Open APIs and Nonprofit Software -- Is 2007 the year?
Following
up on the NTEN Open API Debate last fall, we are publishing a White
Paper that gives an overview of what open APIs are, what they do, why
software buyers in the nonprofit market should care about them, and
where some of the major vendors in the space are at in regard to
opening up their APIs.
So, we figured we ASK them. Here are our questions, directed at key contact at each of the vendors:
1. Does your product have APIs that allow other applications to access data from your application?
2. Do you have features that call APIs of other applications?
3. If your application has APIs, what are the technologies used by those APIs? Please give a detailed technical overview.
4. We define an 'open API' as one that is documented, accessible to the audience it is intended for, and there is no additional cost to access it. Are your APIs open, as we've defined it?
5. If they are not open according to this definition, please explain.
6. Is there documentation online? (if yes, please include the link)
7. If you don't have APIs in your applications yet, do you plan to implement them sometime in the next year?
8. If so, when will they be released?
9. Will they be open, according to above definition?
For the purposes of the paper, we are focusing on a small slice of the market -- primarily fudraising and CRM software vendors. Here is WHO we asked, in random order. These include both hosted and non-hosted application vendors.
- Sage Software
- Target Software
- Blackbaud
- Citysoft
- Getactive
- etapestry
- Salesforce
- Pledgemaker
- Convio
- Civicrm
- Kintera
- Donor 2
- Donor express
- Fundtrack
- Telosa
Two questions: Who are we missing? And what else should we be asking?
We will include vendor responses in full in the appendix. Look for the NTEN White Paper on open APIs at the end of next week.
Been a couple of weeks since the announced publication date of the white paper. Any status on this? are are the vendors not open enough?
That is a great question. We are actually publishing this week a paper on the very topic. In a nutshell:
Although it may still be necessary to create bridging software, APIs do provide ways to more easily share data between applications so that more difficult and/or expensive methods such as exporting and importing data manually, for example, might not be needed. Open APIs also have the potential to bring data together in ways that create new ways of displaying information – such as bringing fundraising data to a content management system or blog, or by coupling geographic data with maps from Google.
In our forthcoming paper, we'll describe:
• What open APIs are conceptually,
• What the technology behind APIs looks like,
• Give a few concrete examples of how APIs are used, and
• Delve into some issues to think about as you consider using these technologies in your organization.
We also will provide detailed answers to the questions above from the vendors who responded.
I am looking forward to the continued discussion.
Best,
Katrin
I think focusing on open APIs misses the point.
An open API can foster the growth of an aftermarket of small developers around an application that has significant market share. That's a tool any savvy vendor should be ready to deploy.
If the real issue is getting multiple vendors to talk to each other, then they could all have open APIs and you wouldn't be significantly farther ahead. They would all need the SAME open API to get leverage.
A powerful alternative to a single open API is a single open data exchange format. NTEN should be fostering the adoption of XBRL taxonomies (for example), not debating the value of multiple incompatible (but open) APIs.
Hi,
Could you elaborate on the need for open API's?
Do non-profits in particular need their software providers to create open APIs? Or does any type of software consumer want their vendor to use open APIs?
Can you give a real life example of an open API that a non-profit might use?
Thanks
Thanks, Ryan and Charlie! Contacted DIA with the same questions. And
Charlie, looking forward to your responses; thanks for posting.
Katrin
GiftWorks from Mission Research. Watch this space...
You should throw Democracy in Action into the mix too.