The 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.
I like it when a weekly reports starts with 101--every week should in my opinion:
- Sharing 101: How to share a file in your Dropbox — with a link - I like it when platforms help people with even the most basic of concepts. You never know where your users are starting at.
From the Accounting desk:
- BankLink to Xero: made even easier for Aussie customers - Xero working hard to identify gaps in their market, and working to quickly provide a solution.
- What’s New for Developers with Payments APIs - Intuit talking about their new payment APIs.
Just a handful Acquisitions I was watching:
- Cisco buys Tropo, eyes collaboration platform as a service - A ZDNet look at the purchase of Trop by Cisco.
- Tropo joins Cisco to Power next-gen collaboration APIs - A look at the acquisition of Trop, straight from the horses mouth.
- App Annie Brings You More Usage Data & Acquires Mobidia - Seems to be part of a larger trend toward analytics, but with a mobile focus, with the acquisition of Mobidia by App Annie.
Its fast becoming all about the Analytics:
- Introducing Monitor. Use Twilio Data Like Never Before - Twilio stepping up the analytics game for their platform, introducing a new solution.
- LinkedIn adds analytics to bolster publishing platform - LinkedIn adding in analytics to help publishers.
- App Annie Brings You More Usage Data & Acquires Mobidia - Seems to be part of a larger trend toward analytics, but with a mobile focus, with the acquisition of Mobidia by App Annie.
- Speed, Personalization and Analytics By @KRBenedict - A vendor piece, giving some insight into the growth area of analytics.
- Data Lens: Powerful Insights for Your Data - A look at analytics, and insights from Socrata, the open gov data folks.
Some discussion around API Aggregation:
- Sunlight Foundation to Roll Out a Unified API - A look at the unified platform from Sunlight, over at PW.
- Guest Post: Why The API Pattern Is Broken And How We Can Fix It · - A guest post I accepted this last week, from Own Rubels, which I consider to be a looking at how we connect APIs together.
- We’re making it easier to access and use Sunlight’s data - Sunlights take on their new unified API. I'm going to break down and see how it works.
Specifically API Analytics:
- Introducing Monitor. Use Twilio Data Like Never Before - Twilio stepping up the analytics game for their platform, introducing a new solution.
Some API Cache learnings from the week:
- Apache Spark: Caching and Checkpointing Under the Hood - The approach to caching over at Box, using Apache Spark.
- The Platform Cache - And some caching insight over at SalesForce.
A single API Deployment story:
- The Code Project API - Part 2 - Getting Some REST - The continued story over at the Code Project, about their own API that they are launching.
Looking at API Deprecation:
- Dropbox API V2 Brings Sync, Datastore API Deprecations - A look at the changes at Dropbox, from PW.
- Retiring the legacy API suite - A random API deprecation announcement from a payment provider I found.
Couple of API Design tips from the week:
- Do you really know why you prefer REST over RPC? - The continuing stories out of API Handyman. This time taking on REST over RPC. Let me know when you don't want me to unleash my readers on your stories. ;-)
- Nearly all web APIs get paging wrong - A look at approaches to API paging. Not a fan of the title, but enjoy learning from these API design stories.
More security, but in the realm of API Discovery:
- Google Patches API Explorer Clickjacking Vulnerability - An interesting security story at the API discovery level.
The utopian API Economy vision:
- Open Economy – Scott Ludlam - A high level sale of open data and APIs, focusing on an open economy.
Some API Event residue from the week:
- University API & Domains (UAD) Workshop Tickets, Salt Lake City | Eventbrite - Come see me talk in Utah in the beginning of June.
- Twitter developer events: May 2015 - Developer events from the Twitter ecosystem.
- Intuit Goes Local - Intuit bringing their ecosystem to the local level, and focusing on their core audience -- small business.
- Start planning for Google I/O! - Uh Oh. It is Google IO season again. Lots of Google and Android API discussions.
- Apply to host DPLAfest 2016! - I am so going to try to get to the DPLAfest the next year. I hope it is in cool place.
- World Tour Featured Speaker: Travis Spencer - A peek at the Nordic APIs world tour.
Talking about API Integration patterns and opportunities:
- Salesforce Integration Patterns - A look at some SalesForce integration patterns from Mulesoft.
- Integrating with Salesforce: A primer for ISVs - Interesting look at integration from SalesForce too.
- Box integration - CloudConvert showcasing their integration with Box.
- Elance-oDesk rebrands as Upwork, starts new chapter as the freelance marketplace for the information age - I use to showcase both of these companies as outlet for finding devs to to integrations, until they kind of snubbed me on a bunch of work I did, and took it in house. Figured I'd pick up the torch.
- Freelance marketplace Elance-oDesk rebrands as Upwork, launches unified site for finding your next gig - Another look at the platform potential over at NextWeb.
Looking at API Management practices:
- Imagining a Pied Piper API - A showcase from 3Scale on how the Pied Piper API uses their API management tools.
- Introducing the Qbox Help Center - A support center out of QBox. Something to look at.
- USA.gov in Beta: Tell Us What You Think - The federal gov looking for feedback on their new site and services. An approach agencies deploying APIs should follow too.
Considering API Monetization:
- New Dyno Types and Pricing Public Beta - Interesting insight into pricing changes over at Heroku.
