ePodunk - better than BFE
ePodunk (the power of place) is an online location resource for the US. It lists newspapers, events, geneology, restaurants, lodging, weather, photos, obituaries, government, census, history, health, and much, much more. Let us sum it up by saying “comprehensive”.
They license access to their databases (which are really just a conglomeration of hundreds of other databases). I’m trying to find out if the API is accessible to tie into other web apps.
Update: - ePodunk has chosen to close off their API and doesn’t even currently license their technology to users/vendors. This requires people to travel to ePodunk to get information. I can understand the need for a revenue base, however, charging a license or obtaining some other means of revenue generation while opening up an API seems beneficial.
Perhaps they should check out the O’Reilly talk on how an Open API can greatly help your emerging business, Web Services as a Strategy for Startups: Opening Up and Letting Go.
My name is 
October 28th, 2005 at 8:47 am (#)
I think you’re confusing technology and content.
If a reference work, such as an encyclopedia, is renamed an “API,” the publisher should then freely available to others? This is similar to the stance of Google, in trying to index books under copyright.
Our site, ePodunk, is not simply a “conglomeration” of other databases. It’s the result of years of ongoing research, from government data, books, records, personal visits, and other sources. The information has been compiled by seasoned journalists, and is delivered through technology that we’ve personally funded.
By placing the focus on the delivery mechanism - the technology - you and Google have decided that content should automatically be in the public realm. This is a viewpoint where technology reigns, and “information wants to be free.”
I come from a world where quality content can’t be automated.
October 28th, 2005 at 9:50 am (#)
API means Application Programming Interface, but really has come to mean programmatic interface to a resource (desktop app, framework, or in this case web service). An API is a “publicized” interface to this resource. An API does not have to be free, but if it is called API (this theoretical encyclopedia) then it implies that it is accessible via defined interface for incorporation into other locations. There are many API’s that are a service charge. For example, see Maxmind.com and others that provide geo-ip lookups which users can purchase per lookup.
I also don’t doubt that ePodunk has been a lot of work and research to bring it together. It is a conglomeration/combination/mash-up of publicly available information (largely). ePodunk has performed a service in gathering these sources and providing them in a single resource to the user.
I also assume this gathering is automated as I highly doubt anyone sits down and copies/pastes information for every town from every source. Yet I would argue this automated process is still provides quality content. Hrm…
Anyways, the point wasn’t that the technology was the focus. And I don’t think myself or google said that all content should be in the public realm. My original post said that ePodunk neither provided nor licensed (i.e. not free of charge) their API.
Perhaps you are confusing with the word free: there is free of charge, and free as in freedom. I personally believe in the latter. People want to earn a living, buy things, and generally have financial independence. I applaud their efforts and work and I myself develop commercial applications and data.
However, I also think that a valuable resource of data could do a great service by giving freedom to the content and allow it to propogate. Let us use a time-honored word for what this is called: Syndication.
As the Associated Press is well aware, a technique like Syndication can be very powerful and profitable. It is only when we discuss how to syndicate do we mention technology. And based on the business model a group can choose to syndicate for free of charge or as a charged service. Again, this is removed from the discussion of technology. Take for example the US Census TIGER data. That resource has been widely spread and reused due to the availability of the information.
ePodunk seems like a great resource, and it is because of its content that I see great potential in licensing/providing an interface for other sites, users, applications to use this data. I merely mentioned a consideration ePodunk and other web services may want to think about.
October 28th, 2005 at 10:25 am (#)
Andrew,
You write: “I also assume this gathering is automated as I highly doubt anyone sits down and copies/pastes information for every town from every source. Yet I would argue this automated process is still provides quality content. Hrm…”
That’s the nugget of where you’ve gone wrong. We do, in fact, research every community individually and type in entries one at a time.
There are, of course, exceptions to this. Census data, for example, is downloaded from the Census Bureau and reformatted for our site. You note the census as an example of information that can be downloaded and syndicated. Absolutely correct. But the difference is that it’s compiled by a government agency spending public tax dollars, not by individuals working in the private sector.
The Associated Press does syndicate, but over much of its history it syndicated to the members who provided the content. There are many in the news business who object to their relatively recent expansion to organizations that do not provide content.
But back to your assumption that we are a conglomeration of automated content: If data collection were totally automated, there would be no new information gathered, no individuals interviewed, no direct observations made and recorded. Every new site would simply be a rechurning and reorganization of other information available elsewhere.
We couldn’t disagree more with this approach. For instance, we just spent several weeks traveling through Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Prince Edward Island, gathering information first-hand for our new Canada site.
This may seem old fashioned to you. But it really shows the technology bias in your posting.
January 9th, 2006 at 7:58 pm (#)
As you stated,Miss Bennet, You started gathering information last October for your new ePodunk Canada site. I have thus been patient so far, but how much more patient must I be until you complete it? scarecrowpete@cs.com