The news came out yesterday that SmartBear was taking over ownership of Swagger, from Reverb. Swagger has been outgrowing its home at Reverb for some time now, becoming much more than I think even Tony originally imagined. You can find the official announcement from SmartBear on their site, and Tony’s thoughts over on the Reverb blog. No need for me to recap, but I did want to provide some of my personal thoughts on the shift in this very important project.
I feel like we are embarking on the next stage in the evolution of Swagger. Over the last couple of years, the Swagger community has see growth, adoption, and investment at an unprecedented pace, culminating in version 2.0 of the spec and now its transfer SmartBear. The scope and passion of the Swagger community and the investment that Tony Tam specifically and also the API community have made -- these have all brought us to this moment.
I've known the SmartBear team for years, and after speaking with them about this transition of the Swagger specification, I believe SmartBear is the right steward for Swagger, during its next stage of its evolution. SmartBear understands the gravity of what they are now taking charge of: the Swagger specification representing a central truth throughout the entire API lifecycle.
SmartBear fully understands too that it was organic growth that made Swagger the force that it has become, and SmartBear is aware that a unique balance of leadership, open governance, and a strong community pull will be just as essential during the next stage of growth. I look forward to working with the Swagger community and SmartBear team to ensure Swagger continues playing a vital role across the API space, meeting the demands of the fast-growing API economy.
As I mentioned, I see Swagger as a central truth in the API economy, something I’m invested in beyond just my own IT infrastructure, as Swagger is also the cornerstone of the APIs.json format, that Steven Willmott (@njyx) and I created to assist in the next generation of API discovery. I am behind Swagger because I believe in Tony’s vision, and I also believe that the Swagger community will make this transition more about shifting gears for the Swagger spec and tooling, than it is about who is in charge of the project.
I’ve been tuned into the Swagger community since its inception, and the community support, contributions, and chatter has become pretty loud over the last year. I trust that SmartBear has experienced this scope as well, and understands the importance of Swagger having an open governance model, which would make this current transition all about shifting Swagger into 2nd gear, and setting up of open governance representing about shifting into 3rd gear, putting the ability to shift into 4th and 5th gear up to the Swagger community itself.
I am looking forward to what SmartBear and the Swagger community can achieve out on the open API highway!
