Talk given for CTUs Open Informatics Program. Focuses on the shift from Browser focused web pages to APIs and Applications (Apps) - covering trends, business models, architecture and the emerging Internet Operating System
Strategies for Unlocking Knowledge Management in Microsoft 365 in the Copilot...
Services, Apps and the API Powered Web
1. THE WEB IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE INTERNET (AND WHY YOU
MIGHT BE INTERESTED!)
Aka:
SERVICES, APPS AND THE API
POWERED WEB
Steven Willmott / 3scale networks
steve@3scale.net
http://www.3scale.net
@njyx
2. Agent technology Center, CTU, Prague
Program in Open Informatics
With thanks to
Share & Remix freely:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
3. The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet
Wired Magazine / Aug / 2010
4. Wired corrected..
Rob Beschizza at BoingBoing
-> Account for Traffic Growth!
Traffic in 1995: 10 Terabytes
Traffic in 2006: 1 Exabyte
Traffic in 2010: 7 Exabytes
5. But right or wrong:
• The shift really about traffic or Megabytes
• It’s structural:
– Where is the data?
– How does it get to people?
– How do people experience it?
• And this applies to e-Commerce as well as Content
10. The Internet in 2015 Will look very different
2 Billion
Users?
7.3BWorld
Population
3B
Internet
Population
800M
Smartphones
23% Computer Sales (USA) are
Tablets
15B
Internet
Connected
Devices
Sources in resources
11. Mary Meeker / Web 2.0 Summit / Nov 2010 / San Francisco
13. What is eBay?
What is Amazon?
A: They’re not “Web sites” or “Web Portals” – ebay is an auction engine
Amazon is a commerce platform.
14. In this talk
I. A bit about the what’s happening / trends
and why the matter. The App and the API.
II. Technical / Architectural point of view.
III. “Saving” the Web.
16. What’s really going on with Mobile
Applications?
Web Servers Application
Functions
Features
Graphics
UIData Connection
Application often calls “some
backend somewhere” Calling an API !
17. Which means what?
Web Servers
Data Connection
Raw Data / Service for your
Application
Can be used by
Many different
Applications
18. What do these things look like?
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<GeteBayOfficialTimeRequest
xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents”>
<RequesterCredentials>
<eBayAuthToken>TOKENGoesHERE</eBayAuthToken
>
</RequesterCredentials>
</GeteBayOfficialTimeRequest>
XML
19. What do these things look like?
"images":[
{"src":"img/a/1.jpg", "title":”Photo 1",
"href":"img/a/big/1.jpg", "alt":"Photos
www.example.com"},
{"src":"img/a/2.jpg", "title":”Photo 2",
"href":"img/a/big/2.jpg", "alt":"Photos
www.example.com"},
]}
JSON
Inspired by http://www.outcut.de/MooFlow/example-json.html
20. RESTfull Web Services
• Resources
• Resource Identifiers (URIs)
• Representations
• Operators
• Response Codes
70-80% of
Web APIs
Are simple
REST-like
21. Operators
• GET
– Retrieve : return Information about a resources
– List: lists the elements of a collection
• POST
– Create : create new resources
• PUT
– Update : Modify a resource
– Create : Create a new resource
• DELETE
– Remove a known resource
Manipulating
Data
Objects
22. Response Codes
• 200 OK Standard success response
• 201 Created
• 202 Accepted
• 301 Moved Permanently
• 400 Bad Request
• 401 Unauthorised
• 402 Payment Required
• 403 Forbidden
• 404 Not Found
• 405 Method Not Allowed
Limited Scope
for Response
(but clear)
23. Evolution of Web Technology
1. Server sends Data, Structure & Styling to the
Browser
2. Server sends Data, Structure (HTML) +Styling
(CSS) to the Browser
