10 Social Actions API Secrets

Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge is about to hit its final week (submissions close April 3rd!) - and we wanted to share a few secrets (or at least cool things) about the Social Actions API that might be helpful to developers in the final stretch!

What is the Social Actions API?

"Social Actions API is the ultimate resource for building web applications that help people find and share opportunities to make a difference. Our API contains up-to-date information about actions from 50+ sources. At any given time, our database has 60,000+ actions, including volunteer opportunities, fundraisers, petitions, offline events, and more."

The Secrets:

1 - There are two new fields in the latest API that can be used to help filter the 'top' actions for any given query. The first is "hit_count" -- the number of times the 'action' has been visited through the social actions search or web apps. Also new is 'referral count' - the number of places the 'action' is exposed over the web. Using these fields or building on them, we're hoping to get closer to helping developers filter the best actions people can take for causes from 'climate change' to 'education'.

2 - Are you building an app that scans a web site's content and then displays actions that are related to that content? You may want to check out Eric Cooper's open-source code for determining a page's top keywords. Eric's page interpretation code is what also powers the Related Ways to Take Action widget.

3 - There are over a dozen apps that draw on the Social Actions API. A number of apps have integrated ways to take action into: Firefox , Facebook , MySpace , WordPress , OpenSocial , iPhone , and Twitter - plus an array of widgets, RSS feeds, mobile, and other web apps. You can check out a bird's eye view of the apps here and here!

4 - You can find (and share) ideas and inspiration for potential apps that could be powered by Social Actions' API in the Social Actions Idea Hub !

5 - Did you know that you can add your favorite ways to take action into the Social Actions' API just by tagging them in delicious with "takeaction" or updating your Twitter status with the hashtag #takeaction! You can also Add your organization’s actions to Social Actions!

6 - Social Actions has created the Open Actions Format, a potential universal XML format to describe rich information about social actions. In the future, we hope many of our partners will take advantage of this format and feed this data into the Social Actions API.

7 - Both Kiva.org and DonorsChoose.org have their own APIs with rich data you can mix and mash with Social Actions API. For example, you could mashup Kiva.org loans with loans from Wokai and US classroom projects from DonorsChoose.org with international classroom projects from GlobalGiving .

8 - One cool API feature that's in the pipe is the "ActionBar ." With the action bar, everytime you visit an action from Social Actions search or web apps, the page will load regulary but with a thin bar at the top that allows you to explore other actions from different sources as well. In version 2, users will be able to vote actions up and down! Check out the first version in action here. Wanna help launch this sucker? See #10.

9 - Both WordPress and MySpace have promised to feature the best WordPress plugins and MySpace apps respectively that are powered by Social Actions' API and come out of the Change the Web Challenge. Mozilla, AOL, OpenSocial, and Twitter have also encouraged their developer communities to build apps powered by the Social Actions' API. How cool is that?!

10 - If you have questions, feedback, or want to get involved with the Social Actions API - you're invited to join our community of 70+ Social Tech Innovators that make up the Social Actions Developers Group !

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And if you build an app in the next week powered by Social Actions' API - you can compete to share $10,000 in prizes! Yes, it's true! Click quick and check out the Change the Web Challenge !