Yesterday, we requested the following to prepare you for today. Now, let's discuss!
For the first homework, we invite you to explore a list of APIs to see which data sources might interest you. Tomorrow, you'll the API to the class, and broadly consider how it aligns with your interests, what resources or documentation are available to get started, and what specific things you might do with the API. Please prepare to cover, in brief:
- What is the name and purpose of the API?
- Who maintains it?
- What sort of requests are possible?
- How much information can you find on the website?
- Do you need to "authenticate" to the API—that is, perform some action before you have access to it?
- What do you still need to find out about this API?
Key questions:
- Why might this API be valuable to research?
- What could you (or couldn't you) research with it?
- How can you access it?
- In what format is the data?
- Are there legal or licensing considerations? Who owns the data?