A Personal API • Hacker News Board

Re: A Personal API

#31

Post by randomchars » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:01 PM UTC

Dirlewanger wrote: post #23

Narcissism reaches a new level (or low, depending on how you see it).

Narcissism:

1. Excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance

2. Extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration

So explain to me; what does quantified self have to do with narcissism?

Re: A Personal API

#32

Post by jckt » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:05 PM UTC

Interesting. I think the real challenge behind this though, is not the API itself, but that for it to be really useful there has to be some sort of semi-automated form of data collection, that can be generally applied.

Relevant: http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytic...

Re: A Personal API

#33

Post by revorad » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:08 PM UTC

This is awesome. I've also been working on a personal data dashboard app, which is similar. It pulls in data from various social and fitness app APIs. You can also enter in data manually. It's mainly for viewing the data and trends, but I'll add an API too if there's demand.

Is anyone interested in using my dashboard app?

Re: A Personal API

#34

Post by rasur » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:08 PM UTC

abraininavat wrote: post #13

I was about to dismiss this but have thought about it a bit more, and there's something interesting here. There are already APIs built on top of you. There are the ones you know about, like Facebook and Twitter. There are the ones we know exist but have no direct access to, such as Amazon's backend or your police record. And there are the ones we may never know about, such as the NSA bot scanning this post right now…

Have you read Jaron Laniers new book "Who Owns the Future"? You have similar ideas ("Imagine if the wealth of data collected about you all went to one place, and, most importantly, was controlled by you. Imagine if Company X had to pay you to know about your Amazon spending habits instead of paying Amazon.")

It's a thought provoking book.. and slightly worrisome to boot (about the state of things at the moment, with regard to the economics of "sharing data").

Re: A Personal API

#35

Post by checkoutmygenes » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:10 PM UTC

Nice! A few similar services come to mind that might be of interest: http://lockerproject.org/ http://humanapi.co/ http://developer.runkeeper.com/healthgraph/

Get your DNA in there too! https://api.23andme.com/

Re: A Personal API

#36

Post by rocky1138 » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:10 PM UTC

EternalFury wrote: post #25

Cool idea, Naveen. I would like to contribute and expand it.

Same. Where's the github repo?

Re: A Personal API

#37

Post by icebraining » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:13 PM UTC

abraininavat wrote: post #13

I was about to dismiss this but have thought about it a bit more, and there's something interesting here. There are already APIs built on top of you. There are the ones you know about, like Facebook and Twitter. There are the ones we know exist but have no direct access to, such as Amazon's backend or your police record. And there are the ones we may never know about, such as the NSA bot scanning this post right now…

This is very much the goal of Project VRM:

1. https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/projectvrm/Main_Page

2. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/vrm/

Re: A Personal API

#38

Post by dirtyaura » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:13 PM UTC

Dirlewanger wrote: post #23

Narcissism reaches a new level (or low, depending on how you see it).

Caring about your health and well-being isn't narcissism. It's one of the most important things that you can give for your loved ones - kids, spouse, family and close friends - because healthy and happy person can support others in the need. And I'm strong believer that our personal data will play a big part in the preventive healthcare in the future.

Re: A Personal API

#39

Post by abraininavat » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:16 PM UTC

jckt wrote: post #30

abraininavat wrote: post #13

I was about to dismiss this but have thought about it a bit more, and there's something interesting here. There are already APIs built on top of you. There are the ones you know about, like Facebook and Twitter. There are the ones we know exist but have no direct access to, such as Amazon's backend or your police record. And there are the ones we may never know about, such as the NSA bot scanning this post right now…

+1, but do you mind expanding on " discoverability "?

I'm no expert, but it occurs to me that a mountain of data coming in from disparate sources needs the concept of discoverability to be adequately used. That is, there has to be a way for a machine to find occurrences of data that it cares about without specifically knowing the exact attributes of the data.

A simple example off the top of my head. Let's say there's a popular app that collects your pulse from your cellphone somehow, and that data is stored in your "Personal API" in some format. Some scientists write a routine that scans people's pulse patterns (with their permission, say) and warns them of possible risk factors. Later on hospitals start feeding their pulse data into the same personal API, but in a different format and using different units (bpm instead of bph, say), because they've never heard of the cellphone app.

I take "discoverability" as a general concept addressing how the scientists' routine might discover that the hospital data exists in a person's "Personal API", discover that the thing being measured by the hospital is the same as the thing being measured by the app, and discover how to map both formats into a common workable format and units.

Re: A Personal API

#40

Post by whazzmaster » Fri, May 31, 2013, 7:16 PM UTC

kmax12 wrote: post #18

Such an api sort of already exists in the form of Fitbit's api which can be found at http://dev.fitbit.com/ . Fitbit holds a lot of the data hostage, but it's at least something that anyone wearing a Fitbit can easily grant access to.

What data do they hold hostage?