- Introducing the Pricing API — easy access to your current Twilio prices - A sign of a really mature API, the ones with an API for pricing.
- Telecom APIs for Monetization of Communications-Enabled Applications - Some research looking at monetization of the telecom pipes.
A single API Monitoring story:
- Runscope Turns Two: 40,000 Developers Strong - Runscope continues to grow up.
The API News, that isn't fit to print:
- Civic Awesome: Open Data in the News for the Week of May 4, 2015 - The news on open data out of Socrata.
- Weekly API.Report For May 4th, 2015 · - Last weeks report.
- Announcing AlchemyData News - IBM / Alchemy API publishing a nata news series. We'll see if its more data or more machine learning in time.
- Angel.co Syndicates, StackOverflow Users: Weekly Data Stories - Some stories from the data platfom Silk.
- API News Rundown 5.4.15 - APIMetrics continuing their participation in the weekly API news game
- AWS Week in Review – April 27, 2015 - The weekly update from over at AWS.
Let's discuss API Security every week:
- API Security: The 4 Defenses of The API Stronghold - Some basics on API security from Nordic API team.
A couple of API Videos I wanted to share:
- Marcos Placona at APIDays/APIStrat Berlin 2015 - YouTube - Marcos from Twilio talking at APIDays Berlin / APIStrat Europe the previous week. I will keep trickling out each week.
- Orlando Kalossakas at APIDays/APIStrat Berlin 2015 - YouTube - Orlando from Mashape talking at APIDays Berlin / APIStrat Europe the previous week.
A cool Artificial Intelligence story I found:
- AI – Our final invention? - A pretty cool look at AI over at Royal Pingdom. Not your usual look at AI.
An Audio item to consider:
- The Power of SoundCloud As A Podcast Publishing Platform - I'm continuing my understanding of how SoundCloud works, for better integration into my platform.
Keeping an eye on Automobiles:
- Daimler autonomous Freightliner truck (licensed for operation on public highways in Nevada). - Coverage about the autonomous Freightliner truck that made the rounds this week.
- The first self-driving 18-wheeler hits the highways - CIO - More coverage of the autonomous Freightliner truck that made the rounds this week.
- Smartrim: App-enhanced Parking Assistant - A parking assistant to augment our existing behavior.
- TomTom aims to be a main provider of tech for self-driving cars - Makes sense. They are already at the center, might as well work to dominate.
A single Badges story to showcase:
- Open Badges Technical Specification - I am following badges and certification, but specifically curated this because of the JSON-LD use.
Always Business of APIs items to showcase:
- The Road to Open API:s | Blog | Prophecy | yle.fi - I am not going to cover their API, because of language difference, but I thought the story was worth sharing.
- What is The Future of the API Space? - An interesting piece I participated in around the future of the API space.
- Innovation as-a-service - APIs are a growing part of the major consulting firms. I've had conversations with several of them.
Some Careers paths to consider:
- API Architect at Intergraph in Huntsville, Alabama Area - An architect position at Intergraph in AL.
- Senior Specialist, Commercial APIs at Mylan Inc. in Morgantown, US-WV - Are you a senior specialist in commerce APIs? Here is one at Mylan in WV.
- API/Infrastructure Engineer at Quest Groups LLC in San Francisco Bay Area - An API infrastructure engineer position in Bay Area at Quest Groups.
- Product Manager - API (Santa Monica, CA) at Cornerstone OnDemand in Santa Monica, CA - Job | LinkedIn - An API product manager role in Santa Monica.
- Developer Evangelist at Sabre in Grapevine, US-TX - Job | LinkedIn - Travel platform provider Sabre is looking for a dev evangelist. TX w00t!!
- Product Manager, API Strategy at CVS Health in MA - Boston - Job | LinkedIn - This API Strategy at CVS health would be a pretty interesting gig, basically focusing in on their healthcare mission use APIs.
Looking at Cities:
- Smart Buildings Make Smart Cities - Temboo does some interesting IoT things, and here is their take on buildings...something I tend to not cover much.
- How Smart Cities Are Promoting API Usage - Stories about city API usage from Mark's talk at API Days Mediterranea.
Then also City Government:
- Tools, Not Tech - More wisdom out of the Smart Chicago Colaborative.
EFF protecting YOUR Civil Liberties:
- A New Chapter in the Fight for Civil Liberties - Please support EFF.
Cloud Computing discussion heating up some more:
- AWS GovCloud (US) Update – AWS Key Management Service Now Available - I need to break down the AWS key management service.
- VM Infrastructure API Hub – Powering the Integrations of Hybrid and Multi Cloud Portals - The continuing APIfication of the VM layers of our world.
- EMC Partners with Puppet Labs to Speed DevOps in the Enterprise - Some partnering to bring DevOps services to the masses.
- Google invests in AppScale Systems to drive compatibility with App Engine - Google investing in its partner ecosystem.
- Microsoft Announces Azure Stack for Private Clouds - Microsoft's big cloud play -- private clouds. yay?
- Microsoft introduces Azure DNS in public preview, expanding its cloud capabilities - Their continued work to be on par with AWS, when it comes to the cloud stack.
- Simple and Repeatable Cloud Deployments - At some point I will play with as a model for simple and repeatable API deployment.
- The Netflix Tech Blog: Introducing FIDO: Automated Security Incident Response - More open source goodness out of Netflix.
