Swagger is now Open API Definition Format (OADF) -- READ MORE
My Weekly API.Report represents the best of what I've read throughout the week, and is only what I personally felt should be showcased. Each news item comes with a link, and some thoughts I had after curating the piece of API related news. I'm trying to break down stories into as coherent buckets as I can, but it remains something that is ever changing for me, but ultimately I will settle on a clear definition for each of the research areas.
Open with an Account Management scenario:
- Feature 89: User logout API – logout current user from a Backendless app - Keeping track of folks who automate account operations.
Some Acquisitions from the previous week:
- Kairos Acquires IMRSV, Releases Facial Biometrics Tools - Yay, facial biometrics. One of my favorite areas to track on. NOT
- Amazon buys Amiato, a startup that built a cloud data warehouse before Redshift came out - A data acquisition from AWS land.
- Sprinklr buys GetSatisfaction, adding customer service to its platform - Outside news on GetSatisfaction acquisition -- I've recommend them as an API management building block for some time now.
- Get Satisfaction Joins the Sprinklr Family - The perspective on acquisition from inside the firewall.
Handful of Analytics items:
- Facebook Launches Analytics Tool - Facebook doing more analytics.
- What is Tin Can API? - You should learn about Tin Can API. I see a lot of potential for this API as a layer for the API space - http://apievangelist.com/2014/07/25/a-shared-distributed-experiencemetrics-layer-for-the-api-driven-application-stack/
A kinda sorta new take on API Aggregation:
- Combined Calls: Monetization Through The Bundling Of API Calls · - I thought this was an interesting approach. No word on whether it will be successful, but keeping an eye out for others doing it.
API Definitions continues to be big news:
- Auto-Generating Code Using Swagger Still Means You Will Get Your Hands Dirty · - Some thoughts this week on autogeneration of code from Swagger.
- Why The New API Blueprint Sharing Button From Apiary Is So Important · - The move by Apiary is significant to the space.
- Swagger For The Masses - Thoughts from Ole, the CTO of SmartBear on the future of Swagger -- Important.
Interesting API Deployment news:
- Diving Into Azure API Creation - How to do APIs over at Azure.
- Opportunities In The Long Tail Of API Deployment For Non-Developers, Using Kimono Labs · - Some great use cases coming out of Kimono. There are definitely some huge opportunities to use them to build APIs around the world.
- How Frameworks are Challenging Programming Languages - Interesting things to think about. Frameworks definitely have a big impact on many groups of developers.
- AnyPresence Launches JustAPIs API Builder - Lots of new players into the deployment game, especially when it comes to mobile.
- Appcelerator Arrow Provides API Builder for Apple Watch - An new API deployment tools just for Apple Watch. That is a first.
API Deprecation showed up as story this last week:
- Conversations API Deprecation for Versions 4.9, 5.0 and 5.1, and Custom Domains - An example of how to talk about API deprecation.
- What Are Good Example Of API Deprecation Policies? · - Had a reader as about examples for API deprecation.
Lots of great API Design advice:
- Bizcoder - Solving Dropbox's URL Problems - I learn so much from Darrel.
- Here We Go Again, SOA And API — We Have Already Done This! · - Getting my rant on about having done this again.
- 418: I’m a teapot, and other bad API responses - Some guidance on the HTTP Status code front
- Building Reusable REST API Services (Part 3 of 4) - Part three in the API design series from DreamFactory. I am going to binge-read all four of them again when done.
- In a REST world, there’s room for non-REST APIs - This question comes up everything couple months.
- JSON API Spec Goes Through The Hacker News Gauntlet - I really do not think this means what everyone feels it means.
- Here We Go Again, SOA And API — We Have Already Done This! · - Getting my rant on about having done this again.
I"ll keep owning API Discovery stories:
- Including Postman Collections In My APIs.json Files · - How I am including Postman Collections into my API Discovery layer.
Activity when it comes to API Events:
- DPLAfest 2015: Special Indy Activities and Attractions - DPLAfest rocks, I wish I could participate.