e.g. <b><i>Heading 1</i></h>
HTML: <h1>Heading 1</h1> CSS: h1 { …. }
24. Evolution of Web Technology
1. Server separates Data and structure on the
server before sending in big chunks
1. Start sending small chunks (AJAX)
XSLT Transformation for device specific Content
e.g. Gmail fetches email in the background –
no full page refresh
29. APIs: The “Dark Traffic” of the Web
3 Billion API Calls / Day, 75% of all traffic (April 2010)
8 Billion API Calls / Month (Q3 2009)
5 Billion API Calls / Day (October 2009)
5 Billion API Calls / Day (April 2010)
3 Billion API Calls / Month (March 2009)
Over 50% of all traffic via API (March 2008)
Over 100 Billion objects stored in S3 (March 2010)
31. API Business
Models
is the product
projects the product
promotes the product
powers and feeds
the product
Direct revenue
Utility / Pay per transaction
Tiered Pricing Bands
Reach more places
Provide more utility
Allow deeper integration
Enable Mobile
Biz Development Lead Gen
User Acquisition
Advertising
Affiliate Programs
Brand promotion
Content Acquisition
Partner tie-in
Internal Innovation
32. The API IS the product
Core value is tied up in the API
API
API is core value
Ecosystem
Strategy
Direct Customer Usage
Encourage Resellers
Build Tech Knowledge
Encourage 3rd Party Tools
Enable new Services
Build Switching Costs
Others
Amazon AWS
e.g
API >> Websites
Huge Growth
$ If core service sees usage growth
33. The API Projects the product
Extends availability of functionality to new places
API
Mobile apps / 3rd
Parties / Added Utility
Added to a product
$ If
increasing customer spend (primary)
and numbers (secondary) for core product
Ecosystem
Strategy
Encourage partner ecosystem
Innovation opportunities
Build Tech Knowledge
Encourage 3rd Party Tools
Enable new Services
Build Switching Costs
Salesforce.com
e.g
Thousands of value
add apps
50k + devs
Others
34. The API Promotes the product
Secondary function and indirect revenue impact
API
Secondary (non core) service
Designed to drive
Leads / traffic
$ If
increasing customer numbers (primary) and
spend (secondary) on core product
Ecosystem
Strategy
Distribute “Teaser” Information
Brand Diffusion
Promote to niches
Improve Partner Impact
Cultivate Partners
Amazon.com
e.g
10’s 1000’s of affiliates
Widgets to
Whole sites powered
Others
35. The API Powers and Feeds the product
Content acquisition via the API
API
Content, User information,
Ratings, comments
Etc. into the service
$ If
when UGC brings appreciable value to the
central product.
Ecosystem
Strategy
Reach all relevant producers
Facilitate Access
Virtuous circle data in/outTwitter.com
e.g
250,000 Apps
75% of traffic
By API
Others
36. Programmable Web Stats
Programmable Web May 2010
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/pw-glue-conmay2010
May 2010
•2000+ APIs
•4800 Mashups
Nov 2010
•2297 APIs
•5345 Mashups
47. Model = Data
• Often most critical asset:
– Wealth of data which has value
– Real time / Reference data
– Sometimes unique / sometimes not
• Often:
– has great value beyond the company that owns it
– AND value beyond the ways the company can
effectively deliver it.
48. View = Form
• This used to be the “company web site”
• Now it could be your SAAS application
interface
• Increasingly on Android, iPhone, Symbian, …
49. Controller = Business Logic
• Also know as the “smart stuff”:
– Application logic
– Algorithms
– Secret sauce
– Housekeeping like user management / authentication
/ billing
• Increasingly:
– Some companies allow others to apply smart stuff to
their data
– Some companies apply their smart stuff to the data of
others.
