Social Entrepreneur API launches at SOCAP09

It’s a thrill to share today's public launch of the Social Entrepreneur API, formally announced at SOCAP09. From the project's website:

Lifting the Social Sector: Fellowship and Award Programs Collaborate to Make Data about Social Entrepreneurs More Accessible

Civic Ventures (sponsor of The Purpose Prize), The Draper Richards Foundation, ideablob, PopTech, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and The Skoll Foundation are pooling their data to create an open database of information about vetted social entrepreneurs.

The Social Entrepreneur API (Application Programming Interface) is the first open database of information about social entrepreneurs who have won fellowships and awards from social enterprise funders. The tool allows philanthropists, investors, press, and fellow entrepreneurs to find social entrepreneurs based on keyword, location, cause area, population served, and a variety of other factors. As with the Social Actions API, this open dataset will be available for any website or individual to search, syndicate, republish, or use to build web applications, widgets, and search engines... Read more

As you might have heard, Social Actions has been facilitating the Social Entrepreneur API’s development with seed funding from the Peery Foundation.

Peter Deitz and I had a chance to describe this work in some detail in July’s issue of Open Source Business Resource. There, we drew attention to the open and collaborative process that’s been a part of the Social Entrepreneur API’s conceptualization and build-out.

Using terms like open and collaborative to describe projects like this is often a stretch, but not in this case. Even a cursory review of the Social Entrepreneur API Google group (where a full history of the project, answers to frequently asked questions, and other documentation can be found) demonstrate the extent to which those design principles have been followed. The organizations whose social entrepreneurs are profiled in the API will continue to govern the process for adding more profile sources, building out the data taxonomy, and addressing other issues relevant to the project’s development.

That intentional design, combined with the cooperative spirit and shared commitment of each of the organizations involved, has made the Social Entrepreneur API initiative a joy to be a part of.

I hope you’ll take a closer look at the Social Entrepreneur API website (where you’ll find invitations to get involved) and search interface (the first of many applications this API will inspire), and join me in congratulating everyone involved creating – and officially launching! – the Social Entrepreneur API.