- API & Domains Summit - Come see me talk at BYU.
- Where You Will Find Me Next: Berlin, Barcelona, and Broomfield · - I forgot to put Provo on my list, but it doesn't really rhyme. I guess BYU does. Berlin, Barcelona, and Broomfield, then also BYU!
- Register Now for the Amazon Developer Day on April 25th in Los Angeles, CA - Upcoming AWS dev event. I wish I was in town.
- 2nd Annual API Strategy & Practice Tech Un-Workshops @ Gluecon 2015 « APIStrat - Our un-Workshops at Gluecon.
- April 2015 Meetup - API Craft San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) - Meetup - Keeping track of the local meetup events.
- Glue 2015 – May 20-21, Broomfield, Colorado – Announcing the APIStrat Un-Workshops - Covering Gluecon's announcement of our event as well.
I'm work'n so hard in the API Industry:
- The Work It Takes To Connect And Keep Up With Each Valuable API I Come Across - Just quantifying how much work it is to track on the companies I keep an eye on. (make sure Sam Elliot narrates story in your head as you read)
Filing these two under API Integration:
- Mashape launches Mockbin, allowing you to generate custom endpoints to test, mock & track HTTP requests & responses between libraries, sockets & APIs - http://mockbin.org/ - Interesting tools out of Mashape.
Nordic APIs dominating the API Lifecycle stories:
- API Lifecycle Development Stage: Deploying Your API - At some point I am going to go through Nordic APIs lifecycle stories and pull out the gems, for my Subway Map.
You know how i know API Management has come of age? Shitload of stories:
- How Not To Onboard With Your API: Fiber Locator API · - Do not use APIs as lead gen form, or I'll call you. Not good.
- My Minimum Viable API Footprint Definition · - Gathering my new thoughts on my my minimum viable API footprint definition. I'm working on automating for other providers to certify themselves.
- Analytics API Quick Start - Thought it was a good quick / getting started guide, to use as example.
- Working Toward An API Definition Driven, SEO, and Section 508 Compliant API Documentation Interface · - I intend to bring up 508 compliance as often as I can, until something moves.
- Introducing the Varnish API Engine | Varnish Software - A new entrant into the API management service provider game - Varnish.
- Encouraging Feedback By Thinking Through Your API Road Map, Out In The Open, On Your Blog · - Such an important cycle. I enjoy seeing it out of Dropbox.
- I Wish API Providers Published Their Developer Portals On Github So I Could Submit Pull Requests · - This was an interesting story, because of how many people have no idea what I mean. Got a lot of emails about people putting their open source code there, but didn't get you could host entire portal there.
- Dell Boomi API Management: Create, Publish and Manage APIs More Easily and Cost Effectively than Ever - Another new player from Dell. I am talking to them this Thursday, so I'm sure I'll have more to say.
- EMA on Dell Boomi: Multi-purpose PaaS Offers API Management - Some more details on Dell's offering as I was going through their site.
- Coinbase Launches New Developer Portal, Six-Week Hackathon - Adding to my list, so I can review their new dev portal.
- Developers Console – Now in HD - An update from the Google console. At some point I'm going to do an audit of everything present via the Google platform for managment.
- Try your API right away, with APISpark’s built-in Swagger UI - Restlet baking in swagger UI into the API deployment platform.
- Help us Shape the Azure Storage iOS Library - I am not a fan of surveys, but I am a fan of asking community for help around code libraries.
A big part o fmy storytelling process is API Mocking: ;-)
- Mashape Releases Mockbin, an Open Source API Mocking Tool - Requisite perspective from PW team.
Two stories to highlight when it comes to API Monetization:
- Combined Calls: Monetization Through The Bundling Of API Calls · - I thought this was an interesting approach. No word on whether it will be successful, but keeping an eye out for others doing it.
- Announcing New SendHub Plans and Pricing - A look into the thinking around monetization over at SendHub.
Handful of API Monitoring items:
- Building Developer Tools For Developers: Scout Goes Open Source on Server Side Monitoring - Open source monitoring for SMS out of Twilio
- Pager Duty Integration Enables One Stop Convenience for Alerting - A service to thinking about in the monitoring chain.
