O’Reilly Media is joining with Fluidinfo, an online information storage and search platform that supports openly-writable metadata of any kind, to launch a contest to encourage software developers to write applications for the O’Reilly Fluidinfo “Writable API.” APIs or Application Programmer Interfaces provide third party developers with a set of rules and permissions that gives them access to a content owners data and allows them to create apps and new information products quickly and easily.
APIs are generally read-only applications that give developers access to a publishers’ content and lets them come up with new ways to display it—but developers cannot add data or tags or new information to this content or use it in radically unanticipated ways. Fluidinfo is a new a startup software platform—O’Reilly CEO Tim O’Reilly is an investor—that can be used both to store data and to easily create “writable APIs” or a new kind of API that allows developers to augment, personalize or add information to the underlying content in ways that will improve search and discoverability. When a publishers’ information is stored in Flurinfo, it produces a writable API with the potential for more creative display and better search results.
The competition rules calls for developers to use the O’Reilly Fluidinfo Writable API to create new and creative applications for O’Reilly content. Deadline for applications is April 10. The Winner will be announced on Radar, the O’Reilly Media Blog.
Judges for the contest will be O’Reilly CEO Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly editor Mike Loukides, and O'Reilly general manager Joe Wikert. Prizes will include an all expenses paid trip to the O’Reily Open Source Convention in June; the choice of either a iPad2 or Xoom tablet and $500 worth of O’Reilly books and video.