- Cloudera could be worth almost $5B with $199M in revenue this year, analysts say - A look at valuations in the cloud space, beyond the titans.
- Google, VMware, and Red Hat just joined together to kneecap red-hot startup Docker - Beginning of consolidation in the space?
- Microsoft has a clever plan to keep its cloud business growing (MSFT) - Not so sure it is clever, kind of old news, but I guess it is significant.
- Microsoft launches Operations Management Suite to deal with infrastructure across clouds - Some more look at the cloud operational releases out of Microsoft.
- OpenStack's Kilo Release Powered by APIs - Some APIs out of OpenStack.
I like Comics:
- Marvel has an awesome API so you can build apps based on its comics and stories - More old news, but comics are cool, so will showcase.
Stories from the world of Commerce:
- A Perfect Pairing: MMS and Coupons - A simple commerce example of using MMS and coupons.
- Integrate Mailjet with the Shopify API: Dream Use Cases for Marketers - Another email example, with a commerce twist.
APIs penetrating the Consulting realm:
- Innovation as-a-service - APIs are a growing part of the major consulting firms. I've had conversations with several of them.
Do you love Containers?
- Goodbye, SaaS — hello, Containers-as-a-Service - Reflects some of what I've been talking about the future of providing APIs -- a whole new wholesale API world.
- Progress Leverages Docker to Add Support for Multiple Languages - A layer I haven't covered before -- serving multiple languages.
- Deploying Apps to Heroku with Docker - Heroku getting in on Docker movement.
- New Relic adds Docker monitoring, joins CloudFoundry Foundation - Of course, New Relic needs to make sure they can properly monitor this world.
- Introducing 'heroku docker:release': Build & Deploy Heroku Apps with Docker - A more technical look at Docker at Heroku.
- Google Backs Alternative To Docker, Cloud Computing's Next Big Thing - Drama in container-land.
Content related things I curated:
- Medium adds Creative Commons licensing for writers - Important licensing from Medium. ALL content and media platforms should follow this approach.
- The NSA's Voice-to-Text Capabilities - It is good to see they use voice to text capabilities. Maybe they will launch an API.
The usual weekly, County Government stories from Illinois:
- The Cook County Situation Report - The weekly situation in Cook County. Man I need some better sources here.
- New Cook County Data: Businesses Registered with the Cook County Department of Revenue - A look at the business data opportunity at the county level.
I saw someone post that Cybersecurity is explaining security to muggles: ;-)
- State Department: U.S. Concerned About Possible Chinese Cyberattack On Internet Content - FUD from State Department.
- A cybersecurity firm is being accused of faking hacks to squeeze money out of clients - Of course you do this. Job security man.
- Assuring Authority for Courts to Shut Down Botnets - Going after Botnets.
- Survey Results: Big Opportunity for Big Data in Cybersecurity - The continued security play out of Splunk.
The continuing Data discussion:
- Mass data-collection is back on the cards in the UK - This is something that worries me about what I do. I know the line, and never cross it in my work, but I am concerned about the line moving around me.
- Problems of Data Quality - Data quality is a huge problem.
- Secure Cloud Data Processing - Splunk securing data.
- The New Silk: Building a better platform for data - A look behind the motivations and tech behind the Silk data platform.
- Data Lens: Powerful Insights for Your Data - A look at analytics, and insights from Socrata, the open gov data folks.
- How a data-driven meal delivery service cooks up exactly what customers want - An interesting use case for meal delivery service.
- GitHub adds support for Jupyter notebooks to help data scientists collaborate - Learning more about how this works, to see if it applies beyond just data scientists.
A couple Database items from the week:
- Another look at MySQL at Twitter and incubating Mysos - Some MySQL wisdom out of the Twitter platform.
- Distributed SQL database Crate now available as Click-to-Deploy for Google Compute Engine - New offerings out of Google in the cloud database realm.
- Announcing Google Cloud Bigtable: The same database that powers Google Search, Gmail and Analytics is now available on Google Cloud Platform - Another look at the data offering from Google.
- Google introduces Cloud Bigtable managed NoSQL database to process data at scale - And a look from the outside.
- New DocumentDB Import Options - New database import options at Azure.
Something you don't see much, the Developer Showcase:
- Developer Success Story – Rexlo Joe - I like it when platforms showcase developer success.
A single DNS story from the cloud stuff this week:
- Microsoft introduces Azure DNS in public preview, expanding its cloud capabilities - Their continued work to be on par with AWS, when it comes to the cloud stack.
A single Document story, helping people onboard:
- Sharing 101: How to share a file in your Dropbox — with a link - I like it when platforms help people with even the most basic of concepts. You never know where your users are starting at.
Drones are good, wait no they are bad:
- Bits Blog: Chinese Drone Maker DJI Gets Lift From Accel Investment - Hopefully the drones we sell them will spy for us, and the drones they sell us will spy for them. Then we all win!!!
- FAA relaxes attitude to drone development - Slowly tracking on the drone related regulation coming out.
- The Anti-Drone Drone - Scientific American - I am so going to start tracking on anti-drone stories and technology. Love it!
Can't help buy cover Education, I get beat up if I don't:
- Share your Open Education Story - If you have a story to share.
- The Golden Lasso of Education Technology - The history in this is so cool.