- Added Support for SOAP APIs - Their own thoughts on adding SOAP.
- APImetrics Adds Support for SOAP APIs - I'm guessing if you want enterprise business you need to support SOAP when it comes to monitoring.
Keeping the infinite API News loop going (have you seen that movie Interstellar?):
- This week in API land, 4th edition - Good roundup from the Restlet team.
- Weekly API.Report For April 6th, 2015 - Just including the link from last week to add to API news recursion.
- API Digest: Does Your API Need to Get Fit? - A nice roundup over at API2Cart
API Performance is fast becoming a majore theme:
- How Guardian Eliminated An API Performance Issue - A look into API performance over at the Guardian.
- The Internet Performance Market is Smoking Hot - Usually I do not agree when a service provider makes claims, but I have to agree it is.
- Introducing Vector: Netflix's On-Host Performance Monitoring Tool - More open source goodness from Netflix that can be used across the space.
A single API Reciprocity case study to note:
- How HotelTonight Streamlined their ETL Process Using IronWorker - A case study out of the hotel industry.
This Application item was interesting:
- Introducing the ability to Launch Apps via the API! - An API for launching Apps!
A look behind the curation, at the Etsy Architecture:
- Etsy getting crafty with Facebook's open source virtual machine - Another take on what Etsy is up to.
APIs making inroads into the world of Audio Visual:
- The Product is Dead, Long Live the Platform - An interesting story from the fringes of API space -- audio / visual producers.
Blockchain is interesting:
- Coinkite Releases Tor Bitcoin Wallet API - Bitcoin continuing its migration onto my monitoring radar.
Two Business Intelligence data points:
- Clearbit APIs Aim to be Data Backbone of Business Decisions - I am going to try and understand what Clearbit is up to.
- LexisNexis and DataSift: Powerful Insight from News and Business Sources - A business intelligence partnership from DataSift and LexisNexis
The Business of APIs:
- How to make the Chamber of Commerce relevant to the innovation sector - Modernizing the world of chambers, would be a full time gig for an API evangelist. Any takers?
- Google Innovation Goes Beyond Search to Robotics, Wearables, Cars and... - An interesting look at the big picture over at Google.
Cameras will continue to capture our attention in good and bad ways:
- Cameras are the black sheep of IoT - Cameras definitely have their own slice of the pie. Interesting to watch as evercam continues to tackle.
- Seeing is believing – Thank you Robochop – CCTV meets Industry 4.0 - manufacturing and cameras!
- Remote Controlled Wildlife Camera with Raspberry Pi - A more fun camera implementation.
- Video system captures vital signs from faces - And a not so fun camera story..
A handful Careers options:
- Senior Software Engineer ( Android SDK) at Rovi Corporation-Fan TV | A... - Like TV and APIs?
- Senior Software Engineer | Content Management at Brightcove - And an interesting video API gig.
- Search all Digital Jobs and Recruitment from Propel London - How APIs can help the economy in a significant way.
Two Case Studies:
- Kdan success story | Orange Cloud API: “simple integration provided us with powerful results” - A case study I found over at Orange.
- Sonar Adds To Its Customer Communication Toolbelt With Twilio SMS - A showcase from Twilio.
Two separate Chat items:
- Facebook launches standalone Messenger app for the web - Facebook all over the place with their messaging.
- Nexmo Releases Chat App API for Brand-to-Customer Engagement - A new chat app from Nexmo.
City Government was a lot shorter this week:
- Civic Awesome: Open Data in the News for the Week of April 6, 2015 - Sometimes I go through this and pull out stories. If I don't have time I'll just add to list, and let you look through.
- Open Data: Powering the Polls - Socrata making change around the country.
- Foodborne Chicago Affected by Twitter Geocoding Issue - Interesting backstory on a geocoding issue.
AWS dominating the world Cloud Computing, as usual:
- Amazon AWS Growth Highlights Cloud Maturity - I'd say the cloud is the most mature API space.
