Targeting customers with

APIs

Adam Duvander @adamd Anna Lewis @anna_cn Oliver Brooks @cn_oli

Workshop overview Session 1 Talk: What is an API? Interact: Try an API

Session 2 Talk: Productivity through APIs Interact: Ask about specific use cases

Session 3 Talk: How ValoBox use APIs to distribute books Interact: Q&A

Workshop format

Ask questions. You get out what you put in.

You are probably not alone - if in doubt, ask!

Aim for a solid understanding of APIs

What is an API? Session 1

What is an API?

Application Programming Interface

What is an API?

A conversation between machines

What is an API?

Humans are smart

Interpret messages

Fill in the blanks

Filter noise

http://www.picstopin.com

What is an API?

Machines are dumb

Missing data = error

Unclear instruction = error

Unexpected response = error

http://nerdywithchildren.com/

What does an API look like?

Information or action accessed via a URI

Converse using simple, structured data

Communication between cloud services

What does an API look like

Human - Human

Q) Can you give me the details about A futurist manifesto'?

A) Sure, its ISBN is 9781449305598 and it was published by O'Reilly media. It was written by Brian O'Leary and Hugh Mcguire.

What does an API look like?

Human - Machine

What does an API look like? Machine - Machine GET http://valobox.com/streams/565

Example: Amazon product API

Free product data

Link to purchase

Used by every social book site

Example: Amazon product API

Example: Foursquare

Server

locations: [ { id: 5892, name: "12 Apostels", lat: xxxx, lon: yyyy, image: "http://images.foursquare.com/452342.jpg } ]

GET: https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/explore?near=berlin

Interactive

1. Open chrome/firefox browser

2. Enter URL

valobox.com/tornado/v1/streams/565

3. View JSON data

4. Can you find the title?

Interactive

Interactive

IFTTT Recipes

Productivity through APIs Session 2

Productivity through APIs

Machines:

•  Love repetition

•  Are very fast

•  Don't make mistakes

Importance of housekeeping

But machines:

•  can only follow

instructions

•  can only complete a task

if they have all the data

Case study: CompletelyNovel

Publishing platform for self and small publishers

Automated •  book production •  printing •  order management •  royalty management •  ...

Case study: CompletelyNovel

Some APIs in use:

•  'Print-talk' printer communication

•  Barcode generation

•  Paypal checkout

•  File conversion system

•  Amazon Product Advertising

•  ...

Case study: CompletelyNovel

Result

70k users

12k Titles

2-5k orders / month

14hrs / week staff overhead

Preparing for APIs

Ensure data is:

•  complet

•  accurete

•  exportable •  avoid duplication

•  in a common standard

•  avoid duplication

Preparing for APIs

Map your processes

Identify:

•  repetitive tasks

•  tasks requiring no intuition

•  time-intensive tasks

•  which people/processes

need the information

Implementing APIs

Developing in-house vs. use services

•  What/who is it for?

•  Do you have in-house skills?

•  Who will maintain and develop it?

Implementing APIs

Support existing standards •  http://openlibrary.org - catalogue of books

(free to add to) •  http://opds-spec.org/ - format for transfering

book data and catalogues •  http://www.editeur.org/83/Overview/ - ONIX

data format

Implementing APIs

Common places publishers use APIs:

•  File-sharing/management

•  Sharing metadata with third parties

•  Printing from internal systems

•  Working with startups

API tips

Super simple

Break up processes into parts

Think hard about different ways of solving the

problem before choosing one

Write good documentation

API tips

Advertise your APIs

•  Internally

•  Externally

Interactive

Do you have a process you think could benefit

from an API?

Ask us about implementing APIs

What barriers do you encounter?

Public APIs Session 3

Web-friendly Books

Launched October 2012

How do you sell to people who aren't looking for books?

“business books” 201 thousand

“how to start a business” 1.5 million

Global Monthly Searches:

Web-friendly = bigger audience

Make your content

a part of the web

ValoBox offers a viable solution

Takes advantage of the web’s ubiquity, speed and flexibility

Preserves value of books

Works for customers AND publishers

[Image: screenshot]

Full text search

Cloud-based storage

Web-friendly purchasing •  Login with Facebook/Twitter •  Preview pages from anywhere •  Buy by the chapter •  Pre-pay system

Make it quicker, easier, cheaper

Share and embed on social networks

Marketing: 25%

Publisher: 60%

Business model: Revenue share

ValoBox: 15%

Create a million book stores by empowering others to sell your book

APIs inside ValoBox

The 'company' structure:

•  User management

•  eBook Production

•  Accounting

•  Distribution

APIs inside ValoBox

Reading app

User Management

Book Production

Accounting

Distribution

Server Customer

Metadata API

What books are available?

Search for books

Get more details about a book

Get book images

Get links and embed codes

Metadata API

Create your own

•  bookshops

•  information services

http://api_demo.valobox.com/books

Reader API

Embed books within a context

Control reader from parent page

Control parent page from reader

Reader API

Create your own:

•  Reading experience

•  Mashups

http://api_demo.valobox.com/books/show/2125

Social sharing

One click sharing

One click access

Target specific pages

Search API

Google search API so specific (paid) content can be found via search engines

Find out more

www.valobox.com/api

Questions

Specific use cases - ask us about APIs

Questions about ValoBox?

Adam Duvander @adamd Anna Lewis @anna_cn Oliver Brooks @cn_oli