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(Pin) API Spec [Bento 6/10(s)]

A main question I have working with open APIs with the API Rating Agency is the question of “What is Open?”

I even had a discussion about it With Kin Lane during the APIstrategyconference last week.

To begin with this question, I advise you  to see the keynote of Steve Klabnik “Why Open?” he has made at APIdays conference or the Sam Ramji Keynote on APIs and Evolution Theory

Lots of companies have understood why they need to be open, for evolving with their ecosystem and benefit of all the external work, expertise and ideas of the “crowd”. These companies now say that they are open, with open APIs, but what is to “be open” for them? They often don’t have the same definition. In IT and logic doors for example, this is binary. You are 0 or 1, you are closed or open. If you are not closed, you are open. No middle. After all, a door a little open is an open door right?

Bur for business as for APIs , the notion of open is more tricky. Let’s take the example of my house. My house has an entrance door with 4 stairs before, a kitchen, a bathroom and many rooms on 2 floors. Would you consider my house  open if : -  I let only few selected people come into and let the other outside? this the the question of neutrality -  I let the door open to everybody, they can go in the 1st floor but nowhere else in the house? this the question of exposed ressources and transparency -  I make it $1000 for entrance fee? Or if people with wheelchairs have to go up with 4 stairs?Or if I ask a secret password?  this is the question of access ans authentication - I let people enter but they have to follow my rules, by avoiding specific debates or touching nothing? The question of freedom, hackability and re-usability So, what is an Open API? - Transparency : Transparency is how far the company exposes its internal assets, services and APIs to developers. To be open in this case is : - exposing the same ressources (as far as possible) you use inside the company to the third party - notice about the API strategy, changes and explaining to developers their roadmap This for example how Amazon exposes its EC2 or S3, Salesforce expose its APIs or Google exposes Appengine or Bigquery.technology. For example, Governments in the open data movement have to expose the same ressources as they use internally. - Access and authentication : Access is the fact that the API is accessible to a user. It is also about the work you make for : - a developer portal to make it easy to register - API design to make it easy to use - Authentication protocol to access to a data. In this case open is to make always the lightest protocol needed to access to a ressource. - The business model and the price of the APIkey.  In this case open is to have at least a free version to test and build already stuff that enables a good user experience for few users - Freedom and re-usabilty : This is the question about Terms of Service and Developer Policy. It is here about how developers have the right to hack on your API and use it for their own purpose with their own model.

To be open in this case is :  - having Terms of Service well explained and simple to understand - letting it hackable with no restrictions to specific use cases or business model restrictions - not to say that you have the right to revoke anybody for any reason (often without notice !) - Neutrality : This is the fact that how far an API provider will have the same behaviour concerning : - Access, - Transparency - Policy, rate limits and Tos - Quality of service without tiering with every API user. So open is not a binary logical choice as we can know in computer science. It is more some time philosophical , or even juridical than only technical and it can be represented as a patchwok of transparency, access, freedom and neutrality Have you any thought to add about how to define better what is open?

1) How the web has become developer centric ?

  - The web content centric In the 1990' the web, aka web 1.0, was readable with only text, pictures and pages. In a word, static or content centric. The biggest difficulty for users was to find the data we needed into this growing "library". Some ones tried to make directories but game changers came with search engine in late 90’. After execution , business model, and pertinence trust, the one which won the battle was the next billionar company. Google has won the game by making good choices, neutral politic on search results, and nice execution with great technology. - The web user centric Then came the Web 2.0, the web dynamic and social.  The biggest difficulty for users was to follow people interactions and identity to know with who we are interacting, because this web would come user centric. Lots of companies too tried to surf on this wave, like Friendster or Myspace  but only a few had understood before others the importance of really connections between users, dynamic feeds and user generated content and databases. This is where Facebook came and ruled them all into this social web. In a second phase, Twitter came with its microblogging service confirm this trend. They are today respectively King and Prince of social web, but far behind the Lord of the web Google which still dominates the content web (Yes the web2,0 in on top and still dependant on web 1,0).

But Twitter and Facebook with their APIs  opened a door that is not ready to close for a long time. - The programmable web , developer centric Web 3.0 ? What does it mean? To my mind nothing. But what is the web on the 2010' ? I may have an idea on it. This is what we call the programmable web. With a lot APIs out there, now more than 8000, 100 new ones per week and 1 million expected for 2017, we assist at a revolution which is developer centric, because only developers can us these APIs.

In the 21th century, data is the new goods, produced and stored is servers, distributed on information highway through APIs, transported by developers into application promoted in numerical supermarkets, where end user will come to download them.

This web is still on top of content and dynamic and social, but is growing even faster than precedent one. Now developers are making the new Kings of the web, using their APIs for making lots of applications and building new models around these Extended Enterprises. Now thanks APIs, company services and data are ubiquitous for perpetual innovation.

Each new web trend is included inside the precedent one but growing faster than the precedent and making the old one growing too. The reason why IBM explained that the 90% all data produced in all human history was in the last 2 years. But who will be the giant of this programmable web? The one which has understood that this web is application centric so developer centric.

Companies have to change the way they acquire users and developers and change their marketing of vaporware or bullshit into a marketing of utility, to a maker or do-er generation.

This is the case for example of Twilio or Sendgrid which invests a lot in Developer Evangelism and focus on makers for their API.

The new question that companies have to manage now is what developers expects from an API usage?

2) Marketing API to developers

Skills : Developers want to discover new possibilities and improve their skills when building application. For example Twilio enable developers to make their application text or talk by SMS or calls so enabling a new user experience to users that the developer know how to do.

Tools : Developers want to ease their life when making application or website, so they look for tools for avoiding boring stuff. For example Sendgrid helps them to monitor e-mailing easily and rapidly to focus on their application development and users or Github enables them to better manage versionning

Money : Developers are like artists and they love live and earn money by doing what they love : coding. So APIs like Google Adwords enable them to earn money when used, or for example Amazon.

Cause : Developer are makers and do-ers and often are great contributors on internet. So Causes like Openstreetmap or Wikipedia, or open source on Github can often leverage them to build better, faster and stronger things and projects.