- Amazon EC2 Container Service becomes available, featuring new scheduler - New container goodies from AWS.
- EC2 Container Service – Long-Running Applications, Load Balancing, and More - More about the features in the new containerization services.
- Deploy Chef on Google Compute Engine with a Click - Some cloud orchestration additions from Google.
As well as the world of Cloud Storage:
- Amazon Elastic File System – Shared File Storage for Amazon EC2 - Also additions on the cloud storage front from AWS.
- Amazon launches Elastic File System, Machine Learning offerings - PW take on AWS new offering
- Spectra Logic Announces Updates and Enhancements to BlackPearlTM Deep Storage... - Deep Storage. Interesting. Will keep an eye out.
Couple of Commerce related stories:
- Experimenting with HHVM at Etsy - Code as Craft - Stories of scaling APIs over at Etsy.
- SupplyStream to Launch Product Catalog API - A new commerce API to keep an eye out for.
Containerization conversations:
- Flocker 0.4: New API, CentOS 7 support and more - Taking a look at their new API offering.
- How to use Docker Compose to run complex multi container apps on your Raspberry Pi · Docker Pirates ARMed with explosive stuff - I am going to do this, and figure out how to put my infrastructure on Raspberry Pi.
- Microsoft Unveils New Container Technologies for the Next Generation Cloud - Microsoft jumping into container game with their own technology.
- Service Healing – Auto-recovery of Virtual Machines - And their look at how they approach virtual machines at Azure.
- CRATE - I'm adding Crate to my database, and learning more.
- CoreOS raises $12M and introduces its Tectonic platform, featuring Kubernetes - Some investment in the container space.
An interesting Copyright discussion:
- SoundCloud starts working with YouTube's partner to scan music for copyright infringement - Partnering to scan for copyright infringement between API platforms.
Just including a digest from the County Government space:
- The Cook County Situation Report - Another weekly report I usually cherry pick from, but just including today.
A single CRM item:
- ToutApp Launches an Open API for Enhanced Customer Management Tools - Adding ToutApp to list, so I can monitor.
Data is short and sweet this last week too:
- #ThisWeekInData - A data roundup I didn't process all the way. Will get to.
- Extracting Structured Data From Recipes Using Conditional Random Fields - An interesting "recipe" for extracting data in the NY Times.
- Lawsuits in Chicago and Vienna challenge Facebook’s data practices - Some challenges to Facebook on the data front.
- Techniques to Anonymize Human Data - Some helpful advice from DataSift.
- German privacy regulator orders Google to limit its use of customers’ data - Some data privacy challenges for Google out of Germany.
- In Targeting the Lucrative Hispanic Market on Mobile, Location Data Is Key - An interesting, and slightly disturbing story on data targeting.
The Data Center discussion is continuing to be interesting:
- Data Center Layout Visualization With XML and XSLT - Visualizing the data center with machine readable data.
Database APIs are important:
- How to Convert an SQL Server Data into JSON Object - Direct from SQL Server to JSON. Would like to more API management lessons here, but a start.
- Microsoft makes its Azure DocumentDB cloud NoSQL database available to all - Database in the cloud from Azure.
- Orchestrate Events API Now Features Search for Time Series Data - Orchestrate coverage at PW.
- CRATE - I'm adding Crate to my database, and learning more.
- Accessing a REST Based Database Backend From an Android App - A DB to Android how-to.
Breaking out of just the world of DNS:
- DNS Made Easy Introduces Load Balancing System that Ensures Optimal Traffic Flow - Moving from DNS world into the architecture stack.
Drones, the good and the bad:
- India: City police to use pepper-spray drones - Yay! Pepper spray drones for crowd control. Yay technology.
- 20 incredible images captured by a drone - And the beautiful side of drones.
- Amazon’s newest delivery drone prototype has approval for testing in the US - The government has to say yes to Amazon.
- Considering The 3D Robotics Drone API As Potential Blueprint For The Drone Industry · - My thoughts on the potential for a drone API blueprint.
