API Definitions Are The Contract For Doing Business With APIs

I held a hangout with API Evangelist this morning, with Steve Willmot () of , & Jakub Nesetril () of  today, where we discussed API definitions. Both Steve and Jakub are CEOs of leading tech companies, who are taking frontline positions when it comes to the whole API definition conversation.

My role in this hangout, was just bringing together these two API leaders, to discuss the most important topic facing us in the world of APIs. API definitions are touching on every aspect of the API life cycle, and as Steve and Jakub discuss, playing a central role in their businesses, and their customer's businesses. We published the hour and half conversation on Youtube, so you can join in, even if you couldn't make the hangout.

 

 

The focus on API definitions being the contract, was the most important part of today's hangout for me. This wasn't a conversation about just Swagger, or API Blueprint, it was a discussion about the role API definitions play in the API life cycle, from the latest wave of API description formats like Swagger and Blueprint, to API discovery formats like APIs.json, and even media types, and schemas. These are the contracts we are using to communicate our ideas, generate code, setup tests, drive documentation, and make the API economy go roudn.

This hangout was scheduled to be an hour, but there was so much to cover, we took it an extra 30 minutes. The conversation left me feeling like I need to do this more often, expanding on the API definition discussion, but also push into other important areas like API deployment, virtualization, discovery, monitoring, and the other almost 40 areas of the API lifecycle I track on. We'll see how much time i have to do these, but more importantly my ability to bring smart people like Steve and Jakub together--something I hope I can make it work.

Thanks to Jakub and Steve for participating today!