[Chapter-delegates] isoc-ams API released (for developing, geekish, and bugged out ISOC AMS Admins only!)

Fri Jul 18 13:15:47 PDT 2025

Hello,
Thank you for building this and sharing it with the community. Our teams have looked this over, and we recognize the immense value and effort here.
Initiatives like this send a clear message: chapters need and want a better, more efficient way to manage their memberships. You've built a solution to a problem that we know has been a source of frustration, and we appreciate you highlighting it in such a practical way.
However, as we all look at using this tool, we want to share two quick thoughts in the spirit of open collaboration:

  1.  A note on member registration: The one function we can't support is adding members via email. The self-registration portal is a crucial step where new members agree to the terms and privacy policy. This is a legal requirement that protects both the member and the organization, so it must remain a user-driven action.
  2.  This is a community-supported tool: We see this as a community-led project. Like any tool that cleverly works with a live website, it may need updates if the AMS portal changes.
Most importantly, please know that your efforts are not going unnoticed. This kind of feedback is exactly what helps us prioritize our future development work. While we are acknowledging the desire for this functionality, development timing will be balanced against competing community priorities.
We are listening. Thank you again for pushing this conversation forward. Constructive feedback, along with ensuring that our conversations remain respectful and productive, will help us all move forward more effectively.
Best regards,
Scott

Scott Manser,  Director, Business Systems
Manser at isoc.org<mailto:Manser at isoc.org>
[signature_1282566614]
internetsociety.org | @internetsociety

From: Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of Klaus Birkenbihl via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Date: Thursday, July 17, 2025 at 2:22 AM
To: Christian de Larrinaga <cdel at firsthand.net>
Cc: Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] isoc-ams API released (for developing, geekish, and bugged out ISOC AMS Admins only!)

[adding Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org><mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> since assumed to be of general interest]

Thanks Christian,
Christian de Larrinaga wrote on 16.07.25 18:32:

Well done klaus.. looks like you did this despite zero help from the AMS

team. It will take a bit of work I guess to implement into a chapter

admin database and then as a web scraper any change to the AMS which

can happen pretty arbitrarily might be breaking.

After looking at the code (HTML & Co) the risk of AMS changes seems smaller than it first appeared. If there are any they most likely will not be dramatic. But as I mentioned in the readme: the risk exists. So wait and see ...

Members Administration in this context is a dead simple thing. AMS takes a lot of effort to make it komplex.

isoc-ams makes it simple again. Nearly everything in members admin - that can be done with online AMS - can be done with a simple isoc-ams workflow - no programming skills required at all.

2 Steps:

  1.  Get lists of AMS Chapter members and pending applications:

2.    python -m isoc_ams
Delivers a list of AMS Chapter members and a list of pending applications.

  1.  Decide what operations are due (deny or approve applicants, delete entries from members list).
Then call isoc-ams like this:

4.    python -m isoc_ams -i <commands.txt
the file commands.txt file holds the required operations like this

  deny isocid1, isocid2 ...

  approve isocid10, isocid11 ...

  delete isocid20, isocid21 ...

  ...
to deny, approve pending applications or delete entries from the AMS Chapter members list.

And you are done. No need to wade clicking (and maybe typing) through lot of pages.

For a fully automated process using the API (as we do it at ISOC.DE) it is also straight forward and simple to implement. (If I ever decide to build a next release the interface will provide the option to do this in any programming language you like - not only Python).

It also can be grouped in 2 steps:

  1.  Apply your local rules how to treat pending applications e.g.

     *   deny old ones that didn't make it to your local members list
     *   approve those who made it to your local members list
     *   leave the others as they are (maybe send an invitations to join)

  1.  Compare your local members list (assumed to be the up-to-date one) with the AMS Chapter list:

     *   delete those from the AMS Chapter list who are no longer on your local list
     *   send a mail to ams-help at isoc.org<mailto:ams-help at isoc.org> asking to add those who are not on the AMS list (since you are not authorized to add them).

That's it. I admit I was surprised how simple it turned out to be - once you manage to hide the AMS Web interface.

(Why is it a fairy tale by Danish Hans Christian Andersen: „Kejserens nye Klæder“ comes int my mind? 🙂)

Hope this isn't going to be a rod to your back - so to speak. But maybe

this will spur that strong sense of not invented here phobia at ISOC?
Frankly, I'm rather curious if there will be any reaction at all 😉. I think that the AMS folks over the last ten+ years never understood how an API should look like. So they silently denied any effort to provide it.

Having said all that kudos and respect.

Thank you.

Klaus

Klaus Birkenbihl via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org><mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> writes:

Dear AMS Chapter Admin,

by today the isoc-ams API is released. Don't ask AMS-help for it.

Just check https://github.com/birkenbihl/isoc-ams/ for details.

Best regards

Klaus

--

Klaus Birkenbihl

Internet Society German Chapter (ISOC.DE) e.V.

c/o ict-Media GmbH

https://www.isoc.de
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