- The OER Case for Federated Wiki - More OER goodness from Mike.
Looking at Email and APIs:
- 5 Ways to Overcome the Spam Blues - I'm keeping an eye on API driven email spam and security stuff. Just different approaches.
- Announcing MailChimp API v3.0 - New version out of MailChimp. Queuing up on my list to take a look at and see how I can use it.
- Integrate Mailjet with the Shopify API: Dream Use Cases for Marketers - Another email example, with a commerce twist.
Two Embeddable things out of SalesForce:
- Loading External JavaScript And CSS Libraries To Lightning Components - The continued embeddable stories out of SaleSorce.
- Creating Lightning Components: Action Processing and Binding Data - And some sophisticated techniques to work with data in components.
The tech from Europe:
- EU unveils digital shake-up aiming to break grip of US firms - More views on EU pushing back.
- EU Datacenter Guidance - Interesting advice, just for EU datacenters.
- This is Europe's plan to compete with US internet dominance - I'm rooting for you Europe.
The world of CSV, spreadsheets and Excel:
- Presenting semantic-csv: High-level CSV processing for Clojure - An interesting CSV tool I came across. I do not do anything in Clojure, but the approach was interesting.
Looking to the Federal Government to lead:
- Open Data Barometer: Ranking the Nations - How are we doing...yeah we can do better.
- USA.gov beta site leverages agency APIs - Better be using your own APIs in gov website development.
- USA.gov in Beta: Tell Us What You Think - The federal gov looking for feedback on their new site and services. An approach agencies deploying APIs should follow too.
Talking about the Financial space:
- UK Authorities Build Deferred Payments API for Residential Care - An interesting API usage out of UK gov.
- Mega Social Media Data for Financial Services Has Arrived - Ok? Hasn't social media data been use in Fintech for a while? Maybe not...
- Yodlee becomes partner of Australian FinTech Hub - Will have to research the FinTech hub more, and keep an eye on what they are up to.
A single Gaming item:
- Guild Wars 2 API Drops OAuth2 Support - You don't see many stories about dropping oAuth2 support.
I like healthy Getting Started guides:
- Tutorial: Getting started with the Evernote API + Node.js with azk in 10 minutes! - A simple tutorial out of Evernote.
Cause we all love GitHub, right? Maybe not all of us.
- GitHub Integration in Developer Assistant - I'm learning more about the Visual Studio Developer Assistant. I envision an API discovery layer driven by APIs.json in here, in the near future.
- GitHub adds support for Jupyter notebooks to help data scientists collaborate - Learning more about how this works, to see if it applies beyond just data scientists.
The wider Government discussions:
- AWS GovCloud (US) Update – AWS Key Management Service Now Available - I need to break down the AWS key management service.
- Announcing Open Government Fellows - Showcasing the open government fellows at OKFN.
- Council co-designed Deferred Payments Calculator API nears launch - Another look at that payments calculator from the source.
- GitHub may be the next step for government regulation - We've been hearing it for a while now, and starting to see good movement in this direction. We can hope.
- Integration: The True Make/Break Point for Government Modernization - Open Legacy focusing on government for a bit.
- OpenGov Voices: Making dollars and sense of DOJ's new FOIA fee rule - Will have to consider this more. Charging for government information is touchy area.
- We’re making it easier to access and use Sunlight’s data - Sunlights take on their new unified API. I'm going to break down and see how it works.
A few Hackathons to highlight:
- IBM Watson Hackathon Winners Announced! - The winners out of the Watson Hackathon.
- Romania’s first Open Culture Hackathon - Open Culture Hackathon. Interesting.
- Behind The Wheel: And The Winner Is…. - The continued, great stories out of Socrata.
- Hackaday Prize Entry: A Low Cost, Open Source MRI - Cool winner.
- Twitter highlights on ChallengePost - Good to see Twitter depends on ChallengePost.
A single Hacker Storytelling item this week:
- Analysts: Here are 5 Ways to Tell a Story with Reporting - One approach to consider as part of your storytelling toolbox.
Keeping an eye on Healthcare:
- 3 EHR improvements nurses most want to see - Nurses are probably the people we should be talking to.
- Hospitals are testing a way to detect malware by analyzing the flow of electricity to connected devices - Interesting approach to security.
- Apple wants to help scientists study your DNA - Yay. Study your DNA.
- IBM Watson collaborates with Epic and Mayo Clinic - Part of press campaign, but interesting to see the different coverage.
- IBM Watson Health, Epic, Mayo Clinic to Apply Cognitive Insights to EH... - Part of press campaign, but interesting to see the different coverage.
- New Apple ResearchKit apps would ask users to submit personal DNA data, report says - We'll see how well this goes.
- The Legal Side of Healthcare APIs - My thoughts about the legal side of healthcare APIs while reviewing an API.
- Product Manager, API Strategy at CVS Health in MA - Boston - Job | LinkedIn - This API Strategy at CVS health would be a pretty interesting gig, basically focusing in on their healthcare mission use APIs.
- Addapp helps you make sense of all that health data you’re collecting - I am a little wearing of platforms that want to make sense of all that data being collected.
- Hackaday Prize Entry: A Low Cost, Open Source MRI - Cool winner.
Learning from History is important:
- A big idea: how the European Union was set in motion 65 years ago - As I watch the EU fight back in the whole tech game, understanding the history of the EU seems important.
