Forem: kfan19

Explore Spotify for Developers

kfan19 — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 04:21:44 +0000

Spotify for Developers

Spotify is “a digital music, podcast, and video streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs and other content from artists all over the world.” Spotify for Developers is an aspect of the company; it is a technology community that discusses developer news, forums, and apps. In this blog, we will talk about the programs Spotify uses, and then analyze some of the service's showcased apps. The focus will be on human musical behavior in an increasingly digitized world. What are things people want to know about themselves or each other? What are the implications of a technical analysis within our personal music information— especially in relation to our social identities?

What is the Spotify Web API?

A Web API is an Application Programming Interface that can link multiple types of software together. In this case, it allows web developers to tap into Spotify’s extensive music data. Spotify has a huge music base composed of over 50 million songs; their Public API lets you call data based on artist, album, song, playlist, or related artist. It gives developers an SDK, known as a Software Development Kit. This is a collection of software development tools that are available in one installable package. Chris Hughs from Spotify's engineering website writes, “Basically (an API) is an interface that programs can use to retrieve and manage Spotify data over the internet.”

Spotify and Bit Heroes

Natalie Huang, a senior in high school, participated in this summer’s Bit Heroes program through Bit Project. For her project, she developed an app that would create a music playlist based on the mood the Microsoft facial recognition program detected.

She noted how the Spotify API was very user friendly for beginners because it utilized an example code for authentication, and although this was her first web development experience, it was easy to test API endpoints and features.

Natalie viewed Spotify for Developers as a great example of the intersection between technology and art. She really appreciated the ability to take something subjective and then quantify it. In this case, she was able to take music's abstract emotional nature and highlight song recommendations through logic based approaches.

Notable Apps in Spotify Showcase

Much like the student in our technology boot camp, other developers wanted to explore new projects using Spotify too. Here is a small list of notable apps on the Spotify Developer Showcase. Their code is all available on GitHub and accessible to anyone interested in learning more about app programming.

Souffle

What it does: Playlist Souffle allows you to ‘souffle’ up your playlists: swapping out each track for another track by the same artist or on the same album.

Setify

What it does: Setify is great for reminiscing about previous concerts you've been to, or for getting to know songs played recently for an upcoming show. For example, I used Setify to find the setlist from Kendrick Lamar’s last concert. The website was exceptionally easy to navigate, and you don't even need to login.

Klarafy

What it does: Klarafy helps you to get to know classical music in an entirely new way: based on your own musical taste. Klarafy works on the credible premise that someone who likes loud, powerful metal is more likely to enjoy a loud and powerful piece by Wagner than soft and delicate piano music. So Klarafy seeks out the affinities, similarities or links between your favorite music and classical music. Klarafy doesn’t just suggest compositions; it also explains why a particular piece was selected for you.

C - Listening Room

What it does: It creates a listening room where multiple users can propose songs and vote for them. You go to a page where you can propose songs to listen to, and other people do the same thing. The playback is synchronized for all users that are connected in that moment.

Discover Quickly

What it does: You can often tell if you are intrigued by a song within a second or two of listening. The core of Discover Quickly is built around that idea. Start anywhere, depending on your mood: music you already love, today’s top hits, or something random. Then hover over images to sample tracks immediately. If you maybe like what you hear, then click to follow your ears down the rabbit hole of your musical taste. Save, follow, or playlist anything that you find you like.

Your Future Potential

Spotify for Developers offers a unique community where music meets code. To learn more, explore Last Call's article on How To Use the Spotify API: Surf a Giant Musical Database. Bit Project offers software education tutorials and is a great place to start if you want to build your own Spotify apps.

The Value of an Open Source Technical Education Community

kfan19 — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 18:35:14 +0000

What is open source technical education?

Open-source software is “software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance." It allows anyone with a computer to view code that makes up websites, programs, games, and more. Yet, open source is more than just publicly available code. It creates community-based project collaboration and allows students to learn information through hands-on experiences. At Bit Project, our mission is to give students the resources they need to learn about technology. Our educational philosophy aspires to create materials that are open source and easily accessible to anyone in pursuit of a technical education.

Who does it help?

Open source technical education benefits anyone who wants to learn more about software. Four years of university is just a step into the future, and, as many know, our education never stops. Open source education can help students too young to be in college, those that do not plan to go to university, people with no technical background, or people out of college that are committed to active learning. Chris Werry, from “The Work of Education in the Age of E-College,” writes that “the Internet is allowing entrepreneurial companies" (like Bit Project!) "to unbundle learning services" from expensive campus institutions and, instead, bring them to a variety of different people.

Open source creates a global platform for those interested in technology and is a beneficial and successful modern tool. The availability of free educational resources gives everyone the chance to tap into new interests or deepen their skills.

Open source education and Bit Project

At Bit Project, we put all of our curated resources and educational materials on our website and Github for free. Our organization aims to introduce students to open source and give them the tools to contribute to other open source projects. Open source education enhances our mission to create materials that are "decentralized, free from restrictions, and transparent." Our goal is to promote active learning and foster educational creativity.

Bit Project’s technical developer advocates help build classroom curricula. We make available any source code from blog tutorials, educational videos, and more. As opposed to Codecademy or Khan Academy, our organization is notable because it updates quicker than other conventional platforms. Online education has streamlined the knowledge-to-student pathway. Without administrative work hindering the educational experience, teachers and students can be more involved in the learning process. At Bit Project, we regularly measure feedback on the organization, and always desire to improve our work. As students engage with Bit Project, our aim is that they will learn from the content, and then come back with skills to improve the content.

Bit Project and the democratization of knowledge

Bit Project is a named non-profit that strives to further the social cause of technical education and provide a public benefit. In doing this, it creates an engaging and transparent education community. When open source education is free, it widens the reach of its impact and allows anyone, no matter their circumstances, to utilize our academic materials. We work to support underrepresented communities in technology, so that they can use our resources to get ahead in STEM-related areas of study.

With educational knowledge, Bit Project believes that open source is always worth considering. Everyone should have an equal chance to succeed: "Those of us in the technology industry have an obligation to create better educational materials to help level the playing field," said Kyle Begovich, the Director of Developer Relations at Bit Project. Likewise, open source education is a social experience that encourages community building and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Opportunities and helpful resources

Open source technical education is valuable because it is available to anyone, and allows our educational materials to be thoughtfully adjusted by the community. Not only can it help start the educational process, but it gives students the skills to take advantage of remarkable online information. For example, GitHub recently published the code for the moon lander, Apollo 11, on its website. It’s lauded as a unique time capsule and a historical testament of human ingenuity. The ability to view, and accurately read, this code is achievable to anyone interested.

Bit Project is passionate about distributing living textbooks, courses, and tools that are accessible to all people. Technology education is a contemporary area of study that restructures education to create free, student-centered learning. Our organization educates students about software and gives them the freedom to utilize our open source materials, benefitting both their learning and the strength of our resources.

Sources

"What is Open Source?" https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source
Werry, Chris. “The Work of Education in the Age of E-College” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S875546150200110X
Bit Project Open Source Educational Philosophy. https://www.bitproject.org/curriculum
Lakhan, Shaheen. “Open Source Software in Education". https://er.educause.edu/articles/2008/5/open-source-software-in-education
Collins, Keith. "The code that took America to the moon was just published to GitHub, and it’s like a 1960s time capsule." https://qz.com/726338/the-code-that-took-america-to-the-moon-was-just-published-to-github-and-its-like-a-1960s-time-capsule/