I had my old partner in crime, Adam DuVander over for an API Evangelist Conversation. We immediately went back to the old ProgrammableWeb days and lamented that the blog and API directory is gone. We talked a little about why the site went away, and what it says about the wider API storytelling space. It feels like it was a little bit about the companies who had acquired the site over the years, but it was also about the current maturity of the overall API space—I will let you decide for yourself from our conversation.
Adam shares the same honest and realistic view of the API space that I do. APIs are ubiquitous and we need to be talking about the business solutions API enable, and less about the APIs themselves. Adam is also an advocate that API producers, both product and engineering, need to do the work when it comes to why they are in the business of producing APIs, and speaking to what the real world benefits are to their consumers. I will definitely have Adam back to talk more about the business alignment side of things when it comes to how API defines our enterprise operations.
As we were finishing up our conversation, I had an idea for potential future episodes where we dive into some of the cycles that occur in software development, and now that APIs have been around for a few moons, API patterns and trends. I think I will have Adam back to talk about Google Maps, AJAX, JavaScript, and other retro concepts like Mashups. I really think the Arazzo specs group missed an opportunity to call the specification Mashups. ;-) Anyways, thanks for coming by Adam, I always enjoy catching up–there will be many more.