- AIG wins approval to fly drones to help process claims - Crossover into insurance and disaster space?
Couple things Education front caught my attention:
- Lego Mindstorms: A History of Educational Robots — The History of the Future of Education — Medium - A kick-ass education story from the queen herself.
- Fresno Unified School District Combines Report Cards, Attendance Sheets and More Into A Text - Interesting use of SMS in schools.
- Ministry of Higher Education and Research: public open data - Some research that applies to higher education on open data.
Embeddable, mostly highlight whats up at SalesForce:
- Facebook’s Embedded Player is Broken, Here’s What They Can Fix to be a Serious YouTube Competitor - Some insight from the people who know.
- Creating a Salesforce Lightning Map Component - A mapping component from SalesForce.
- Displaying Summary and Matrix Reports with Lightning Components - Embeddable bleeding into the world of reports. I am thinking of creating an area for tracking on reporting focused API stories.
- Building Apps with the Lightning Components JavaScript API - They are all over the lighting components lately. I think their approach is worth sharing.
I <3 the Enterprise:
- Azure Marketplace is now available to more Enterprise Customers - You hear that enterprise. Go get it!
I don't <3 Facial Recognition:
- Kairos Acquires IMRSV, Releases Facial Biometrics Tools - Yay, facial biometrics. One of my favorite areas to track on. NOT
Just three Federal Government stories:
- 18F — Flexibility When Releasing A New Product: Peace Corps' New Donations Platform - Interesting story of the Peace Corps donation platform.
- Wholesale Government: Open Data and APIs — Medium - A good story on open data from my friend Nick.
- USASpending.gov addresses some data issues, adds Github issues tracker for feedback - There were problems in the USASpending.gov release, but its good to hear it publicly, and learn from it.
Single Gaming tidbit:
- Four Ways to Introduce Micropayments into your Online Game - Gaming seems like an interesting payment space.
A single Government thing to comment on:
- Government in Your Pocket - Yes. We all want government in your pocket.
What is shaking at Hackathons:
- SpeedHack - Hackathon - Coverage of our speed hack in Berlin next week!!
- The xAPI + IoT Hackathon at the Thingstitute - An interesting hackathon happening this week.
- SpeedHack - Hackathon - Coverage of our speed hack in Berlin next week!!
- Behind the Wheel: Keeping Hungry Hackers Happy - OMG. I wish all people cared about the food at the hackathons as much as Socrata does.
- IBM Offers Bluemix to Aid NASA's Global Hackathon - IBM getting the love around the space hackathon.
- Build the Future, Hack the Universe - Curious to see what came out of the event.
- Coinbase Launches New Developer Portal, Six-Week Hackathon - Adding to my list, so I can review their new dev portal.
- In Case You Missed It: #a11yhack, an Accessibility Hackathon - 18F rocks!
More Healthcare momentum:
- Lifepoint Releases API Toolbox for Healthcare Compliance - Some healthcare related compliance and regulation.
- Validic Connect Aggregates Data From Health Care Devices and Apps - An aggregation player to watch.
- Bringing Clinical Data into Box to Better Coordinate Care - Box pushing into more verticals.
- ManaCloud API Offers Access to Health Records - Another EHR player to keep eye on.
- Technology Must Catch Up to Health IT Demands - Kind of thinking its more of a two way street.
Your weekly dose of History:
- New exhibition on 1918 influenza pandemic - I just love history.
Echo dominating the Home:
- Amazon’s Echo speaker is now also a smart home hub - A story on Echo.
- Amazon Echo can now turn appliances on and off thanks to WeMo and Hue integrations - More look into how it will be used.
- Sign up Now for the Amazon Echo Beta SDK - The official announcement from AWS.
Slcak Integration is just cool:
- Integrations 101: Adding Twitter to Slack - I have a couple of Slack integrations I want to do. I like seeing 101 gyuides too.
Look at that, only three things in Internet of Things, and I wrote one:
- A Little Standardization Around How We Do Internet of Things (IoT) APIs And Developer Portals Could Go a Long Ways · - I am going to keep pushing on this subject.
