On the heels of Kinterra's Open Connect API launch, Convio has now officially launched their Convio Open Initiative. The initiative pulls together the interoperability work they've done in the past - their API, Connectors, and Extensions (more on those below) and ties it up in an "initiative" bow.

Unlike Kinterra's SOAP-based offering, Convio's API is REST-based. This will make the toolkit more usable for developers without heavier-lifting integration experience. According the announcement the API provides:

• Create New Constituent Records – allows organizations to create new records in the Constituent 360 database
  
• Fetch Constituent Records - allows organizations to request XML or JSON formatted biographical data for a constituent record stored in the Constituent 360 database
  
• Update Constituent Records - allows organizations to create and/or update constituent records in the Constituent 360 database
  
• Manage Group Membership and Subscriptions - allows organizations to manage constituent group memberships (add/remove) and interest category preferences (add/remove)
  

There is a footnote stating that not all of the functions will be fully "supported" until the next product release sometime later this year.

In addition to the RESTful API they're providing "connectors" and "extensions".

Connectors are a set of packaged integrations for specific industry's leading database systems (Salesforce.com, Blackbaud, MPower Systems MPX and Target Software Team Approach are mentioned on their site).

Extensions are essentially plugins for the Convio product that let organizations take advantage of the leading social media and networking sites of today. Extensions include a Facebook Application; and RSS feed creator (which is only available for the Convio CMS tool);

This is a great start, and we're already eager for the next versions to expose more of the Convio-managed content like Actions, Events, and Campaigns. That next level of openness would give Convio clients the freedom to present their message and member interaction in new ways, and should drive yet another way of innovation in online constituent engagement.

(thanks to Holly at the NTEN blog for the heads up)