Media APIs: Know your audience, know your product

by Thomas Crenshaw @ APIStrat 2014 in Chicago

Transcript

1. MEDIA APIS KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, ! ! KNOW YOUR PRODUCT
2. Thomas Crenshaw • 1986 - 1997 : US Navy! • Submarine Nuclear Electrician! • 1997-2000 : ViewPlan! • 1997 - 2003 : Start-up! • 2003 : Corporate America Where I’ve Done What I’ve Done
3. Thomas Crenshaw • 2007 - AOL! • Product Evangelist, Open AIM! • 2008 - PBS! • Video Platforms, COVE! • Core Services, multiple APIs! • 2012 - Circa Digital! • Digital brand management for TV personalities, programs, networks Where I’ve Done What I’ve Done
4. Technology is, by definition, COMPLEX
5. Ever changing
6. 1 flavor of JS 1999
7. Infinite variations of JavaScript 2014
8. 1999 - CSS used for colors! tables tables tables 1999
9. LESS vs SASS vs ???? 2014
10. Non-standard Standards
11. Let’s some video
12. FLASH FLASH FLASH 1999
13. <video> 2014
14. Should be simple, right? 2014
15. <video width="320" height="240" controls> <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4"> <source src="movie.ogg" type=“video/ogg"> <source src=“movie.webm” type=“video/webm”> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video> 2014
16. MP4 WebM Ogg Chrome YES NO NO Firefox YES YES YES Safari YES NO NO Opera NO YES YES 2014
17. The Digital Realities
18. DEVELOPER USER Feature Complexity
19. What is EASY for the developer,! ! is HARD for the user What is EASY for the user,! ! is HARD for the developer Feature Complexity
20. Product Feature Balance Accessibility Functionality User Interface User Experience
21. API Feature Balance Maintainability Functionality User Experience Usability Supportability Rights! Management Access Rules
22. Nothing is easy! Everything takes longer than expected! The code is broken until proven otherwise
23. PBS as a case study
24. QUICK QUIZ
25. How is PBS different than other television networks?! (besides being a non-profit)
26. Not PBS! with a caveat that is Digital Studios 1999 Who Owns the Content?
27. Member stations! ! National program producers Who Are the PBS Stakeholders?
28. Distribute national and local video across multiple platforms while ensuring that the eyeballs are not only counted in the aggregate but also tracked and assigned to the particular station where the viewer has expressed a loyalty to PBS PBS Digital Mission
29. Should be simple right?
30. No common method of distributing content (local or national) 2007
31. Multiple codecs:! .avi, .ram, .mov and associated players 2007
32. Disjointed viewing experience 2007
33. No consistent way to determine station availability for a particular viewer 2007
34. If you build it they will come
35. Comprehensive Online Video Ecosystem! ! COVE
36. Standardized codec and specification 2008
37. Standardized CMS 2008
38. Standardized distribution platform 2008
39. What next?
40. COVE API
41. Launched 2010
42. PBS Video Portal and pbs.org fully integrated with COVE API! front-end and CMS 2011
43. PBS video available on AppleTV, ROKU, Xbox, mobile 2014 2014
44. 32 million video views in March 2014
45. PBSKids.org streaming == 38% total streaming of kids videos 2014
46. ~2000* full-length programs! ~4000* locally produced programs! *rough guess 2014
47. How about localization?
48. Localization API
49. Based on single assumption:! ! For a given ZIP code, what PBS stations are available
50. Auto: IP Lookup! Auto: Geo-coordinates! Manual: ZIP code
51. Determine local stations using complex algorithm based on availability, Nielsen rating and DMA rank
52. Business RULE: ! If local carrier distributes, station is available
53. Without exception, for every rule, there is an exception
54. Exceptions were many
55. Some stations use call-signs! ! WETA, KPBS Some stations use name! ! Nine, OPP BRANDING
56. State networks encompass multiple call-signs Multiple call-signs are not exclusive to state networks NETWORK TYPE
57. Complexity increases exponentially ! (aka wack-a-mole)
58. Flexible architecture allows continuing business logic tweaking
59. Private, Partner and Public
60. In world of media, content is king
61. Reality is that rights holder is king
62. Public API - distribution rights are not an issue
63. Partner API - limited distribution rights that can be shared with trusted partners
64. Private API - limited distribution rights
65. Be aware that data schema for internal differs from data schema for external
66. There are use cases for an internal, private API that are outside the scope of a external, public API
67. What does this all mean?
68. Public-media as a whole has complex problems to solve
69. No new problems, just new solutions
70. Know your audience
71. Reach your audience
72. Know your product
73. Treat your API as a product not a feature
74. “It never gets easier, you just go faster. To put it another way, training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.” — Greg Henderson
75. Thanks!
76. Thomas Crenshaw thomascrenshaw@gmail.com! @justhomas! github.com/thomascrenshaw Contact me if interested in helping Public Media develop leading-edge solutions