Update: Thalia Driessen tells me that Kintera has updated their logo!
Kintera just announced that their platform is now open and ready to integrate with third-party applications. The press release doesn’t have enough details to really talk to developers out there but I was lucky enough to talk to Kintera this morning with Kintera’s CTO, Scott Crowder and Kintera’s press contact, Erin Leventhal.
It’s a SOAP-based using XML over HTTP for development and while Mr. Crowder was not entirely sure, there will be API key signing for each request. Update: It looks like Kintera has their own proprietary methods for authentication. More details will be forthcoming in the next few days. At the very least, developers won’t have to pay to participate in the developer program. There are still some issues about monetization from your third party app but you can now integrate Kintera with Joomla! or Drupal or whatever CMS platform you’re building.
How Kintera stole a march upon Convio and Blackbaud is beyond me but from what Mr. Crowder told me, they had existing Web services internally and I guess they repackaged them. Right now, they’ve got at least a six to nine month head start on Blackbaud. If they want to further increase their lead, they should move to a REST architecture. Also, they have two product evangelists for the developer outreach program. That’s a good start to what I’m sure will be a larger program in the future. I wonder if Convio will be open before or after Blackbaud?
I did ask Mr. Crowder, “What decisionmaking process led to opening up your platform?” He responded, “It was just the right thing to do.” Apparently, he was brought on to do open platform and it’s clear this had to be among Mr. Crowder’s highest priorities when you consider that he only just joined Kintera May 16th of this year.
I think the biggest winner though in this isn’t Kintera, it’s you, my dear nonprofit tech blog reader. After all it was you and hundreds like you that signed the Integration Proclamation Kudos to you! and especially Tate Hausman for setting it up.
Disclaimer: By next week, my nonprofit at socialmarkets.org will be indirectly using Kintera’s e-commerce platform to handle donations. Also, Tate Hausman might end up being socialmarkets.org’s landlord.
(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)
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I think you were a little too quick to claim Kintera “stole a march” on the other companies out there. After re-reading this post with your edits this sounds more like typical Kintera press release fluff than the real deal.
Did you actually see what they’ve built in action? Saying it’s so don’t make it so. We would also have to believe that Mr. Crowder took a very closed and proprietary system built over years, and suddenly in less than two months opened it all up.
Having used Kintera with a previous organization I’ll wait to see it before believing it. Any 3rd parties with something ready for us to test drive? And what’s the real cost? Unless Kintera is using this as the latest excuse they keep loosing $2 for every $1 they make.
I think you’ll have to read all the coverage I’ve given on Kintera though before you call my post “fluff”. I’m definitely not a Kintera fanboy. I think it’s a positive development no matter how you slice it though because the nonprofit sector NEEDS vendors to get open. Imagine the longer-term ramifications of a lack of positive blog coverage when a major vendor goes open. That would set our efforts back years.
I do understand your frustration with Kintera. Judi Sohn has said as much over at her blog. Then again, you should take a look at the poll on the right hand side of the page. Kintera is almost tied with salesforce.com. Kinda stunning, don’t you think? I guess the real bottom line is when Kintera discusses its bottom line on August 9th when it’s Q2 earnings report comes out.
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