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Show HN: How to access my personal API

20 points by bckmn 13y ago

jcutrell 13y ago
I really like this idea. (May be worth changing the name to a Show HN, or starting an ask thread about it.) I think it would benefit from a standardization with something similar to OpenGraph, though. And really, endpoints to arbitrary services, publications, etc would make a lot of sense. A good, open space for something like this is academia, I think.
apgwoz 13y ago
Thanks. With your birthday and birthplace, I can probably become you quite easily.
- junto 13y ago
  This is an interesting point. We want to be able to share things about where we live and when we were born, but since these variables are used for identity confirmation, we are stuck with a trade-off. A unique reference to be used for identity confirmation is an alternative, but it also has drawbacks. The identifier becomes concrete over time, so we become bound to the identifier. Anonymity becomes more challenging and the identifier slowly becomes a requirement rather than an option. An challenge to get the right balance.
picsoung 13y ago
make your own about.me API :) To make it more appealing we could add more computation: sync your github profile and it will fill the programming languages field automatically. add data from Klout, to get topics of interest Add goodreads, to point out the type of books you are reading. and other datas from other APIs... It could even be a self-service app.
tudborg 13y ago
I like the idea, though it makes the life of the identity thief a b it easier. A few thoughts on how to standardize the content; It seems more logical to just send your date of birth as a ISO8601 string or a UTC unix timestamp, instead of all the fluff. (i would prefer the ISO8601) Lat/Lng is an exact point, and i figure you removed a few digits to avoid showing your exact location. A geohash would be better suited to indicate a geographical area of users precision choice. Also more compact. You are missing country - not everyone live in the US, or even in a city, a common geo indication seems more suited (again, a geohash). All values should be describes with a standard name, not just the english name. so english: "en", german: "de", etc. Also, more compact.
- bckmn 13y ago
  Yes. These are all good ideas. I have experience making APIs, but not ones designed for international use. This is good to learn. Thanks.
colinhowe 13y ago
Cool idea. However, you should remove your age from it. Given a lot of banks etc rely on date of birth as a security identification
- jameshart 13y ago
  It is weird that we accept that "knowing person A's date of birth and mother's maiden name" is remotely acceptable as a proxy for "being person A"; similar to the weird US bank custom of accepting "knowing the account number and name associated with an account" as a proxy for "is authorized to withdraw money from the account"...
- Killswitch 13y ago
  Weird, every place I use such as banks use the last 4 digits of my social security number, not something almost anyone who knows me, knows.
jqueryin 13y ago
If you're watching comments, how often do you change your lat/lon coordinates if at all? I'm just wondering if you track changes or you simply located your home.
- bckmn 13y ago
  I was thinking about this. I think it would be cool to track live location via phone, but was concerned about security. I have it set to an arbitrary 'area' average of residence/workplace.
lemcoe9 13y ago
This really isn't an API, it's more of a résumé that happens to be in JSON.
- privong 13y ago
  And is vaguely reminiscent of the Geek Code. http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html
jameshart 13y ago
All that is old is new again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol
- clarkm 13y ago
  In fact, MIT's user search is just a front end for the finger command: http://web.mit.edu/search.html http://web.mit.edu/search.html And as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it does raise some privacy concerns. For example: http://amap.mit.edu/ http://amap.mit.edu/
- smoyer 13y ago
  Or more recently, it looks like the cargo data that can be returned from OpenID. And somewhere in between, many LDAP servers allow anonymous binds that include the non-sensitive attributes of each entry.
covati 13y ago
I've thought about doing something like this for a while, but on a more dynamic level. More along the lines of capturing check-ins from Facebook and Foursquare as well as other life events and making them available (with permission) via an API. Someone brought up to me that it would be pretty much like Google Now - which isn't completely correct, but it gets to what the value could be.
rohitv 13y ago
Very Cool. Although, I was wondering if there is any framework/library available that lets you organize such JSON data into more of a visual interface. Something as simple as getting the keys and values and inserting into an organized table with beautiful CSS3. As I was thinking of making such library which does this. I have seen parsing libraries that help parse JSON and display it in a structured manner but, haven't come across something that visualizes it in a more beautiful manner.
- jimmytidey 13y ago
  Presumably you are already using JSONview plugin for your browser? JSON isn't really going to fit in a table though...
leoedin 13y ago
tudborg covered a lot of good points. Another alternative to a geohash would be to use a GeoJSON[1] object to define location. It's a fairly widely adopted geographical standard and means you could throw the data from the API straight into a map (leaflet) or a database (mongoDB has native geoJSON support). [1]: http://geojson.org/ http://geojson.org/ Be careful with broadcasting your date of birth widely. It's surprising how little information is needed to open a store credit card.
jimmytidey 13y ago
There are quite a few microformats that would get you close to this: http://www.microformats.org/wiki/hresume http://www.microformats.org/wiki/hresume would be a start...
Ryoku 13y ago
I just have one issue with this. It's a social engineering gold mine.
- jussy 13y ago
  Just limit access to the api to key services or applications.
ismaelc 13y ago
(Disclaimer: I work for Mashape). I just added this to Mashape - https://www.mashape.com/community/joshua-beckman#!documentation https://www.mashape.com/community/joshua-beckman#!documentat...
waylonrobert 13y ago
Reminds me of humans.txt.