Connecting up the Home:
- Comcast Xfinity Home Automation Platform Releases SDK for Greater Customization - Of course Comcast wants in on this. I predict they will become a major player in brokering APIs in the home -- unfortunately.
- Kitchen Brains Partners with Canvas - Calling this home, because its kitchen, but it is more an industrial and commercial kitchen focus. I'm still evolving my industrial IoT tagging.
My continued research into Hypermedia:
- On choosing a hypermedia type for your API - HAL, JSON-LD, Collection+JSON, SIREN, Oh My! - Adding this to my hypermedia research, as I'm crafting my own approach.
- Open Badges Technical Specification - I am following badges and certification, but specifically curated this because of the JSON-LD use.
Keeping an eye on the potential for APIs in the IDE:
- GitHub Integration in Developer Assistant - I'm learning more about the Visual Studio Developer Assistant. I envision an API discovery layer driven by APIs.json in here, in the near future.
- GitHub’s Atom text editor picks up 750K downloads in its first year, with 300K monthly users - Atom is an interesting platform.
- Introducing Visual Studio’s Network tool - Adding to my knowledge about how Visual Studio works and is adapting to the new dev environment.
Insurance better watch out, APIs are going to shake shit up:
- Insurance Industry Expects Wearable Technologies to Impact Entire Business Model - Hard to tell how true this is at this point, but something to watch.
- Oscar Health – A new Kind of Health Insurance Company, Powered by AWS - A very interesting case study on AWS usage. Will have to review company further.
Making the International moves:
- Progress Leverages Docker to Add Support for Multiple Languages - A layer I haven't covered before -- serving multiple languages.
- EU unveils digital shake-up aiming to break grip of US firms - More views on EU pushing back.
- BankLink to Xero: made even easier for Aussie customers - Xero working hard to identify gaps in their market, and working to quickly provide a solution.
- EU Datacenter Guidance - Interesting advice, just for EU datacenters.
- Introducing: Klout Topic Expertise and International Expansion - Klout making its big move, and going international.
Can't avoid Internet of Things, if I tried:
- A vision of a decentralized IoT stack - Some really interesting insight here into IoT architecture.
- Arduino-Based Dispenser Delivers Liquids, Powders - A home and industrial IoT usage example.
- Dartmouth College upgrades Leverone Field House lighting - Pretty cool API usage.
- SAP doubles down on IoT, teams with Intel and Siemens - Of course they do. Question is, will it be action or press release.
- The GreenIQ Smart Garden Hub brings friends to the connected yard - Will I be adding a bucket to track on the connected yard??
- Gigabyte Launches Its New Intelligent Vending Solution - API driven vending solutions...
- GreenIQ Lays Roots at The Home Depot, Partners With IFTTT and Saves 2 Million Gallons of Water - Saving water makes for a good press release!! Hopefully we can truly deliver solutions in this area.
- The 10 Challenges of Securing IoT Communications - Security wisdom from PubNub. Adding for inclusion into my IoT and security research.
Some Investment from the week:
- Fitbit files for IPO: 7 key facts - Fitbit is going for it.
- Fitbit files to raise up to $100M in IPO - Another take on the IPO.
- Investment Round in Cheddar Starts Heating Up - Some money flowing into banking and payment startups.
- Twilio raises $100M; is now worth over $1B, report says - More money for the telco API pioneer.
I like tracking on relevant JavaScript Libraries:
- Datalib - JavaScript Data Utility Library - Making sure it is included in my data stack.
A JSON-LD sighting!
- Open Badges Technical Specification - I am following badges and certification, but specifically curated this because of the JSON-LD use.
Talking about Licensing:
- Medium adds Creative Commons licensing for writers - Important licensing from Medium. ALL content and media platforms should follow this approach.
It is all about the Location, or is it the bass?
- Publishing iOS Location Data w/ Swift and MapBox API - Some mobile location details from PubNub, with MapBox goodness.
- Displaying iOS Location Data w/ Swift and Google Maps API - An a Google Maps API version...
Some Machine Learning stories:
- Datumbox Machine Learning Framework 0.6.0 Released - New version of framework from DatumBox.
- Getting Started with Watson Developer Cloud Services - A getting started guide out of Watson team.
Mapping is important:
- Corporate Members: Growing Support - Who is involved with OpenStreetMap.
- Let's talk OpenStreetMap at the United Nations in New York - Mapbox getting political with their approach to mapping.
Messaging is a core area of API economy:
- Sensay Replaces the Search Engine with Human Conversation Using Twilio SMS - An interesting take on search, using Twilio messaging.
- A Perfect Pairing: MMS and Coupons - A simple commerce example of using MMS and coupons.
- How to Use MMS as Part of Your Mobile Marketing Strategy - A look at MMS in mobile marketing
- A Review of The CallFire Communication Platform · - A review I did last month on CallFire messaging platform.
- Twilio raises $100M; is now worth over $1B, report says - More money for the telco API pioneer.
Let's continue talking Microservices:
- Deploying Microservices to AWS at Gilt: Introducing ION-Roller - A pretty interesting look at the architecture going into the microservices approach at Gilt, using AWS.
Beyond just messing, and talking MMS:
- How to Use MMS as Part of Your Mobile Marketing Strategy - A look at MMS in mobile marketing.
