I study the API space. I want to understand how we got where we are at, and try to understand where we are going with our usage of APIs. To do this I monitor the best of the existing and new APis, using the blogosphere, Twitter, LinkedIn, Github and the open web looking for examples of how people are using APIs in different ways.
Currently I monitor the blogs of 804 API related companies and 205 blog feeds from other news and blog sources, as well as around 1000 API twitter accounts. As I read and curate this every day, I tag items according to a process I've evolved over 3 years of operation. Then at the end of each week I look at which tags are trending for the week, based upon what I've written and other news items I've curated along the way.
This is how I monitor trends. When Is see a tag trending, and I feel the area is interesting or has potential, I tend to spin off the topic into its own trend area. Now I can monitor it separately and potentially give it more attention, with the hope of finding new sources of information, companies and domain experts in this area.
I have done this with four main areas I've seen trending in 2013:
These are just a few of the areas I've had time to isolate and spin off into their own research projects. I have a short list of other areas I will tackle very soon, including voice, data analysis and visualization.
None of these project areas are concrete. They can change at any time, becoming entirely new areas or stay as it is, and since each project is its own Github repository, it can go idle, without any impact on the overall network--leaving it open for anyone else to use the data and content available within the project.
I will add new trending projects as I find them and have time, as well as add news, companies, APIs, tools, services and any analysis to existing project areas.
