http://www.martinstabe.com A UK-centric look at new media and online journalism Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:27:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.martinstabe.com/2008/08/27/pa-set-to-launch-listings-data-api-through-bbc-backstage/ http://www.martinstabe.com/2008/08/27/pa-set-to-launch-listings-data-api-through-bbc-backstage/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:03:19 +0000 Martin Stabe http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/?p=1125 BBC Backstage programme, a developer network that provides access to BBC and some third-party content to a community of web developers. The plan was first revealed by BBC Backstage producer Ian Forrester at the Mashed08 conference in June, and is set to go live this week. Forrester said publishing APIs through BBC Backstage gives third-party data providers like PA access to the projects's existing community of developers, which he has been actively fostering for several years. "They saw the Backstage as being not just about releasing APIs but also the engagement with the community," Forrester told Press Gazette. "That's why they - rather than set up their own Backstage-ish project - wanted to work with us." The news agency hopes that users of the data will provide new ideas about how to use it and how listings are stored. The PA database contains listings of events in cinema, art, theatre, literature and includes includes web links, venue details, times and prices. It is the same data that PA also supplies to newspapers, magazines and websites. PA head of digital development Chris McCormack said the launch of a public, non-commercial version of its listings came about after the service was developed for use by some of its commerical clients. PA has long delivered its material to media clients using XML feeds, but these require the clients to recreate PA's database on their own servers. By providing APIs, the agency can instead give customers structured access to its existing content databases. The version available to developers through BBC Backstage will be strictly for non-commercial use by the BBC Backstage developer community, McCormack said. "We have to safeguard our existing customers, so we won't be allowing anyone to do anything commercial with them," he said. McCormack said PA has no immediate plans for launching further public APIs. "We're going to wait and see how this goes first," he said. "There's no strategy or plan to release our news or TV listings or anything after this."]]> http://www.martinstabe.com/2008/08/27/pa-set-to-launch-listings-data-api-through-bbc-backstage/feed/ 0 http://www.martinstabe.com/2007/03/27/pa-trials-new-slideshow-tool-at-press-awards/ http://www.martinstabe.com/2007/03/27/pa-trials-new-slideshow-tool-at-press-awards/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:29:04 +0000 Martin Stabe http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2007/03/27/pa-trials-new-slideshow-tool-at-press-awards/ http://www.martinstabe.com/2007/03/27/pa-trials-new-slideshow-tool-at-press-awards/feed/ 0