A few Mobile nuggets:
- Facebook Enables Deep Linking for Mobile App Install Ads - Deep linking at Facebook.
- App Annie Brings You More Usage Data & Acquires Mobidia - Seems to be part of a larger trend toward analytics, but with a mobile focus, with the acquisition of Mobidia by App Annie.
- Box Announces New Mobile SDKs for Enterprise - Some mobile SDK love out of Box.
A single Net Neutrality item I wanted to discuss:
- Net neutrality – is Facebook a ‘basic service?’ - Some interesting questions...food for thought.
I learned a new acronym this week: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
- How AT&T is Using OpenDaylight - Learning more about OpenDayLight, and the potential at the SDN level.
- How CableLabs is Using OpenDaylight - Learning more about OpenDayLight, and the potential at the SDN level.
Pinterest dominating New release discussion, when they should have been doing for a while now:
- Here’s Ten Things Developers Want to Build on Pinterest’s New Platform - I am really interested in all the views of how Pinterest's new platform will be put to use.
- Meerkat Launches Developer Platform To Differentiate From Periscope - Hopefully they can out-maneuver the big Twitterz. I'm not a big fan of this type of tech, but will help cheer for them.
- MotaWord Announces New Translation API
- Pinterest Welcomes New Apps with Developer API
- Pinterest Developer API, SDK Finally Rolled Out - About time is all I have to say...
- Pinterest launches developer platform to make Pins interactive - The view over at NextWeb.
- Pinterest now wants developers to build apps based on all its lovely data - Yes developers. please use our lovely data now.
- Pinterest ready for developers to 'bring Pins to life' - Bring it to life! Amazing how many people jump on bandwagon once done, but few in calling for it to happen in first place.
Non Profit work in tech:
- Box.org + the Center for Sustainable Energy: Nonprofit Innovation for a Sustainable World - This is good, but I will have to look at corporate structure of Box, because when comes dodge taxes, then do this kind of work, it doesn't make me happy.
- Internet.org opens to developers, but won't support encryption over the web - I don't fully understand what this is. Its an org to deliver free services around the world? I guess only companies who can play with big boys, and support a free service at scale will be at table.
One NSA item leaked through:
- The NSA's Voice-to-Text Capabilities - It is good to see they use voice to text capabilities. Maybe they will launch an API.
An odd OAuth story from the week:
- Guild Wars 2 API Drops OAuth2 Support - You don't see many stories about dropping oAuth2 support.
Keeping the Open Data discussion going:
- Civic Awesome: Open Data in the News for the Week of May 4, 2015 - The news on open data out of Socrata.
- Open Data and Digital Services: Foundations for a New Information Economy - Some high level thought on the importance of open data and APIs.
- Weekly StandUp #12: What Happened at OpenCorporates - Weekly stand up over at OpenCorporates. I like keeping an eye on them.
- Open Data Barometer: Ranking the Nations - How are we doing...yeah we can do better.
- Open Data for California? - Pushing the open data agenda in California. This demonstrates that this open data is more about politics than tech, otherwise California would be rock'n it.
- Open data and related events – May/June 2015
- Understanding Illinois Pensions - There was a pension post from last week. Seems like an important area for open data, transparency, and APIs.
- Sometimes Open Data Just Needs That Human Touch · - Open data is not always about writing code. We need humans. Lots of them.
- Infographic: Much of the World is Deprived of Poverty Data. Let’s Fix This - Lots of work to be done on many fronts.
- A new approach to measuring the impact of open data - Sunlight knows.
- Looking back on PDF Poland 2015 - I like the name Personal Democracy Forum. We need more of these.
- Harvard-Open-Data-Project/droid · GitHub - A repo I am watching. Putting into university bucket too.
Two Open Source items I wanted to highlight:
- The Netflix Tech Blog: Introducing FIDO: Automated Security Incident Response - More open source goodness out of Netflix.
- Unpacking Open-Source REST Clients - Some learnings from the open source API client world.
Partners are a big part of API operations:
- SmartBear Teams Up With Accedia Offering Services and IT Solutions in Europe - A new european partnership.
- Corporate Members: Growing Support - Who is involved with OpenStreetMap.
- EMC Partners with Puppet Labs to Speed DevOps in the Enterprise - Some partnering to bring DevOps services to the masses.
- IBM Expands Watson Ecosystem with New Partnerships, Cognitive Computing Apps and Services - Its all about flexing the partners, until you have something everybody wants.
- IBM Watson Health, Epic, Mayo Clinic to Apply Cognitive Insights to EH... - Part of press campaign, but interesting to see the different coverage.
Couple Patents stories to highlight:
- Apple secures design patent for the Apple Watch - Not really news, but worth logging.
- Patents: How the tech industry is shifting from quantity to quality - Really? Ok. I'll keep an eye out for this as I process patents.
Just two Payments posts:
- Investment Round in Cheddar Starts Heating Up - Some money flowing into banking and payment startups.
- What’s New for Developers with Payments APIs - Intuit talking about their new payment APIs.
Building the Internet Platform:
- Bring Dropbox to your Gmail account - Going to review this how to and see how useful it is.
- Dropbox for Gmail update makes it easier to send large files and save files directly - I like the idea of having files from Gmail in Dropbox, but not sure i'm going to use, as I pull emails into my main system, and store on S3, but useful.
