Creating web applications today is very different than just a few years ago. The cause of this shift also enabled the move toward a more mobile future. There are now thousands of APIs that allow developers to focus on the part of the technology that is specific to the application. Social login, infrastructure services and many specialized datasets make up the core of today's web and mobile apps. In this talk, Adam DuVander traces the brief and impactful history of APIs. He also shares some tips to take full advantage of the trend in your own projects and businesses.

1. YES
APIS DO
MAKE YOU SPECIAL
Adam DuVander
Developer Communications Director,
adam@sendgrid.com@adamd

2. PRECISION
POLLING
Guarav Oberoi
Chuck Groom

3. MASSIVEVOIP NETWORK
NeoSpire

4. SIMPLE FRONT-END

5. ACQUIRED

6. NOVOIP NETWORK

7. PRECISION
POLLING
Guarav Oberoi
Chuck Groom

9. SIMPLE FRONT-END

10. ACQUIRED

11. ClaireThompson

12. TODAY’STALK
History Economics Psychics

13. AGE OF SCRIBES

14. PRINTING PRESS

15. FAST FORWARD

16. DESKTOP PUBLISHING

17. FAST FORWARD

18. BLOGGING

19. HAND CODING

20. FIVE MINUTE INSTALL

21. HISTORY OF APIS

22. APIApplication
Programmer
Interface
?

23. Flickr user demibrooke

24. WHAT IS AN API?

25. APIS CAN SHARE DATA

26. FUNCTIONALITY

27. INTELLIGENT CALCULATIONS

28. API AS PLATFORM

29. APIS ENABLE REACTION
2 unsubscribes
3 bounces

30. WAYS APIS WORK
Sharing functionality
Sharing data
Sharing intelligent calculations
Providing a platform Enabling reaction

31. FIRST WEB APIS

32. MASHUP MAYHEM

33. ONE MILLION WEBSITES

34. ANOTHER GOLD RUSH

35. APIS:A BLANK CANVAS
Flickr user sookie

36. Felipe Venâncio

37. Ray Devlin

38. 33 DEAD GOOGLE APIS

41. APIS: BUILDING BLOCKS
Josh Wedin

42. ECONOMICS

43. WHAT PROGRAMMERS DO
N Stjerna

45. WHAT PROGRAMMING CAN BE

46. N StjernaJeremy King
ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS

47. HACKERS AND PAINTERS
“Hacking
and
painting
have
a
lot
in
common...
what
hackers
and
painters
are
trying
to
do
is
make
good
things.”
Y-Combinator’s Paul Graham

48. ITALIAN ECONOMIST

49. PARETO PRINCIPLE
“80%
of
effects
come
from
20%
of
causes.”
Vilfredo Pareto

50. PARETO-AS-A-SERVICE
APIs and Cloud Services
Your code

51. INFRASTRUCTURE SELLS
Messaging, Storage, Computing APIs
Email PushSMS
Storage Computing

52. BUILD ITYOURSELF

53. CAN WE BUILD IT?
Yes, we can. But do we need to?
Tom Hughes-CroucherEm

54. WHAT MAKESYOU SPECIAL?
Steve Snodgrass!

55. N Stjerna

57. $

58. PRISONER’S DILEMMA
Bruno talks Bruno silent
Adam talks
Adam silent
Bruno: two years
Adam: two years
Bruno: three years
Adam: free
Bruno: free
Adam: three years
Bruno: one year
Adam: one year

59. MANY BUSINESS MODELS
John Musser, ProgrammableWeb
bit.ly/apibizmodels

60. BASIC API BUSINESS MODELS

61. Pay as You Go
Pay for what you use
Grows as you grow
Seems fair
Tiered
Traditional SaaS model
Predictable
Allows volume discounts
Tiered with Trial
Get started for free
Upgrade when you grow
Devs like freemium
Most%
popular!%

62. BASIC API BUSINESS MODELS

63. Affiliate
Developer / Partner
AFFILIATE PROGRAM
Get Paid WhenYou MakeThem Money
Affiliate
Developer / Partner
Store
Link
$
API
Store
Purchase API
$
API
Traditional
Affiliate
Program
Full API
Affiliate
Program

64. HOW MANY APIS?

65. PSYCHICS

66. EVERYBODY HAS AN API

68. SERIES OFTUBES
“The
Internet
is
not
something
that
you
just
dump
something
on.
It’s
not
a
big
truck.
It’s
a
series
of
tubes.”
Former US SenatorTed Stevens

71. HE WAS RIGHT

72. ClaireThompson

78. TapTapTap

81. Dec 2010
Jan 2011
Feb 2011

82. EVERNOTE’S API ROI
Internal Use Drives Evernote API
99%
External Internal

83. APPS, PARTNERS, INCOME
$
The New API: bit.ly/thenewapi

84. The Old API The New API
David Ohmer Karen Dalziel

85. SHOULD I HAVE AN API?
OPEN MY API?

87. M

88. “We find that if our customers use any single integration, they
are three times as likely to convert to paid.”

89. CONNECTEDTHINGS

90. “Let me findTwitter friends on Instagram”
“I’ll pay you to integrate with other services”
+
+ ?
“I want my weight and fitness data in one place”
+
CUSTOMERS ASK FOR APIS

91. UN-PROGRAMMING

94. ClaireThompson

95. Steve Snodgrass!

96. YES
APIS DO
MAKE YOU SPECIAL
Adam DuVander
Developer Communications Director,
adam@sendgrid.com@adamd
Questions?