One API I’ve been watching grow and evolve from day one is the Pearson Developer Community. I first wrote about them when Peasron announced a new initiative to build an API platform that give developers access to the publisher's content in May of 2011. Then in August 2011 they launched three APIs:
- Longman Dictionary - The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is the flagship Longman dictionary
- FT Press - FT Press provides essential insights from the best business books and original writings by leading business thinkers
- Eyewitness Guides - The DK Eyewitness Travel Guides show you what others only tell you
After Pearson got acquainted with the ins and outs of API evangelism, and supporting the Pearson developer community, they released two more APIs this year:
- Pearson Kitchen Manager - Pearson Kitchen Manager is a valuable resource for food enthusiasts and chefs alike, featuring a vast collection of recipes from bestselling Pearson textbooks of top culinary schools
- Nursing & Health Survival Guides API - The best-selling Pearson Nursing & Health Survival Guide series is the UK's premier quick reference, aide memoire support for health and social care students and professionals while in practice and studying
It looks like Pearson is really finding a rhythm with identifying content to make available, as well as the right approach to deploying as APIs. They have 3 more high value publishing APIs available:
- Penguin Classics API - The Penguin English Library is a collection of 100 of the best novels ever written in the English Language. Classics like Jane Eyre, Dracula and Great Expectations
- dkimages API - The dkimages API is an encyclopaedic collection of 90,000 high-resolution images
- Peachpit Visual QuickStart Guides API - With more than 12 million copies in print, Visual QuickStart Guides have been a vital part of the computer book category for years
That is a total of 8 APIs endpoints Pearson has made available via their developer center--providing some valuable text and image content that developers can use to build web and mobile apps.
What impresses me with Pearson is that they’ve found an efficient way to identify valuable assets within legacy inventory, part them out and expose these valuable parts and pieces as APIs. Essentially giving them a new life--driving web, mobile and tablet applications.
Pearson has deployed their developer center with all the essential API building blocks, while also executing an efficient API evangelism campaign around their APis, and delivering value to developers. It’s a commendable operation for such a big publisher.
If you are interested in hearing more about what Pearson is up to with their APIs, you can catch them at the API Strategy & Practice Conference this week in NYC. Pearson will be presenting as part of a media API session as well as helping sponsor the event, to make sure we can all get together an have these conversations.
