I went to Provo Utah a couple weeks ago and participated in the sixth annual Brigham Young University (BYU) University API Workshop. I was the keynote opener for the first edition of the conference, and I was the same for the sixth edition of the event bringing together many different universities together to talk about API usage across their campuses. When the event began it was primarily BYU staff, but it has expanded to include administrators and faculty from what I counted to be over twenty other universities from across the United States--making for a pretty interesting mix of conversation from higher education API practitioners looking to solve problems, and share their stories of how APIs have help make an impact at how universities serve students and the public.
The University API Workshop is an “unConference Focused on University & Personal APIs & Their Use in Improving Learning”. It brought together around one hundred folks to discuss a wide variety of API topics. Since it was an unconference, everyone pitched their own ideas, with some of them being about sharing API knowledge, while others was about soliciting knowledge from the other attendees. Resulting in a pretty compelling list of session spread across two days. You can browse through the sessions using the Google Docs that every session organizer published. Providing a pretty compelling look at how APIs are making an impact at the higher education level, shining a light on the concerns of API stakeholders across the campus.
Session One
- Let’s stop using usernames & passwords
- User Experience in the API World
- Postman Fundamentals
- Securing APIs/data with proper authorization
Session Two
- Walk, Talk, and API Stalk
- API Governance at Scale taking ideas to consistent execution
- Mendix (HPAPaaS/Low Code) After a Year at BYU
- Our New NGDLE | Open Courses Made With Web Components, Microservices, Docker, CI/CD and more!
- DDD vs. BI - Balancing Centralizing and Decentralizing Forces in Data Architecture
Session Three
- How do I test APIs in Integration - Or How do I break your code
- Mobile Applications
- Living with WSO2
- SSI / Blockchain in Education
- SSO Problems, Implementation, and Testing
Session Four
- HAX + HAX cims
- HATEOAS: What is this? Am I doing it right? How do I say this without sounding like an idiot?
- Giving my Things a Home Page
- PII (Personally Identifiable Information) Visibility
- Do nothing for API versioning: Change my mind
Session Five
- OpenAPI Enforcer (Truth enforced) (NodeJs)
- Surf Sessions
- Automating Support - Chatsbots et al
- Docker Discussion (multi-stage builds)
- Reclaim The API
Session Six
- Web Components and Microservices featuring Open-WC and LitElement
- Modeling to Avoid Chaos
- Document the PROs & CONs of ad-hoc vs pre-defined fieldset authorization in APIs
- API’s and Pi’s: Using distributed architectures and API’s to solve edge problems with commodity hardware. What are you doing?
Session Seven
- Distributed API/Distributed Token
- Meditating on: The How and Why of API
- Virtual team roles using student employees for agile and devops delivery
- Securing APIs/Data With Proper Authorization (i.e. How BYU uses The_ABACUS for authorization
- the web / install - debug - find issues
Session Eight
- A new Definition of DDD: Data, Discovery, and Delivery
- Learning how to build APIs
- What’s Behind The API?
- Alexa and APIs
Session Nine
- Fast to Develop, Cheap to Maintain (Mendix Demo)
- Reclaim the API (Part II) Electric Boogaloo
- 2nd chance: Give your Things a Home Page
- Account Creation - Preventing Duplicates
- REST. Get over it
The titles don’t do all of the discussions justice, so make sure and peek inside each of the Google Docs. I participated in as many of the talks as I could and will be doing additional posts on my Postman talk, Reclaim the API, API governance, and the Raspberry Pi session. I think overall the gathering provides a pretty compelling look into the university API landscape and showcases the challenges they face, and the problems they are looking to solve. In my experience universities aren’t always the best at telling the stories of the interesting things they are working on across campus, so this type of event is critical for helping us better understand the university API landscape.
A small API event like this in Utah is easy for many API folks in the mainstream to dismiss, but I hold this event, and what the BYU team up at the same level as just about any other event I attend as part of my global work on APIs. BYU’s CIO Kelly Flanagan (and team) has carved out the space for API exploration across campus in a way I have not seen anywhere else. I’m not exaggerating. Sure, startups like Twilio and Stripe are rocking APIs, but there is no other institution, government agency, or enterprise organization I’ve seen that has issued an API mandate like Kelly Flanagan has. If you want to truly understand the successes and challenges of doing APIs at scale across a large organization I recommend talking with the BYU team, and participating in one of the University of API gatherings—I am still learning from them after a decade of API Evangelist, and six years of being exposed to what their teams are up to.
BYU is already planning the edition of the event so feel free to reach out to them and get involved. I’m determined to get more universities involved and learn from what is happening in Utah. If you are just beginning your API journey at your school, or are curious about what it takes to jumpstart the API conversation I recommend being present next year. The event is picking up momentum, and has something for everyone. You don’t have to be a technical person to get involved. While some of the discussions are more technical, there is plenty of discussion around how APIs impact the average administrator, faculty, or student. I am going to be reaching out to more schools to get more universities represented, so if you have any ideas of who I should be reaching out to please let me know. The University of API conversation is one of the most important API discussions we need to be having in the coming decade, and it is a conversation that will continue to make an exponential impact on how our world works by equipping future generations with the tools they need to be successful in this digital world we've unleashed.
