Open APIs for fun and profit

Why having an Open API? Companies are exposing their valuable data as APIs, and – if done right – developers love to make use of them. What are best practices for creating new customer reach, unlocking innovation, and business value in such ways? What does it mean to be ubiquitous for a company, and why would developers onboard?

Transcript

1. Open APIs for fun and profit Andreas Amsler (@andreasamsler) opendata.liip.ch 14 June 2016
2. • Business Developer & Product Owner at Liip.ch • Focused on Open Data and Open APIs • I clarify needs. Set priorities. Support the build & make a difference • Founding board member of Opendata.ch
3. 2002 Amazon Web Services (AWS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:5_cent_euro.jpg
4. Jeff Bezos (initial e-mail about API): • All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces. • Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces. • All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the outside world. No exceptions. (as remembered by Steve Yegge)
5. 2005 Google’s Open APIs https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:174-free-google-maps-pointer.png
6. 2006 Facebook & Twitter https://www.flickr.com/photos/daklein/327565231
7. 2007 2008 2009 BT orange gop.gov c|net The New York Times TESCO MTV guardian.co.uk Etsy
8. 2011 Over 4000 APIs, not all open
9. If an API, why open? http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe
10. Therefore. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe
11. 2016 We love to build and use not open APIs
12. 2016 But even more, we love Open APIs
13. What are the secrets of an OpenAPI? • Lower the barrier for externals to understand and code with your API • Don’t design an API around your business, but around your consumers’ needs • If you want people to use your API, it needs to be usable. Benoît Pointet, https://blog.liip.ch/archive/2015/05/11/the-user-experience-of-apis.html
14. How to build it? – technically (sic!)
15. … and iterate together with your users. James Victore quoted by Darja Gartner, https://twitter.com/andreasamsler/status/609371627378339840
16. @andreasamsler opendata.liip.ch