Web Services and APIs

Like this on Facebook. Read my Twitter feed. Have a look at the Google map below to see where we are. These are the kind of statements that web users are getting used to in a Web 2.0 environment. Usually, however, not a lot of thought goes into how these buttons and feeds are actually integrated into web pages. However, this is what we discussed this Monday in our DITA lecture.

APIs provide an interface, without any requirement for technical understanding of what goes on in the background, thereby reducing the need for technical understanding. The ideal is that people will be able to create APIs with no programming background whatsoever. Our lecturer described APIs as an underlying pillar of Web 2.0. APIs (generally it is agreed that this stands for Abstract or Application Programming Interface) are programming tools. PC Mag (no date) describes what APIs are and how they work:

A language and message format used by an application program to communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system (DBMS) or communications protocol. APIs are implemented by writing function calls in the program, which provide the linkage to the required subroutine for execution. 


A web service is a type of API. O'Reilly (2009) states that 'a web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the Internet and uses a standardized XML messaging system'. A web service, as the name implies, is a service (software) which is available over the Internet. Web services use the same technology as web pages (the client-server relationship), and it even looks a bit like HTML because XML uses tags. However, web services are content only - unlike web pages there is no structure to an XML document. Additionally, where web pages are designed to be read by humans, web services are designed to be read by machines.

While XML means eXtensible Markup Language, it is not actually a language. Instead, it provides conventions for creating your own language with tags; it is sometimes described as a meta language. As it is not strictly a language, there is no international standard; to quote Pirates of the Caribbean, 'the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.'

An example of APIs

Let's say I don't understand the way that Facebook works, but I want to let people 'like' my page. The nice people at Facebook have put the code on the web so that you can do just that. I have done so, on my 'mash up' web page here. It is unnecessary to understand exactly what the code means, because it works. Although, if you are interested the coding you need is:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

Then where on your web page you want the code to appear you need to add:

<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abkb846/public_html/MashUp.html" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="true"></div>

You can put this on any web page, the only bit you need to change is the URL, which I have made bold above. The script above is a bit confusing for humans to read, but easy for machines to understand. It is 'asking' Facebook to run its 'Like' process on the web page, without the owner of the web page needing to understand how Facebook does this in the first place. The Facebook API is the interface which allows applications to communicate with each other (usually without the awareness of the user at all).

Conclusion


To sum up, the use of APIs could potentially open up programming to users, as the need for coding knowledge is reduced. APIs are incredibly useful for social media as they are great for communication. They open up communication between different programs and allow people to improve functionality of web sites. 

O'Reilly Media (2009) Top Ten FAQs for Web Services. Available at http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/webservices/2002/02/12/webservicefaqs.html [Accessed 7 November 2011]
PC Mag (no date) Definition of API. Available at http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=application+programming+interface&i=37856,00.asp#fbid=9qFJ8KQn0H3 [Accessed 7 November 2011]

Some thoughts on Knowledge

There has been a bit of debate about what ‘knowledge management’ actually is. Some argue that it is the same thing as information management, whereas others see it as something different. The usual distinction is that knowledge is in people’s heads, whereas information is recorded.

TS Eliot

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

(Choruses from The Rock, 1934)

The 'Eliot' model separates knowledge from information thus:

In our lecture, we discussed as a group what the pyramid could represent. There was a general consensus that, in this model, wisdom comes from knowledge, which in turn comes from information, which comes from data. The best way to represent this is to use an example.

120

This is data. On its own, how useful is it?

It is 120 miles to Birmingham from London.

This is information, which is arguably more useful than the data.

It is 120 miles to Birmingham, and the quickest route by car is to take the M40.

This is knowledge, which builds upon the information.

It is 120 miles to Birmingham, and the quickest route by car is to take the M40. However, if you are travelling during a busy period you might do better taking the train!

This is wisdom, which builds further on the knowledge.

So how does one acquire knowledge and wisdom with this model? Can it be shared? There was some debate about this. We eventually decided that wisdom seems to come with experience, and we couldn’t easily establish whether it could be shared – can someone else’s experiences become our wisdom, or is it then only knowledge or information?  This theory states that you can share knowledge – people can write it down, for example. There are those who do not subscribe to this theory, and argue that tacit knowledge cannot be passed on...

Karl Popper

Here we are going to dip a toe into the rather big pool of philosophy, and look at Popper’s worlds as states of information. I will try to simplify this if I can. He argued the case for three worlds:

1.         ‘Real’ physical World
2.         Inner World, our subjective, personal view
3.         Communicable Information between the two, or the sum total of worlds 1 and 2

He argues that knowledge is in world 2, as it is tied up with one's own experiences, and is mental not physical. It is impossible to share actual knowledge, because it is unique to a person in world 2. Instead, it must be converted into information to be passed on. It can then be ‘converted’ back into knowledge by someone else, but their knowledge will be different from the original knowledge. This has also been expressed by Michael Polanyi, who said that we know more than we can tell. Another way of thinking about this is to try to explain to someone how you brush your teeth. It sounds easy, but strictly speaking you need to tell them how to hold the brush, how to brush and even when to breathe.

This has been a very brief thought, and I’m still not decided on knowledge management. It strikes me as a very difficult area, as knowledge is not a tangible thing – it’s difficult to measure, to value or even to prove whether it’s there. For now, I’ll finish with a video which I think demonstrates the difficulties involved in knowledge sharing. It’s a bit of fun really – 'expert' gamers trying to teach non-gamers how to play Battlefield. Be warned – it does contain some bad language and violence (as well as heavy product placement!).