- How to integrate the OneNote API with Cloud Storage Providers - An interesting integration how to. Definitely Platform X to cloud storage providers is a very valuable resource.
- Peruse is a new natural-language search tool for your Dropbox and Box files - Interesting natural language search on top of, and across my cloud storage providers. I'd like to see more services like this.
- Integrate Ghost Inspector with Slack - Ghost Inspector is something I'm reviewing as part of my security and transparency work. Will play with Slack integration too.
- Integrate Mailjet with the Shopify API: Dream Use Cases for Marketers - Another email example, with a commerce twist.
Learning about Podcasts:
- The Power of SoundCloud As A Podcast Publishing Platform - I'm continuing my understanding of how SoundCloud works, for better integration into my platform.
Policing is front and center in the nation right now:
- As police militarization increases, Bounce Imaging claims its device can reduce violent confrontations - I do not buy into all the camera rhetoric, and that they'll fix the problems, but they are one tool in the toolbox, and I'm keeping an eye on as part of my overall surveillance and policing research.
Politics is something we seem to be good at exporting:
- Micro-targeting is America's latest political export - Micro-targeting. Man oh man.
From the Politics of APIs:
- The next generation of entrepreneurs will need more open platforms - Yes we will. Hopefully more companies come to understand the opportunities.
- Sony pulls music from SoundCloud over money dispute - Interesting fight between Sony and SoundCloud.
- The Legal Side of Healthcare APIs - My thoughts about the legal side of healthcare APIs while reviewing an API.
- The Politics of Twitter Data - An informative research paper on Twitter data.
- Pinterest now wants developers to build apps based on all its lovely data - Yes developers. please use our lovely data now.
Let's talk Privacy:
- Tor closes its Amazon-powered cloud service that let users donate bandwidth for anonymous browsing - This is too bad. I will keep an eye out for more backstory on this.
- A federal court just dealt a potentially huge blow to cellphone privacy - A disturbing precedent.
- Protect your privacy online with 70% off the VPN Unlimited Premium Plan - I am tracking on the promises of companies in the space.
- Integrate Ghost Inspector with Slack - Ghost Inspector is something I'm reviewing as part of my security and transparency work. Will play with Slack integration too.
- The data backlash: Privacy - Kind of a weak call to action, but still recording.
- The feds are rethinking how they use technology to track cell phone calls - Of course they are. It is a new age now.
A single Real-Time release:
- Netty 4.0.28.Final released - Keeping an eye on this real-time platform.
Please Reclaim Your Domain, otherwise some else will:
- Raspberry Preserve – A BitTorrent Sync client in a Mason Jar - A very cool implementation. I'd like to see these installed in public places. ;-)
- How to permanently delete your dating profiles on Tinder, Hinge and Match - Being able to delete your account should be fundamental to ALL online platforms.
- Snapchat finally lets users share content from its publishing partners - At first i thought this was a reclaim story, but it is just about syndicating of content partners. Not as exciting, but I will leave in to show their priorities.
Watching how Regulation plays out:
- FAA relaxes attitude to drone development - Slowly tracking on the drone related regulation coming out.
- GitHub may be the next step for government regulation - We've been hearing it for a while now, and starting to see good movement in this direction. We can hope.
- Fred Wilson: Here's why companies like Airbnb should share their data with the government - An interesting call for industry transparency and self regulation.
A recent Review I did:
- A Review of The CallFire Communication Platform · - A review I did last month on CallFire messaging platform.
RSS is still very relevant:
- How FeedsAPI Works with Kouio to Monitor Your Key Content - A cool showcase too.
- FeedsAPI Offers a Simple Way to Streamline RSS Feeds; New Feature Adds Keyword Filter Option - An interesting trick i'm considering integrating into my curation world.
Two SDK stories floated up:
- Box Announces New Mobile SDKs for Enterprise - Some mobile SDK love out of Box.
- Unpacking Open-Source REST Clients - Some learnings from the open source API client world.
Considering some evolutions in the Search discussion:
- Sensay Replaces the Search Engine with Human Conversation Using Twilio SMS - An interesting take on search, using Twilio messaging.
- We Tested How Googlebot Crawls Javascript And Here's What We Learned - Some valuable insight into the fast growing JS world, and how it impacts search and indexing.
- Peruse is a new natural-language search tool for your Dropbox and Box files - Interesting natural language search on top of, and across my cloud storage providers. I'd like to see more services like this.
- Webhose.io API Adds Viral Post Search Capabilities - Adding webhose.io to my review stack.
The Security items I paid attention to:
- Google Patches API Explorer Clickjacking Vulnerability - An interesting security story at the API discovery level.
- Secure Cloud Data Processing - Splunk securing data.
- Verizon and the data breach report - Some more security breach news to add to the stack.
- What 700 TB of cyber threat data can do for you - Cyber threat data is going to be big business -- you just watch.
- Time to say no to Lenovo? Still reeling from the Superfish scandal, Lenovo deals with another big security fail - Yep, say no.
- The 10 Challenges of Securing IoT Communications - Security wisdom from PubNub. Adding for inclusion into my IoT and security research.
- Security researchers found another 'massive security risk' in Lenovo computers - Yeah, I would think twice before buying anything Lenovo.
