open.PBS.API & open.PBSProducer Product Summit

Dec. 9, 2010

Tom CrenshawTechnical Product Manager

API 101 (Review)

Twitter APIgetTweet?user=novapbs

Shop PBS APIgetDVD?type=NOVA

open.PBS.APIopen.PBS.API

COVECOVE

Video PortalsVideo

Portals

PMPPMP

WidgetsWidgets

Unified CMS

Unified CMS

Mobile DevicesMobile

DevicesCustom PlayersCustom Players

MerlinMerlin

Station FinderStation Finder

DTVDTV

Social MediaSocial Media

Web Content

Web Content

Producer Site

Producer Site

Anything!Anything!

What Can Be Built on PBS APIs?

Kids VideoKids

Video

New Product Releases on PBS APIs

iPad App

PBS.org Redesign

iPhone App

COVE API• 68,000 requests per day

• 99.999% uptime

• < 499 ms response time

API Success

Exec Time

Building sites on top of an API results in faster, more reliable, easier to maintain and more consistent sites for our visitors

PBS Interactive

– API will support the entire infrastructure of PBS sites and apps

– Product owners can quickly build products with fewer dev resources

PBS Producers and Stations- Gain easier access to content,

local and national- Better able to service the

needs of their web users- Quickly prototype and build

applications

open.PBS.API Target Audience

Public- Engages the community- Promotes viral distribution of

public media content- Build excitement around brand

and the potential

PBS Strategic Partners- Makes partner integration

much easier for both parties- Generates new opportunities

What’s next for open.PBS.API?• Unified PBS API strategy consolidates the various PBS APIs

into a single API (open.PBS.API)

• Upcoming launch of developer portal to manage the API

The Start of Something Bigger!!

*Not the official logo of openPBS

*

SHARING… of knowledge, ideas, code, applications

COLLABORATION… among projects, best practices, stations, producers

TRANSPARENCY … of development process, roadmap, priorities

CONTROL… of content type, windowing, distribution…

What does open.PBS mean?

• Develop a Great Cookie

• Share it worldwide (publish the recipe, produce pre-mixed batter, sell baked cookies)

• The world consumes and reproduces the Great Cookie

• Rachael Ray tweaks recipe to make Great Cookie 2.0

• Revision broadcast worldwide

• The world adopts and improves upon Great Cookie 2.0 … and so on

Open Sourcing a Cookie

• FIREFOX– Netscape opens their source code in 1998

– Mozilla Foundation creates Firefox browser

– Plug-in architecture lets anyone extend functionality

• APACHE– HTTP server that can be modified by

anyone

• WIKIPEDIA– Community based open content

Other Open Source Examples

PBS Needs to Change the Game

The marketplace is changing faster than internal resources are growing.- Content is moving beyond the

browser.- The web is becoming more

decentralized.- Digital media is beginning to

blend people, objects, and locations.

- There is value in the app economy.

Through collaboration we can build better products faster and cheaper.

How We Change the Game

• Ensure PBS content is relevant to new and existing audiences.

• Serve the audience anytime, anywhere, on any platform.

• Create an ecosystem of applications built and maintained by a community of developers.

• Leverage the long-tail to support the head.

It Begins With Opening Apps

open.PBS Vision

PBS will create, promote, and support an internal and external community of volunteer technologists to innovate on top of our content and services.

PBS will draw upon the successes, and failures of those external technologists to improve our internal product development.

In turn, PBS will adapt to the dynamic environment and thrive in the app economy.

What This Means For You

• Increased voice in project features.• Access to projects contributed by others to

open.PBS.• Quicker time to market for PBS applications.• More transparent change management.• Uniform content management, i.e. delivery

windows managed through COVE.

RoadmapJuly Aug. Sept.

COVE API design research

thePlatform integration with COVE API

API Production Deployment

COVE CMS 2.0 ALPHA using COVE API

PBS.org launches powered by Merlin API

TV Schedules API used in iPad, iPhone and PBS.org

Oct. Nov. Dec.

Support for iPad and iPhone Apps

open.pbs.org landing page

openapi.pbs.org developer portal

Q1 2011

COVE CMS 2.0 launched using openPBS.API

Video Portal transition to openPBS.API

open.PBS.API developer portal soft launch

Launch code repository for open.PBS

Merlin data included in openPBS.API

Q2 2011 & Beyond

• open.pbs.org community site launched

• PBS applications released under open source license

• Developer community outreach

• COVE Batch Ingest API

Questions?

Contact me:

• Email: • open@pbs.org• twcrenshaw@pbs.org

• AIM: crenshawtw

• Twitter: @tomatpbs

• http://open.pbs.org/