Getting To Know Steve Klabnik For The API Craft 2014 Detroit Hypermedia Panel

I'm preparing for my hypermedia panel with Mike Amundsen (@mamund), Mike Kelly (@mikekelly85), Steve Klabnik (@steveklabnik), Kevin Swiber (@kevinswiber), Jørn Wildt (@JornWildt), and Markus Lanthaler (@MarkusLanthaler), at API Craft Detroit next week. I wanted to go into the panel with a snapshot, and at least a minimal understanding of each of the panelists. This is kind of an all-star panel of hypermedia experts, so I need to at least bump up my understanding of what they are contributing to the API space, and who they are, beyond what I know from my own interactions with these API leaders.

As I do with all of my research, I wanted to share my work with you, my reader. Next up is Steve Klabnik. I've known Steve for a while, and have had the pleasure of having him speak at API Strategy & Practice, as well as joined him speaking at API Days in Paris. I'm thankful for Steve's work on JSON-API, but I think that his other projects, and his consistent presence across the Twittersphere, and the intensity of his contributions to the Ruby on Rails community, is what stands out.

Here is the outline of my research into Steve’s work:

Steve Klabnik

I'm Steve Klabnik, and I've been a Rubyist for years now. I'm a Rails committer, instructor with Jumpstart Lab, and a prolific Open Source contributor. I think that the web is the best thing that mankind has ever built, and I care about it a lot. As the web becomes more and more programmable, we need to understand how our applications interact with the overall ecosystem, and build great services to power our shared future

Title: lim x → y f(x) = BwO
Mission: AXIOM 1: The war machine is exterior to the State apparatus. 

  • Website - https://www.steveklabnik.com/
  • Blog - http://words.steveklabnik.com/
  • Blog RSS - view-source:http://feeds.feedburner.com/steveklabnik/words
  • Twitter - https://twitter.com/steveklabnik
  • Github - https://github.com/steveklabnik
  • Instagram - http://instagram.com/steveklabnik
  • Stack Overflow - http://stackoverflow.com/users/24817/steve-klabnik

I consider Steve a part of the consciousness of the API space, and the larger "API Economy". I feel Steve's contributions go beyond JSON-API, and provide us a critical perspective, one that is not rooted in technology, but our collective self, working to understanding not just the how, but the why of all of this crazy shit.


JSON:API

A standard for building APIs in JSON, extracted from the JSON transport implicitly defined by Ember Data's REST adapter.

Links:


Projects:

  • Rust for Rubyists - The classic first community tutorial to Rust - http://www.rustforrubyists.com/
  • Jumpstart Labes - Jumpstart Lab is a small team passionate about technical education. - http://jumpstartlab.com/team
  • Hackety Hack - Hackety Hack is an open source application that teaches individuals how to create software. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackety_Hack
  • Rails - http://contributors.rubyonrails.org/contributors/steve-klabnik/commits

Presentations:

  • Confreaks - http://www.confreaks.com/presenters/456-steve-klabnik-
  • Lanyrs - http://lanyrd.com/profile/steveklabnik/

Stories:

Videos:

  • Designing Hypermedia APIs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4sqydY3hHU

Books:

  • Designingg Hypermedia APIs - http://www.designinghypermediaapis.com/

I'm not posting all of this information just so I can share my research, it is also because Steve is a voice that the API space needs to hear, and I want to better understand the role he plays, while also helping you understand along the way. While I learned a lot through this process, I will also use it as a reference for my panel at API Craft, and for other stories I write in the future.

I've already added JSON:API as a tools in my hypermedia API research. I could spend days going through this research, but I also have 3 other hypermedia API experts to profile, so I'm going to move on to the others, and come back to my profile of Steve in the future to continue my own hypermedia education.