Showcase anything good in your ecosystem:
- IBM Watson collaborates with Epic and Mayo Clinic - Part of press campaign, but interesting to see the different coverage.
- Imagining a Pied Piper API - A showcase from 3Scale on how the Pied Piper API uses their API management tools.
- The Savvy Assistant: Doing It All, Powered by Box - A cool showcase in the Box ecosystem.
An interesting SMS item:
- Sensay Replaces the Search Engine with Human Conversation Using Twilio SMS - An interesting take on search, using Twilio messaging.
The weird world of Social:
- Facebook Study Disputes Theory of Political Polarization Among Users - Interesting discussions about social media influence.
Cause Software Defined Networking (SDN) is all the rage:
- How AT&T is Using OpenDaylight - Learning more about OpenDayLight, and the potential at the SDN level.
- How CableLabs is Using OpenDaylight - Learning more about OpenDayLight, and the potential at the SDN level.
Spreadsheet goodies:
- Blockspring Turns Google Sheets Into Client For Any API - Encourage you to check out what BlockSpring is up to.
At the State Government level:
- Understanding Illinois Pensions - There was a pension post from last week. Seems like an important area for open data, transparency, and APIs.
Always focus on good Support:
- Introducing the Qbox Help Center - A support center out of QBox. Something to look at.
Keeping an eye on the disturbing Surveillance news:
- Arizona town mounts dozens of new license plate readers in fake cactuses - America is becoming such a surveillance state.
- Twitter case exposes the Justice Department’s nonsensical views on disclosing government surveillance - So many double standards.
- Virginia Man Sues Police Over License Plate Database - Interesting. Will be keeping an eye out for more of these stories.
- Another Example of Cell Phone Metadata Forensic Surveillance - Adding to the toolbox. Thanks Bruce.
The world of Telecom:
- Telecom APIs for Monetization of Communications-Enabled Applications - Some research looking at monetization of the telecom pipes.
Telecom plus the Telephony items:
- Cisco buys Tropo, eyes collaboration platform as a service - A ZDNet look at the purchase of Trop by Cisco.
- Tropo joins Cisco to Power next-gen collaboration APIs - A look at the acquisition of Trop, straight from the horses mouth.
- Twilio raises $100M; is now worth over $1B, report says - More money for the telco API pioneer.
A single Translation item:
Freak'n Twitter Bots are cool, and I love people sharing their intricate stories:
- Twitter Bots · Appropriation, Iteration, Recontextualization - A very cool Twitter Bot implementation -- adding to the toolbox.
Something at a University to watch:
- Harvard-Open-Data-Project/droid · GitHub - A repo I am watching. Putting into university bucket too.
Just some Version releases:
- JW Player SDK for Android 1.1 Released - Update of the video player SDK for Android.
- Let’s Get Technical: Splunk Enterprise 6.2 - Moving forward with Splunk enterprise.
- Announcing MailChimp API v3.0 - New version out of MailChimp. Queuing up on my list to take a look at and see how I can use it.
The Video topics:
- JW Player SDK for Android 1.1 Released - Update of the video player SDK for Android.
- Meerkat Launches Developer Platform To Differentiate From Periscope - Hopefully they can out-maneuver the big Twitterz. I'm not a big fan of this type of tech, but will help cheer for them.
- Meerkat launches developer platform and API - Hopefully they can compete.
- Introducing cloud-based service for video upload, real-time manipulation and optimized viewing - Some more video service in the cloud for your toolbox.
As I continue learning about Visualizations:
- A Course for Visualization in R, Taking You From Beginner to Advanced - I do not have much experience with R, but maybe someday I will. Or maybe it will trigger you learning as well.
- Visualization is growing up - We have come a long way, but still so much work to be done with the wealth of API resources out there.
- How To Analyze Data: Eight Useful Ways You Can Make Graphs - Some handy tips.
- A Course for Visualization in R, Taking You From Beginner to Advanced - I do not have much experience with R, but maybe someday I will. Or maybe it will trigger you learning as well.
- Prototyping a card game about datavisualisation – Part 1 - I can see a card game being an interesting approach for some people, and some datasets.
Putting Voice to work:
- Powershell : How to Listen to your Outlook Emails like a Voicemail - An interesting voice how to from your emails.
- The NSA's Voice-to-Text Capabilities - It is good to see they use voice to text capabilities. Maybe they will launch an API.
Skeptically watching the Watch platforms:
- Apple secures design patent for the Apple Watch - Not really news, but worth logging.
- Apple Watch(ing)! - Some data on Apple Watch activity from Compete.
Water seems like something we should focus on more:
- GreenIQ Lays Roots at The Home Depot, Partners With IFTTT and Saves 2 Million Gallons of Water - Saving water makes for a good press release!! Hopefully we can truly deliver solutions in this area.
The Wearable space heating up:
- Fitbit files for IPO: 7 key facts - Fitbit is going for it.
- Fitbit files to raise up to $100M in IPO - Another take on the IPO.
- Insurance Industry Expects Wearable Technologies to Impact Entire Business Model - Hard to tell how true this is at this point, but something to watch.
Because Wordpress is important platform for API usage:
- WordPress Theme Customization API Usage Now Required - An API for the theme layer of WordPress.
- Creating a Free Hosted WordPress Blog that Uses SendGrid – New Video Tutorial - Major API to WordPress integration.
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!