20 points by bckmn 13y ago

I really like this idea. (May be worth changing the name to a Show HN, or starting an ask thread about it.) I think it would benefit from a standardization with something similar to OpenGraph, though. And really, endpoints to arbitrary services, publications, etc would make a lot of sense. A good, open space for something like this is academia, I think.

apgwoz 13y ago

Thanks. With your birthday and birthplace, I can probably become you quite easily.

junto 13y ago
This is an interesting point. We want to be able to share things about where we live and when we were born, but since these variables are used for identity confirmation, we are stuck with a trade-off. A unique reference to be used for identity confirmation is an alternative, but it also has drawbacks. The identifier becomes concrete over time, so we become bound to the identifier. Anonymity becomes more challenging and the identifier slowly becomes a requirement rather than an option. An challenge to get the right balance.

picsoung 13y ago

make your own about.me API :) To make it more appealing we could add more computation: sync your github profile and it will fill the programming languages field automatically. add data from Klout, to get topics of interest Add goodreads, to point out the type of books you are reading. and other datas from other APIs... It could even be a self-service app.

tudborg 13y ago

I like the idea, though it makes the life of the identity thief a b it easier. A few thoughts on how to standardize the content; It seems more logical to just send your date of birth as a ISO8601 string or a UTC unix timestamp, instead of all the fluff. (i would prefer the ISO8601) Lat/Lng is an exact point, and i figure you removed a few digits to avoid showing your exact location. A geohash would be better suited to indicate a geographical area of users precision choice. Also more compact. You are missing country - not everyone live in the US, or even in a city, a common geo indication seems more suited (again, a geohash). All values should be describes with a standard name, not just the english name. so english: "en", german: "de", etc. Also, more compact.

bckmn 13y ago
Yes. These are all good ideas. I have experience making APIs, but not ones designed for international use. This is good to learn. Thanks.

colinhowe 13y ago

Cool idea. However, you should remove your age from it. Given a lot of banks etc rely on date of birth as a security identification

jameshart 13y ago
It is weird that we accept that "knowing person A's date of birth and mother's maiden name" is remotely acceptable as a proxy for "being person A"; similar to the weird US bank custom of accepting "knowing the account number and name associated with an account" as a proxy for "is authorized to withdraw money from the account"...
Killswitch 13y ago
Weird, every place I use such as banks use the last 4 digits of my social security number, not something almost anyone who knows me, knows.

jqueryin 13y ago

If you're watching comments, how often do you change your lat/lon coordinates if at all? I'm just wondering if you track changes or you simply located your home.

bckmn 13y ago
I was thinking about this. I think it would be cool to track live location via phone, but was concerned about security. I have it set to an arbitrary 'area' average of residence/workplace.

lemcoe9 13y ago

This really isn't an API, it's more of a résumé that happens to be in JSON.

privong 13y ago
And is vaguely reminiscent of the Geek Code. http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html

jameshart 13y ago

All that is old is new again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol

clarkm 13y ago
In fact, MIT's user search is just a front end for the finger command: http://web.mit.edu/search.html http://web.mit.edu/search.html And as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it does raise some privacy concerns. For example: http://amap.mit.edu/ http://amap.mit.edu/
smoyer 13y ago
Or more recently, it looks like the cargo data that can be returned from OpenID. And somewhere in between, many LDAP servers allow anonymous binds that include the non-sensitive attributes of each entry.

covati 13y ago

I've thought about doing something like this for a while, but on a more dynamic level. More along the lines of capturing check-ins from Facebook and Foursquare as well as other life events and making them available (with permission) via an API. Someone brought up to me that it would be pretty much like Google Now - which isn't completely correct, but it gets to what the value could be.

rohitv 13y ago

Very Cool. Although, I was wondering if there is any framework/library available that lets you organize such JSON data into more of a visual interface. Something as simple as getting the keys and values and inserting into an organized table with beautiful CSS3. As I was thinking of making such library which does this. I have seen parsing libraries that help parse JSON and display it in a structured manner but, haven't come across something that visualizes it in a more beautiful manner.

jimmytidey 13y ago
Presumably you are already using JSONview plugin for your browser? JSON isn't really going to fit in a table though...

leoedin 13y ago

tudborg covered a lot of good points. Another alternative to a geohash would be to use a GeoJSON[1] object to define location. It's a fairly widely adopted geographical standard and means you could throw the data from the API straight into a map (leaflet) or a database (mongoDB has native geoJSON support). [1]: http://geojson.org/ http://geojson.org/ Be careful with broadcasting your date of birth widely. It's surprising how little information is needed to open a store credit card.

jimmytidey 13y ago

There are quite a few microformats that would get you close to this: http://www.microformats.org/wiki/hresume http://www.microformats.org/wiki/hresume would be a start...

Ryoku 13y ago

I just have one issue with this. It's a social engineering gold mine.

jussy 13y ago
Just limit access to the api to key services or applications.

ismaelc 13y ago

(Disclaimer: I work for Mashape). I just added this to Mashape - https://www.mashape.com/community/joshua-beckman#!documentation https://www.mashape.com/community/joshua-beckman#!documentat...

waylonrobert 13y ago

Reminds me of humans.txt.