5 ms·

A Sochi Olympics API

61 points by pranade 13y ago

tonystark 13y ago
Sochi-mash anyone?
johns 13y ago
Where is the data sourced from? Having had to secure rights to Olympic data at a past company, it's a minefield of legal and usage restrictions.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
bbx 13y ago
I wanted to build a simple calendar for the London 2012 Olympics (and actually built another one for the Sochi Olympics). Both times I ended up using a JSON file found on NBC's website. Like the linked article suggests, it would be nice to have access to an official (and even simple) API, to dig up some interesting statistics or just have some fun playing with the data.
- pranade 13y ago
  Totally agree... we thought the same thing, which is why we built this :)
untog 13y ago
Despite the expense and interest, there is no API There is most definitely is. It's just not free.
- pranade 13y ago
  Yes, you're right. We think it's important that this data is openly available
  - twerquie 13y ago
    You're probably about to discover that the data is also not free.
    - jydarche 13y ago
      The facts are not copyrightable. http://www.lib.umich.edu/copyright/facts-and-data http://www.lib.umich.edu/copyright/facts-and-data But there's probably a violation of the terms of use, so maybe it's not a good idea to say to everybody that you take the data on the official website.
      - pranade 13y ago
        Yeah, it seems the facts are the most important part. I mean the data should be openly available, right? and that lowering the barrier to use by programmers and data scientists should improve the quality of how people interact with and experience the olympics. We're hoping it will help devs build super interesting visualizations and/or apps (that otherwise weren't possible).
        loceng 13y ago
        Is the fact that facts aren't copyrightable the basis for how you're planning to allow APIs to be created from most sites?
      - nandhp 13y ago
        The sochi2014.ru terms of use does not prohibit the use of robots/crawlers/scrapers. http://www.sochi2014.com/en/terms-of-use http://www.sochi2014.com/en/terms-of-use
        jydarche 13y ago
        But, they prohibit the copy of the content from the website, no matter the way you did it. Point 5.2: "Except as expressly stated on the Website, you are not entitled to copy, publish, download, modify and redistribute the information provided on the Website without the prior written consent of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee."
- sebastianavina 13y ago
  this "API" is just a fancy way to query a table.
  - pranade 13y ago
    Assuming you mean that it only supports GET requests against the existing data. it's amazing though that something as simple as querying a table of olympics data wasn't possible without this (without a whole bunch of manual work). if we did support transactions what would you have in mind?
  - untog 13y ago
    ...so? The point is the legality of the data inside that table.
blackdogie 13y ago
Using their Olympics logo is one quick way for you to get a cease and desist letter. http://registration.olympic.org/en/faq/detail/id/25 http://registration.olympic.org/en/faq/detail/id/25 IANAL Interesting data though !
- frandroid 13y ago
  Or the words "The Olympics", "The Games", or even digesting their data (whether they're on string legal footing or not...) Good luck. :)
  - mmastrac 13y ago
    The Olympic trademarks live at a meta-IP level [1], with trademarks enforced by specific laws rather than standard trademark. Legal corruption at its finest. [1] http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/ProtectionofOlympicTrademarks.aspx http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/Protect...
    - pranade 13y ago
      fair enough. we removed the rings to improve the chances of keeping the data live
injekt 13y ago
http://www.stats.com/olympics_2014data.asp http://www.stats.com/olympics_2014data.asp
thezach 13y ago
take it down dude... the IOC is not a group you want to get into an IP battle with. RIAA is like a little kid compared to them.
bdc 13y ago
I love the way this API is presented on the page. It's awesome. It exposes itself in such an obvious way that it leaves no question about its capabilities and usage. Makes me want to jump right in.
kingkool68 13y ago
I built a scraper to organize athlete profile data https://github.com/kingkool68/Scraping-Sochi-2014-Athlete-Profiles https://github.com/kingkool68/Scraping-Sochi-2014-Athlete-Pr...

61 points by pranade 13y ago

Sochi-mash anyone?

johns 13y ago

Where is the data sourced from? Having had to secure rights to Olympic data at a past company, it's a minefield of legal and usage restrictions.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

bbx 13y ago

I wanted to build a simple calendar for the London 2012 Olympics (and actually built another one for the Sochi Olympics). Both times I ended up using a JSON file found on NBC's website. Like the linked article suggests, it would be nice to have access to an official (and even simple) API, to dig up some interesting statistics or just have some fun playing with the data.

pranade 13y ago
Totally agree... we thought the same thing, which is why we built this :)

untog 13y ago

Despite the expense and interest, there is no API There is most definitely is. It's just not free.

pranade 13y ago
Yes, you're right. We think it's important that this data is openly available
- twerquie 13y ago
  You're probably about to discover that the data is also not free.
  - jydarche 13y ago
    The facts are not copyrightable. http://www.lib.umich.edu/copyright/facts-and-data http://www.lib.umich.edu/copyright/facts-and-data But there's probably a violation of the terms of use, so maybe it's not a good idea to say to everybody that you take the data on the official website.
    - pranade 13y ago
      Yeah, it seems the facts are the most important part. I mean the data should be openly available, right? and that lowering the barrier to use by programmers and data scientists should improve the quality of how people interact with and experience the olympics. We're hoping it will help devs build super interesting visualizations and/or apps (that otherwise weren't possible).
      - loceng 13y ago
        Is the fact that facts aren't copyrightable the basis for how you're planning to allow APIs to be created from most sites?
    - nandhp 13y ago
      The sochi2014.ru terms of use does not prohibit the use of robots/crawlers/scrapers. http://www.sochi2014.com/en/terms-of-use http://www.sochi2014.com/en/terms-of-use
      - jydarche 13y ago
        But, they prohibit the copy of the content from the website, no matter the way you did it. Point 5.2: "Except as expressly stated on the Website, you are not entitled to copy, publish, download, modify and redistribute the information provided on the Website without the prior written consent of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee."
sebastianavina 13y ago
this "API" is just a fancy way to query a table.
- pranade 13y ago
  Assuming you mean that it only supports GET requests against the existing data. it's amazing though that something as simple as querying a table of olympics data wasn't possible without this (without a whole bunch of manual work). if we did support transactions what would you have in mind?
- untog 13y ago
  ...so? The point is the legality of the data inside that table.

blackdogie 13y ago

Using their Olympics logo is one quick way for you to get a cease and desist letter. http://registration.olympic.org/en/faq/detail/id/25 http://registration.olympic.org/en/faq/detail/id/25 IANAL Interesting data though !

frandroid 13y ago
Or the words "The Olympics", "The Games", or even digesting their data (whether they're on string legal footing or not...) Good luck. :)
- mmastrac 13y ago
  The Olympic trademarks live at a meta-IP level [1], with trademarks enforced by specific laws rather than standard trademark. Legal corruption at its finest. [1] http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/ProtectionofOlympicTrademarks.aspx http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/Protect...
  - pranade 13y ago
    fair enough. we removed the rings to improve the chances of keeping the data live

injekt 13y ago

http://www.stats.com/olympics_2014data.asp http://www.stats.com/olympics_2014data.asp

thezach 13y ago

take it down dude... the IOC is not a group you want to get into an IP battle with. RIAA is like a little kid compared to them.

bdc 13y ago

I love the way this API is presented on the page. It's awesome. It exposes itself in such an obvious way that it leaves no question about its capabilities and usage. Makes me want to jump right in.

kingkool68 13y ago

I built a scraper to organize athlete profile data https://github.com/kingkool68/Scraping-Sochi-2014-Athlete-Profiles https://github.com/kingkool68/Scraping-Sochi-2014-Athlete-Pr...