Open Platform

The Open Platform is a suite of services for developing digital products and applications with the Guardian. All newspaper content is delivered as XML and JSON feeds with access and key management provided by Mashery. A custom data tool allows developers to explore the content programmatically. Originally built with Endeca and delivered through the Guardian's in-house data centre, a second major iteration of the Open Platform was written using Apache Solr and delivered on Amazon AWS.

This was a major development for the Guardian. While previously all content was delivered and monetized through the main site, the Open Platform enabled the creation of a new ad delivery network, embedding content- and channel-specific advertising directly into content and creating a completely new syndication channel and mechanism. It also embraced the Guardian's open data strategy, garnering lavish praise from UK MP Tom Watson, who said that "Governments should be doing this. Governments will be doing it. The question is how long will it take us to catch up".

The project was developed in parallel with significant Guardian site infrastructure work, at an extremely busy period for the technology department. I managed the tech team and its delivery all the way through the initial public beta offering to the 1.0 launch, co-ordinating and liaising with the Guardian's editorial, legal, content rights and syndication teams to get a solid and extensible product released.