Announcements

As some of you may already have noticed, Developer Network has a redesigned website and a new web address - http://www.oclc.org/developer . The site is a ground up redesign. We've changed the technology, design, and improved the content. The redesign is intended to give you easier-to-use documentation of OCLC Web Services, as well as provide an enhanced space for developers to contribute to the growing Developer Network community.

Early this spring, a community of library developers interested in interoperability between discovery interfaces and integrated library systems formed a working group to build on the work of the DLF ILS-DI Task force. After several months of collaboration between this developer community and OCLC team members, we are excited to announce our plans to contribute an implementation of version 2.0 of the NCIP standard, derived from the OCLC Web-scale Management Services codebase, to the eXtensible Catalog's open-source NCIP Toolkit. This contribution will advance the library community's efforts to simplify interoperability options for any library or software provider that wishes to include item availability and other information from the integrated library system in its discovery interface display. With the contribution of this open-source code, OCLC will help to extend the great work of the eXtensible Catalog (XC) development group with support for NCIP 2.0. The first contribution, expected this month, will support the NCIP Lookup Item service, which was determined to be the highest priority for the ILS-DI Task Force. Support for this message enables libraries to retrieve item status from their ILS in real time, making it possible for third-party discovery interfaces such as the eXtensible Catalog, VuFind and WorldCat Local to incorporate this in their displays to patrons. Following this initial release, OCLC will work in conjunction with the Task Force members to establish a project plan to expand both the number of supported NCIP 2.0 services and ILS connection components. The software will be licensed under the MIT License, which allows for commercial reuse. To learn more about this contribution, please contact Randall Cook of the eXtensible Catalog project (rcook@library.rochester.edu) or Karen A. Coombs, Product Manager for the OCLC Developer Network (coombsk@oclc.org).

A quick note to let everyone know that the Developer Network handbook PDF is now available in two sizes:

One of the most common questions folks ask me when I tell them I'm the Product Manager for the OCLC Developer Network is "so what do you do?" I can understand this. The Developer Network is a relatively new endeavor for OCLC and it's not a product in the traditional sense. Which makes people wonder why OCLC hired me and what it is that I do. Primarily my job is to help build a community of developers (library and non-library) around OCLC's Web services (present and future). So my title might be just as fitting as the "OCLC Developer Network Community Advocate," but since that wasn't available as a job title, "Product Manager" was the closest fit. So as the person within OCLC who is looking out for your needs as a developer, there are a variety of broad activities that I am tasked with:

• I do outreach to developers to teach them about the Web services, to get their comments and to try to make things better. Sometimes this means teaching actual workshops or putting together Web tutorials. Sometimes it's just one-on-one work, answering questions on the DevNet list [WC-DEVNET-L], Twitter, blogs, etc.
  Dispelling misinformation and misconceptions about OCLC's Web services is another big part of job. I try to help folks get access and take feedback about when there are problems. There are two big things I'm learning that people don't know:
  1. First, nearly all the OCLC web services are in some fashion completely free to anyone for noncommercial use. Some have daily usage limits for anyone (like xISBN, xISSN), but others like the WorldCat Registry and WorldCat Identities have no usage limits whatsoever. Oh sure, the WorldCat Search API requires some qualification...but if you don't qualify for whatever reason, use the WorldCat Basic API. Or let us know what you're working on and make the case for why your app deserves access. (Never hurts to ask!)
  2. Second, OCLC Web services operate in a very beta mindset. There are advantages to this, like the ability to be responsive to requests for changes in a relatively speedy fashion. However, it also means that the Web services can occasionally be rough around the edges. This is especially true for the Experimental Services like Terminologies, Metadata Crosswalk, Dewey.info.
  
  
• I write lots and lots of documentation. It's pretty much impossible to have developers use your Web services without effectively documenting it. So one of my big tasks is to make the DevNet Web site better by adding more thorough documentation. Right now I'm working on documentation for the WorldCat Identities Web service.
  Writing documentation also means engaging and interacting with the staff at OCLC who are more directly responsible for the Web services. I get to learn from the people who know them best, which is pretty darn cool. Right now I'm also learning about Linked Data from some folks in OCLC Research and a few external colleagues. It's interesting and challenging--I haven't figured out exactly what to do with it yet. What are you doing with Linked Data that the Developer Network can help support you on?
• I write demo code. There are lots of reasons for this. One is so I can answer questions and make suggestions to you, when you're using the Web services. Keeping my coder skills in shape is essential to serving you effectively. I also write demo code so that I have something to teach and present from.
  Seeing real world examples makes a huge difference when presenting to others. I try to create demonstrations that show of the power of OCLC Web services and how they can be combined with data from other Web services. If you want to see the best of my demos in action, look for my presentation at code4lib 2010.
  


• I test web services (both OCLC and others) and provide feedback to develop new services from OCLC. Testing the Web services also puts me in the unique position of being able to evaluate the services before they are deployed--which means I get to critique and take a critical look and what works and doesn't work.
  Case in point, the last two weeks I've been playing with the soon-to-come JSON output for the WorldCat Search API. I want to make sure it works for as many use cases I can think of, and that the structure is as simple as it can be while providing the most robust information. While some of my feedback is my own, based on my own experience working with the service and my knowledge of development and other web services, the most important feedback that I can pass along is that which comes from you, the members of the OCLC Developer Network. I need your input to help guide what comes next. Which is why getting feedback about service performance, methods of access, formats, data provided and its structure is important to my serving you and doing my job well....
  

All and all I have my hands full, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

That's right. Your favorite Developer Network just got a major OS upgrade: Karen Coombs has agreed to join our small but merry band of Webfolk as the product manager for the OCLC Developer Network.

The Third OCLC Research Software Contest is well underway, but there is still time to enter. See the contest details for complete information. The winning entry will receive $2,500 and an expenses-paid trip to OCLC headquarters in Dublin, OH. Entries are due by the end of June and the winner will be announced before the end of July. Judging criteria includes: * Value to libraries, archives or museums * Use of OCLC services or data * Originality * Clean architecture and design The judges are: Kevin Clarke, Appalachian State University Karen Coombs, University of Houston Thom Hickey, OCLC Tod Matola, OCLC Jonathan Rochkind, Johns Hopkins University Ross Singer, Talis (and the winner of the Second OLC Research Software Contest) Roy Tennant, OCLC Don't let this opportunity pass to pick up a cool $2,500 and the chance to have your coding prowess recognized! Roy Tennant OCLC Research

Developers Bre Pettis and Kio Stark have rocketed to Web fame recently with their "Cult of Done" manifesto: 13 rules for fast building, learning, finishing, and getting onto the next do. The manifesto, as author and work-life pundit Daniel Pink remarked, "has been flying around the productivity geek crowd on the web". (yes, there is such a crowd: see also Lifehacker.com, read Getting Things Done (WorldCat, Amazon). Below is the manifesto, but do check out also the very cool poster accompanying it.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.