the set that hold a copy of any book you search for. But it could be. A community-maintained Directory (http://directory.talis.com/) holds information about libraries and the services (human and machine-readable) that they offer. And the underlying data about bibliographic holdings comes from the Platform too; and it's <strong>free</strong> for any library to choose to share their holdings with the Platform, so that they may be reused in real-world applications evolved beyond Whisper, in Amazon (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/amazon-libraries), in LibraryThing (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/librarythingthing), and in other places where a developer sees the value in leveraging the data, the Directory and the APIs to make real integration happen. Carl
I couldn’t agree more that we need to find ways to make the valuable resources and services of the library available in ways that promote the library, the local area, and more. Open APIs? Yes, definitely. Appearing appropriately alongside data from Amazon et al? Too right. Data available for use and integration in all the ways you suggest, and so many more? Can’t happen soon enough!
With an early research prototype we called Whisper (http://www.talis.com/tdn/whisper), we demonstrated some of what you’re looking for. Click on the ‘Discover’ tab and have a search or two. You’ll note data coming back from libraries that hold the book, Amazon, and other places.
Behind the scenes? APIs just like some of the ones you asked for. See http://www.talis.com/tdn/platform for details on the current set, and check back soon for even more.
And no, your local library may not be listed right now in the set that hold a copy of any book you search for. But it could be. A community-maintained Directory (http://directory.talis.com/) holds information about libraries and the services (human and machine-readable) that they offer. And the underlying data about bibliographic holdings comes from the Platform too; and it’s free for any library to choose to share their holdings with the Platform, so that they may be reused in real-world applications evolved beyond Whisper, in Amazon (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/amazon-libraries), in LibraryThing (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/librarythingthing), and in other places where a developer sees the value in leveraging the data, the Directory and the APIs to make real integration happen.

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