W2E NY 2010 NPR Everywhere
73
NPR Everywhere The power of <flexible> content Zach Brand : @zbrand Sr. Director Technology & Strategy NPR, Digital Media
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As the media leader who first brought a public content API to the market in 2008, NPR continues to innovate and learn about what it means to have flexible content. Our philosophy assumes that to maintain relevancy in an online world media companies need to be adroit at delivering content to multiple channels and disparate platforms. This in turn has lead us to keep a strategic focus on our API development. This positions us not just to meet our distribution needs, but has also helped drive business opportunity and allows for effective design and user experience whether in a browser or on a mobile device. This presentation will share our lessons learned and key metrics around successful creation and use of flexible content – from technology needs to business, editorial and design opportunities in an increasingly fragmented online product landscape.
Transcript of W2E NY 2010 NPR Everywhere
NPR EverywhereThe power of <flexible> content
Zach Brand : @zbrandSr. Director Technology & StrategyNPR, Digital Media
“From NPR News in Washington..” –Jack Speer et al
“From NPR News in Washington..” –Jack Speer et al
X 35M / Week
X 784
“Please give generously” –Your local station
!=
NPR Digital Media
API
So Why Should YOU Care about Flexible Content?
A) Staying Relevant Is Getting Much Harder
Step 1
Step 2You
0 - 50
> 1,000,000,000
> 800,000
B) It’s Worked Well For Us…
NPR News iPhone app
NPR News Android app
Relaunched NPRmobile site
NPRiPad app
NPR MusiciPhone app
API launchedin 2008, at
OSCON
NPR MusicRemix
NPR BlogsMade API Friendly
Facebook Integration
Player 2.0
Homepage Improvements
Story PageImprovements
Architectural Philosophies
Avoid LOTR Syndrome
Content & Technology Are Inextricably Linked
COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)
- COPE drives all other architectural decisions
Content Management Tools & Presentation Layers
Understand the Atom
- Story is the Atom for NPR
- Stories contain ‘Assets’ (i.e. text, audio, video, images, etc.)
- Stories belong to ‘Lists’
It Is Better To Be Incomplete Than Inaccurate
Good ToolsGood PeopleGood Content
1997(No CMS)
2003(CMS)
2005(CMS)
2008(API)
NPR’s Target Audiences for the API Ourselves
- Supports the entire infrastructure of our new site
- Improvements to CMS to enable custom feeds by Editorial and Design
Stations- Enables us to serve content to our member stations more easily
- Enables our stations to serve their communities better
Partners- Creates new opportunities because - easy to implement with very little integration cost
- Makes existing opportunities easier to maintain and grow
Public- Engages the community – part of NPR’s Public Service Mission
- Lots of great widgets, tools, sites built using the API
Launch Expectations:Improve development efficiencies for NPR.org
Some sophisticated stations will use the API
Partner integration will be easier
The public will do amazing things with the API
“Learning a slew of technical skills isn't the answer, it's just part of the journalism equation.” -http://10000words.net/
“From Washington DC… this is NPR”
NPR Addict iPhone App
System Architecture Supporting COPE
System Architecture Supporting COPE
System Architecture Supporting COPE
JavaJSP
Struts
System Architecture Supporting COPE
R / WMySQL
System Architecture Supporting COPE
R / OMySQLCluster
NoSQL-likeXML
Repository
System Architecture Supporting COPE
PHP5
SimpleXMLPHP5
Inside the API’s “Black Box”
Life and Times of Flexible Content
NPR CMS
NPR API
NPR.org
HTML5 / Tablet Site
NPR.org Audio Player
iPhone App Android AppMobile Site
Google Chrome Extension
iGoogle Gadget
KQED.org
WBUR.org
Connecticut Public Broadcasting
Photos Courtesy Derik Elis, CBTV
NPR API
CPTV’s Drupal Based CMS
Website
What We Learned
“I had to actually purchase a book to learn the API and write the client.” Shawn Fanning of Napster Fame
Yeah, About That Chart….
Figuring it out…
Election RelatedTraffic Bumps
Station Content in the NPR API (today)
KLCC Displaying N3 Stories from NPR API
WBUR Displaying N3 Story from NPR API
A thousand words of COPE
Make it ALL reusable
API Keys and Consumption by Audience
Output Format Distribution
This distribution chart is from June 2009 and does not include NPR consumption.
We believe the distribution still applies today.
Page Views to NPR Tech Center
NPR Story API : Requests per Month
> 20 requests to the Story API every second
Launch Expectations:Improvements to development efficiencies for NPR.org
Some sophisticated stations will use the API
Partner integration will be easier
The public will do amazing things with the API
Actual Results:NPR dramatically improved development efficiencies
NPR’s mobile strategy took off
Some sophisticated stations have used the API
Partner integration has been easier
•API has facilitated business development opportunities
The public has done some interesting things
•Open Source NPR projects have been possible
NPR Android App
http://code.google.com/p/npr-android-app/
What’s Next (or at least still causing us problems)
Station Content in the NPR API (today)
Public Media API (future)
Challenges Ahead
•Extending to Network Use
•Performance•Caching
•Rights Management•Pagination
•Which Presentation Layers to Focus On•Laser or Shotgun?
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