A PhillyCarShare API

Do you have a PhillyCarShare account? Do you know (or want to know) Python? For the past few months I have been working on a public API to PhillyCarShare's reservation and account management system. However, I have only had opportunity to test it on single-member, personal accounts (since that's the only kind I have). So now I'm reaching out for some assistance. I'm open-sourcing the interface and encouraging (or imploring) folks to tinker with it.

Developers

The source is available on github at github.com/mjumbewu/pcs-api. It's written in Python to run on top of AppEngine (though it could theoretically be ported to Django with minimal effort). I have an instance up and running at phillycarshare-api-kwawatu.appspot.com/. The app name is purposefully gargantuan, as appengine names are permanent for now, and I didn't want to create any problems for the future.

I know everyone is tight on time, so if there's anything I could do that would make contributing easier, please let me know. I realize the documentation is a bit lacking right now, and I'm working on it :). If you have any questions at all, let me know in the comments, or shoot me a message by email or on twitter @mjumbewu

Non-developers

If you're not a developer but still want to help test the API or stuff developed with the API, or have any other questions, contact me as well.

Beguiling Events — A Poem About Systems!

Beguiling Events

A system is a big black box
Of which we can't unlock the locks,
And all we can find out about
Is what goes in and what comes out.
Perceiving input-output pairs,
Related by parameters,
Permits us, sometimes, to relate
An input, output and a state.
If this relation's good and stable
Then to predict we may be able,
But if this fails us—heaven forbid!
We'll be compelled to force the lid!

—Kenneth Boulding, economist