- Internet of Things devices lack fundamental security, study finds - Yes they do.
- danalock - I am adding more IoT devices to my database that do not have an API, so I can start applying more pressure for them to open one.
A container related Investment I am tracking on:
- CoreOS raises $12M and introduces its Tectonic platform, featuring Kubernetes - Some investment in the container space.
More for my own needs, in the area of Links:
- Bitly replaces ‘bundles’ with ‘tags’ to help you sort your shortened links - I like tagging better than bundles. We will see how it works out.
Machine Learning is a leading topic, week over week:
- Amazon Machine Learning – Make Data-Driven Decisions at Scale - Machine learning must be lucrative if AWS is getting in on action.
- Amazon, following Microsoft, introduces a cloud service for machine learning - An outside view of AWS getting into machine learning, and comparing it with other cloud players.
- 5 Things You Should Know About AlchemyAPI - A nice snapshot of Alchemy API. I use them.
Two Mapping things to share:
- Progress on Open U.S. Addresses - I am following this closely.
- Build Realtime Firebase Maps with CartoDB - A cool real-time mapping partnership.
Messaging, blah blah:
- Build an SMS queueing system using Azure and 100 lines of code - A simple SMS how-to.
- Solace Releases New Version of SolOS Messaging Middleware Platform
Microservices observations:
- On APIs and Microservices - Not my game.
- Microservices on a Macro Scale: Learn Runscope’s Story at an Event Near You - I am curious to learn more about their approach.
- Testing a Microservice Architecture with Docker and Compose - A look at testing of containers.
- Byte Rot: Utilisation and High Availability analysis: Containers for Microservices - A look at high availability as it applies to APIs.
- Microservices Architecture: The Good, The Bad, and What You Could Be Doing Better - Some more stories from NordicAPIs.
A single Mobile story:
- Help us Shape the Azure Storage iOS Library - I am not a fan of surveys, but I am a fan of asking community for help around code libraries.
Only one New API that I thought was cool (grumpy this week):
- World Population API - API Browser - I thought it was an interesting utility API. We need whole suite of these types of APIs for developers.
Roundup from the world of Open Data:
- A Quick Look Around the Open Data Landscape - A nice roundup from Tony.
Zoom in to Ukrain, and out to the UN level, when looking at Open Government:
- Civil society in Ukraine takes a stand for open government - Go Ukraine!
- Open Data Barometer 2015: The United Nations Rankings - A high level look at open data.
Couple of interesting Partners related discussions:
- Meet On SoundCloud Premier Partner Chris Morrow from The Loud Speakers Network - Partner showcasing is essential part of lifecycle.
- LexisNexis and DataSift: Powerful Insight from News and Business Sources - A business intelligence partnership from DataSift and LexisNexis
- Springboard Retail Creates New Partner Program - A retail, API centric partner program.
- AWS Config Update – More Regions, Friendly Notifications, Partner Support - A partner showcase from AWS.
Just three Payment stories:
- Use Stripe to Get Paid Faster - Yeah! Use stripe!
- Four Ways to Introduce Micropayments into your Online Game - Gaming seems like an interesting payment space.
- BBVA Compass and Dwolla Launch Realtime Payment Service [Video] - More banks dabbling with online payments.
Focusing on the Platform Development Kits (PDK):
- Adding authentication to your React Flux app - A platform specific integration scenario.
- Introducing the Chrome App SDK - Box showcasing their Chrome App SDK, which I'd consider more PDK than SDK, because it is a specific platform, not language.
APIs in Politics:
- Open Data: Powering the Polls - Socrata making change around the country.
The Politics of APIs flares up in the Twitter ecosystem:
- How Not to be a Platform: Twitter's Firehose Mistake - Go Steve. Great insight.
- Working Directly With the Twitter Data Ecosystem - The view of the Twitter data discussion from Gnip.
- Twitter to cut off firehose resellers as it brings data access fully in-house - The view from over at NextWeb.
- Twitter Ends its Partnership with DataSift - The view of the Twitter data discussion from Datasift.
