APIs: A Strategy Guide

Preface

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic: Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
Constant width: Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.
Constant width bold: Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.
Constant width italic: Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.

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Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless youâre reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from OâReilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your productâs documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: âAPIs: A Strategy Guide by Daniel Jacobson, Greg Brail, and Dan Woods (OâReilly). Copyright 2012 Evolved Media, 9781449308926.â

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without our unnamed author, Scott Regan. Scott was a tireless source of energy, leadership, and support. Scott was especially good at finding real-world examples that enliven the narrative.

John Musser contributed both content and tremendous insight from his broad work with APIs via the Programmable Web. He was a valuable sounding board and advisor about both big picture issues and details of technology.

Sam Ramji gave us his time and thought leadership in his interviews and reviews. Brian Mulloy also gave of his time and talents in this way. Harold Neal broke away from a busy schedule at the Center for American Progress to participate in interviews and reviews, and Shanley Kane gave us her insight on API community management. We particularly want to thank Chet Kapoor of Apigee for his perspective on the market and his support for the project.

Weâd also like to thank the folks from the front lines of the API world who let us interview them, including Derek Willis and Derek Gottfrid, both of whom worked on The New York Timesâ API, Steve Smith and Chris Patti from AccuWeather, Tim Madewell from Innotas, Jason Sirota at XO Group Inc., and Kin Lane, the API evangelist himself. To all of you, your quotes bring this book to life and bring theory right down to the trenches of execution.

We would like to express our gratitude to Sophie Jasson-Holt, Deb Cameron, Dan Safarik, Deb Gabriel, and Henry Coupet from the Evolved Media team, all of whom provided the editorial and project management support that helped bring the book to life quickly and to a high degree of quality.

Daniel would also like to thank Michael Hart who started the Netflix API program and whose impact is implicitly referenced throughout this book in various Netflix examples. Weâd also like to thank Zach Brand, who provided us with recent images and stats for NPRâs API.

Although this book is largely drawn from our personal experiences in the API world, those experiences are enriched by our interactions with many great leaders in this space. In particular, all of us have and continue to work with some of the brightest, most talented people in the industry, all of whom have influenced this book in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Moreover, our perspectives have morphed over time due to some of the influential writings, presentations, informal conversations, and other interactions with myriad others who have pushed API innovation to where it is today. To all of these people (you know who you are), thank you for your indirect contributions and we look forward to seeing how this field develops moving forward.

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