Incoming!

API and User Contributions

We announced the new API three weeks ago, and so much has happened since. What neat things have people been making with Upcoming.org since then? I'll try to roundup the highlights.

New Tools

Software development is just beginning with the API, starting with libraries for building new applications and other fun stuff.

Perl module. Greg Knauss developed a Perl module for using the Upcoming API functions. WWW::Service::Upcoming::API was submitted to CPAN, and can be downloaded here or by using the CPAN client (very soon). Gordon Luk wrote a test script that uses the Perl module, retrieving a list of your upcoming events for the week and sending them by e-mail.

PHP module. Daniel O'Connor wrote a web services client in PHP. Documention and examples are available, and the code is released under the GPL for free modification.

Drupal module. If you're using Drupal as your content-management system, Brian del Vecchio developed an Upcoming module for Drupal.

Freetag. Gordon Luk open-sourced the PHP code he developed for adding tagging support to Upcoming.org, and spun it off into a new project: Freetag. Read Gordon's blog entry announcing the project. If you're interested in using tagging for your own project, give it a shot.

Who's Using Upcoming.org?

Since we launched the last news update, several major sites have added support for Upcoming.org.

43 Things. The most innovative use of Upcoming.org events goes to 43 Things, who used the new API to integrate event listings on many of their City pages and add Upcoming info to their user's RSS feeds. For example, look for the "Upcoming Events" sidebar on the San Francisco page. Robot Co-Op, the creators of 43 Things, wrote a great summary of the changes on their blog.

Bostonist, Seattlest, DCist. These three city blogs are all displaying local events from Upcoming.org in a sidebar on every page of their site. Bostonist wrote a summary of the change.

Metroblogging. Meetup.com recently announced that they would soon be charging organizers a small fee to arrange local meetups. We're friends with Scott and the Meetup crew, and fully sympathize with them trying to pay the bills. But for many people, Upcoming.org is proving to be a free alternative to Meetup, even if it doesn't offer all the same features. Metroblogging, a popular collection of local city blogs, announced that they're moving all their local meetups to Upcoming.org in the future. Thanks, guys!

Whedonesque. The biggest fan site for Joss Whedon and Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans announced that they're also moving their popular meetups to Upcoming.org.

We're moving the site to a new server this week and will get a wiki and user forums up right away, so that anyone can contribute their own neat uses. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us if you get stuck.