OK, now here’s a strange question designed to really get you thinking. What do ATMs, contraceptive machines and Tesco have in common?

The answer is, they turn up in unexpected – but ultimately useful places. ATMs are in convenience stores and corner shops, condom machines are in toilets and Tesco could soon be on every website.

It’s all about putting what you need where you don’t expect it and it finding it really useful. Its about Open Source API’s. Or what you could call open resourcing. And you know what, it could be the thing that transforms your social website – and your on-line life.

At your convenience

What a great idea the ATM was. The ability to get your hands on your cash whenever you wanted it. Great. But you had to go to your bank still to use one. Then they appeared in supermarkets, gas stations and your local off license. Genius!

And contraceptive machines. You get lucky with someone unexpectedly. The pharmacy or local barber (why barber?) is shut. But hey, there’s a machine in the toilet!

Physical locations, certainly. But it shows you how the unexpected can be the really useful. Let’s move to the web…

Companies spend a lot of money developing complex business logic to get you to visit their website, look around and buy their products. And therein lies the problem. They have to somehow suggest to you that you want to visit them to buy that product. You have to be persuaded to go to them rather than somewhere else that sells the same stuff.

That’s a big ask. its a gamble and a gamble that costs a lot of money in advertising, web development and creativity. They have to persuade you to move from where you are now – and go where they want you to be. Tricky. Very tricky indeed.

Some web voodoo – The Open Source API

Open Source – no I don’t actually mean end user software in this case. I mean the plug-ins or mash-ups that lets one site use another site’s business intelligence and code. Yet they give away what cost maybe hundred’s of thousands of pounds of development to produce. And doing so – doing it right – makes perfect sense.

A crackpot scheme that only works for one company?

Yeah, I know, we’ve all seen Facebook, eBay and LinkedIn pull off something that somehow, never works for anyone else coming along later and trying it themselves.

But this is something that is truly replicable. An API can work for many, many sites. That’s why Tesco, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Betfair and even sites like The Guardian Online are offering the keys to their corporate treasure chest to little webmasters.

And don’t forget about Google. You didn’t think they’d be behind the door with this, do you?

Google were the first to offer their API on demand. Look to the right column of this blog. You’ll see two search facilities. I didn’t write them. Its Google’s API!

OK, sticking a search box on a web page isn’t exactly rocket science, in fact, its so commonplace now, you don’t know its there. But it shows how this thing works. Now think how else this could be used. I bet you will come up with your own tale of the unexpected. You may even make money from doing it!