10.20.2005

API Management and Developer Outreach:

Learning from the Web

Layer 7 London 25th September 2012

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Software is Eating the World

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Software in the 20th Century

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Software in the 21st Century

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The Developer Strikes Back

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New Kingmakers

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API protocols and stylesProgrammableWeb, February 2012

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Rise of the APIs

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Rise of the API Giants

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Fragmentation of Everything

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Explosion of Forms

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Language Tiers

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Purchasing First

“Operating systems, databases, web and application servers, dev tools all required money. To get anything done, then, developers needed someone to write checks for the tools they needed to build. That meant either raising the capital to buy the necessary pieces, or more often requesting that an employer or other third party purchase them on the developer's behalf.”

Stephen O’Grady – New Kingmakers

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No Permission Required

Source @cbtacey, AppFog

data from National Venture Capital Association and UNH Center for Venture Research

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Encourage Foragers

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Foraging For Code

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Design

• Good APIs generate great PR - early adopters as evangelists• Bad APIs generate a ton of calls to your support organisation• REST not SOAP (and definitely not WS-*)• JSON not XML• API first design encourages service modularity, enabling reuse

• Cloud First (with onprem in mind)• Social First (with enterprise in mind)• Mobile First (with desktop in mind)

• Easy to Learn, Easy to Use, Easy to Extend• Minimum Progress to Declare Victory. Avoid “Requirement

Creep”

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DevOps and Continuous Integration

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Engage

• APIs don’t build communities, people build communities• The API Economy is a social phenomenon• APIs are a contract• Community management is not optional – invest in people• Your people may already be good at this• Good APIs make hiring easier• Web APIs set the bar for consumability• A VC Fund for your API

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$1m

$250k

$2m

$1m

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Then Forge

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API Management – The New SOA

• Authentication and authorisation• Billing• Browsing and discovery• Certificates• Documentation• Interface Conversion (SOAP to REST, XML TO JSON)• IP addresses• Publishing• Portal• Testing• Throttling

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Turn Legacy into New Products

“The lumber industry sells what used to be waste — sawdust, chips, and shredded wood — for a pretty profit. Today you’ll find these by-products in synthetic fireplace logs, concrete, mulch, particle board, fuel, livestock and pet bedding, winter road traction, weed killing and more.”

Jason Fried, 37signals

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• Activity Streams• Customer service feedback• Influence patterns – internal and external• Location, location, location• Operational data - maintenance• Search Logging – for prediction• Sentiment• Transactional (meta) Data

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APIs: Now a Billion $ Business

= $2 billion/year

“90% of what we do is business through APIs”

John Watton, Expedia Affiliate Network, Travolution.co.uk, April 2012

Affiliate Network

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Social, Local, Mobile

Facebook:1bn monthly active users500m+ are mobile30 Petabyte+ Hadoop cluster

Foursquare:3m Check-Ins Per Day500k Merchants

Twitter:340 million tweets per day24m – Lady Gaga’s followers

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Transactions in the Age of Engagement

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Afraid of Downtime?

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Recommendations and Wrap Up

API-First developmentDeveloper Experience marries social and technicalDocumentation is a developer funnelInvest in DesignInvest in Developer Relations and Developer ExperienceInvest in solid tooling, designed to support peopleOpen Source contributions foster community goodwillMake future API plans clear from the outset, where possible Optimise for Happiness – for internal and external developers

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Optimise for Happiness

37Signals

Etsy

Github

How To Design A Good API and Why It Matters, Joshua Block

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Credits

Photos:SF in Cloud – SF ChronicleCraftsman – A. Davey on FlickrBarbed Wire by tacitrequiem on Flickr

VC chart data from the National Venture Capital Association and the Center for Venture Research, via @cbtacy from AppFog