- Uber Encourages Its Own Third Party Ecosystem, The Disruptor Disrupts - The talk over in Uber ecosystem.
- Snapchat Lays Down The Law On Third-Party Apps - More thoughts on Snapchat dissing APIs.
Handful of Privacy discussion:
- Lawsuits in Chicago and Vienna challenge Facebook’s data practices - Some challenges to Facebook on the data front.
- Techniques to Anonymize Human Data - Some helpful advice from DataSift.
- Bits Blog: F.C.C. Fines AT&T $25 Million for Privacy Breach - Big news!
- In Targeting the Lucrative Hispanic Market on Mobile, Location Data Is Key - An interesting, and slightly disturbing story on data targeting.
Not really Rate Limits, but close enough:
- Sendible Helps Bypass Facebook Graph API V2 Restrictions - interesting workaround.
Change is hard in the Real Estate industry:
- How real estate technology can ‘catch up’ with open APIs | Inman - C'mon real industry, you can change!
Single Real-Time story to tell:
- Build Realtime Firebase Maps with CartoDB - A cool real-time mapping partnership.
Always Reclaim Your Domain when you can:
- Self-hosted Known 0.7.7 has left the building - and introduces a bold new service. - I still need to launch my own.
Another look at Regulation:
- Lifepoint Releases API Toolbox for Healthcare Compliance - Some healthcare related compliance and regulation.
- FCC gets tough on AT&T for data breach - We are going to see more of this.
- AT&T To Pay $25M To Settle Investigation Into Three Data Breaches - The take from the FCC.
- Bits Blog: F.C.C. Fines AT&T $25 Million for Privacy Breach - Big news!
- German privacy regulator orders Google to limit its use of customers’ data - Some data privacy challenges for Google out of Germany.
Keep trying Retail:
- APIs for CPG – Managing Bathrooms to Supply Chains - You had me at managing bathrooms.
Scalability talk at Etsy:
- Experimenting with HHVM at Etsy - Code as Craft - Stories of scaling APIs over at Etsy.
Love me some Scraping:
- Opportunities In The Long Tail Of API Deployment For Non-Developers, Using Kimono Labs · - Some great use cases coming out of Kimono. There are definitely some huge opportunities to use them to build APIs around the world.
- 6 PHP Libraries For HTTP And Scraping Websites - Tracking on and putting into my tools database.
- Scrape Data Visually with Portia and Scrapy Cloud - Will play with more, or if you do let me know.
A couple of interesting SDK nuggets:
- SDKs.io Search Engine Aids SDK Discoverability - Added SDKs.io to my API management, and keeping an eye on the crew.
- wreq: a Haskell web client library - Always keep an eye on the libraries out of Haskell world.
- PacketZoom SDK Replaces TCP to Speed Mobile Downloads - An interesting SDK approach.
- RealVNC to Provide SDK to Invoke Remote Control Software - Another SDK worth talking about.
A single Search story:
- Announcing the Common Crawl Index! - I am going to create Swagger definition for this.
Security talk from the week:
- Akana Certifies APIs Against OWASP Top Ten Vulnerabilities - Will evaluate their security offering more.
- Building device database and User Agent strings - An interesting use case, and would make a valuable API.
- FCC gets tough on AT&T for data breach - We are going to see more of this.
- AT&T To Pay $25M To Settle Investigation Into Three Data Breaches - The take from the FCC.
- Internet of Things devices lack fundamental security, study finds - Yes they do.
- Forum Sentry API Selected by Hambs for Security Solution - A security API I am reviewing.
- Significant Data Breaches – March 2015 - Keeping a list.
Sensors are everywhere!
- The internet of things: Of sensors and sensibility - Another look on the button craze.
- What are iBeacons? - A look at the beacon side of sensors.
- IoT Sensors, Tactile Feedback, iPhones and Digital Transformation - Had a number of building blocks I want to keep track of for the space.
Showcasing the Showcase stories:
- Quandidate.com chooses Filepicker for their file upload and processing needs. - Always showcase your customers.
