Adding A New Research Area To API Evangelist I Am Calling #APIDesignFiction

I have been writing some fictional stories on a project site I have called Alternate Kin Lane for some time now. Writing fictional stories in the tech space has provided a sort of pressure release valve for me, giving me a quick creative outlet throughout the week. Honestly, there are more stories in my notebook, than there are on the actual blog, but this is a sign for me that I need to spend more time working in this area.

I am making several shifts in my work lately, in response to kind of hitting the wall recently, a process that includes rethinking how I work on projects, and partner with folks in the API space, as well as an increased focus on the fictional side of my writing. I do not just want to write fiction that is derived from the tech space. I want to write fiction that helps me formulate my own view of the space, and who knows, maybe influence the space in similar ways my regular tech blogging has over the last five years.

If you aren't familiar with the concept of design fiction, it "is a method of critical design that uses fictional and narrative scenarios to envision, explain and raise questions about possible futures for design and the society." Up until now I was just dumping some random, crazy ideas into my fiction notebook, and taking the time to publish a few of these on Alternate Kin Lane. Now I'd like to try and bring a little closer to my daily API monitoring and research, and see if I can use to explore concepts around the tech, business, and politics of the API space--which is touching pretty much every aspect of our personal and business lives in 2015, leaving a pretty wide playing field.

I think some of my writing on Alternate API Evangelist will be just as dark as some of the stuff I've written on Alternate Kin Lane, but hoping my voice will evolve, and become more nuanced with time. The medium allows me to work through some potentially volatile concepts in a hopefully safer space--meaning, it gives me a quick out with people who disagree. It is fiction! ;-) I'm hoping this helps me work through unlimited number of scenarios that apply to the API space, but also gives me a place to vent, when the tech space gets me down--which seems to be quite often lately. 

While I want this fictional layer of my research to be tightly woven to my regular API industry research, I also want the separation between fact and fiction to be very clear. I will put the hashtag #apidesignfiction in each story title, as well has clearly stating that it is fiction on the page, like I do with Alternate Kin Lane. This way any tweets, or social shares set expectations right away, clearly showing this is a different way of exploring the API space for me--not the API space we have, but the one we might have, or maybe should have, or maybe will have if we don't get our shit together!