- Introducing our integrations with Pixicle & Photofy! - Walgreen gets it. They showcase all their significant integrations.
Will they really be Smart Cities?
- Smart Cities Will Use 1.1 Billion Connected Devices in 2015 - Predicting the future!
On the Smart Watches front:
- Can Improved Third-Party Apps Save the Apple Watch - All of the app stories about Apple Watch are interesting. I am not excited about watch, but interested in the constraints it brings to the table.
- Appcelerator Arrow Provides API Builder for Apple Watch - An new API deployment tools just for Apple Watch. That is a first.
Its all about the numbers when it comes to Social:
- The Biggest Twitter Publishers Of March 2015 - Some Twitter numbers.
Tracking on Software Defined Networking now too:
- Lenovo Rackswitch G8332 - A rack I am adding to research. Thinking I may need a products database soon.
I spend a good amount of time each week in Space:
- Asteroid Database and Mining Rankings - Asterank - Talk about cool!
Hope and despair when it comes to Surveillance:
- Sunlight Foundation joins coalition demanding an end to illegal mass surveillance - Curious to see who joins.
- Video system captures vital signs from faces - And a not so fun camera story.
Telecommunications blah blah:
- NTT Communications Releases ICT Services API Gateway Developer Portal - Not sure will be big seller. Guessing they do more API management too soon.
Is Television still a thing? If so when will it stop?
- Clearleap Integrates IRIS.TV API in New Partnership - TV partnerships.
Two very different Transparency reports:
- Kickstarter Transparency Report 2014 - Interesting, transparency over at KickStarter.
- Wikimedia Foundation releases latest transparency report - And fro wikimedia.
Keeping tabs on University discussions:
- Hacking Academia: Data Science and the University - Overlap with my API and higher education research.
- DPLA and Education: Findings and Recommendations from our Whiting Study - An interesting study over at DPLA
- API & Domains Summit - Come see me talk at BYU.
- Ministry of Higher Education and Research: public open data - Some research that applies to higher education on open data.
Stories all about Versioning:
- HeyWatch Blog | Introducing the HeyWatch API v2 - New version of HeyWatch.
- Analytics API Migration: v0 to v1 - A nice migration guide.
The Video space:
- Manage comments with the YouTube Data API v3 - A very important layer of YouTube.
- The future of Vimeo - An interesting look at the future of Vimeo, and I think applies to wider space.
Three interesting Visualizations this last week:
- Mixing Numbers and Symbols in Time Series Charts - I like the detail in the wave of visualization how-tos I an finding.
- Gallons of water to produce foods - More design learning...
- State Income Tax Brackets - Something that is relevant to us all -- which I think is important in visualizations.
Making sure these stories stand out as Voice discussions, not just home related:
- Amazon’s Echo speaker is now also a smart home hub - A story on Echo.
- Amazon Echo can now turn appliances on and off thanks to WeMo and Hue integrations - More look into how it will be used.
Casue we all want our Internet to be Wearables, right?
- Google announces Android Wear now has more than 1,000 different watch faces, adds straps from 3 new partners - Its becoming more about fashion than the tech.
A long term Weather forecast API eh?
- New Long Range Weather Model Provides Your Wedding Day Forecast - This was an interesting weather API, I wonder how accurate they are.
A good Webinar to attend. You know how i know, because I am in it:
- Picking the Low Hanging Fruit In API Deployment - Webinar - A webinar I am doing this week.
That concludes my report on what I read last week across the API space. I'm still working on pulling together a summary e-newsletter version, allowing people to get an executive summary of what I thought was important from the week--I am hoping it will be available next week. I'm also going to auto-generate some visualizations, and summary counts for each week. I'd like to see a tag cloud, and overall counts to help me understand the scope of news I cover each week.
If you know of something I missed, feel free to email or tweet at me, and make sure I know about your company, and have a link to your blog RSS. If you don't tell the story and share, the world will never know it happened.
It is a good time to be tracking on the API space--lots going on!
Updated November 27, 2015: Links were updated as part of switch from Swagger to OADF (READ MORE)