50. APIs enable Cloud Scale MVC
Model View Controller
Data Anywhere in
any form
Many Delivery
Channels
Third parties
operating on data
51. Impact on Their Business
• Companies focus on core competence
• Leverage their Ecosystem
• Companies are successful when they:
– Define a clear center of gravity
– Proactively manage the interfaces with other parts
of the value chain
52. APIs Make this work: Models
An API delivers
you Data in Raw
Form
53. APIs Make this work: Controllers
APIs Provide
Access to
Smart
Processing
54. APIs Make this work: Views
APIS feed many
possible ways to
consume Data &
Services
55. A fourth element – The Framework
– The Internet Operating System
(Normally MVC needs some glue)
56. Internet Operating System (Tim
O’Reilly)
Search
Media Access
(Auth / Caching / Analytics)
Communications (Email, IM, …)
Identity & Social Graph
Payment
AdvertisingLocation Activity Streams
Time
Image & Speech
Recognition
Government Data
Storage Compute Power Connectivity
57. Elements of the “Internet Operating
System” already API Driven
C.f. Tim O’Reilly
Search
Media AccessTime
Location
Advertising
Communications
Identify & Social Graph
58. The Internet Operating System
Emerging
Search
Media Access
(Auth / Caching / Analytics)
Communications (Email, IM, …)
Identity & Social Graph
Payment
AdvertisingLocation Activity Streams
Time
Image & Speech
Recognition
Government Data
Storage Compute Power Connectivity
59. PRESERVING KEY PROPERTIES OF
THE WEB
These changes have huge potential – but we need to take responsability
60. Critical we preserve the “linky-ness” of
the Web
(Link to anything from anywhere)
61. Problem: “Apps” don’t often to easily
allow you to navigate beyond their
boundaries
(there is a risk we’ll loose linkyness)
62. In Fact: Apps in some cases are re-
creating walled gardens
(hopefully this is a temporary phenomenon)
63. See Tim Berners Lee’s Article –
Scientific American Nov/22/2010:
The Web also needs defending
Tim Berners Lee / 22nd November 2010 –
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web
64. Easy to think “The Web is part of
nature – we don’t control it”
65. Not True! - We control it’s properties
– we have responsibility for its
evolution
66. To help keep the web moving forward
Standardisation will have a huge impact
Keeping APIs Easy to Use & Apps easy to
build across platforms will be a key
challenge
HTML5 and APIS / APPs need to blend
well overtime
70. Is the Web Dead?
• Depends on your definition!
• If you take the web as an information
application running over the Internet – then it
most definitely isn’t – it’s evolving very very
fast.
71. The next 5 years will see dramatic
changes in the structure of the Web &
Internet
72. The shift from Web Pages to
Apps+APIs is at the core of this
change
73. Thank You & Have Fun!
Steven Willmott / 3scale networks
Find 3scale at http://www.3scale.net
Find me at steve@3scale.net & @njyx
78. Resources
• Facebook number of active users: Sept 2009: 300mil, Feb 2010:
400mil, June 2010: 500mil. The 2B figure on slide 10 is an
(potentially aggressive) estimate but illustrates that the largest
internet companies are bumping up against the limits of the online
population and not far of the whole population
• http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/03/slide-show-1-
tech-internet-users-in-2015-top-7-nations.htm
http://www.digitalfamily.com/mobilewebdesign/2009/08/smartph
ones-will-overtake-computers-in-2011/
http://www.electronics.ca/presscenter/articles/1247/1/Global-
Smartphones-Market-to-Reach-80442-Million-Units-by-
2015/Page1.html
• http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,1340,00.html
• http://www.sys-con.com/node/1317657
Notes de l'éditeur
Facebook: Sept 2009: 300mil, Feb 2010: 400mil, June 2010: 500mil, current internet population is approx 2B (or 28%) http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/sep/03/slide-show-1-tech-internet-users-in-2015-top-7-nations.htm, http://www.digitalfamily.com/mobilewebdesign/2009/08/smartphones-will-overtake-computers-in-2011/, http://www.electronics.ca/presscenter/articles/1247/1/Global-Smartphones-Market-to-Reach-80442-Million-Units-by-2015/Page1.html, http://www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,1340,00.html, http://www.sys-con.com/node/1317657
eBay isn’t a “webpage” – it’s a clearing house. Amazon isn’t a website – it’s a ecommerce system, it’s a web services platform.
This breakdown is not 100% comprehensive, but many currently public APIs can be classified against it. We use this at 3scale to identify the primary areas of value being created by an API.
Key point/focus here is charging directly for the operation on the API (1-1 relationship between operations ordered and payment): “utility computing” can apply to messaging, CPU time, storage, transaction processing etc. – primarily used for “Infrastructure as a Service” type APIs. Twitter arguable fits here also since it charges for access to it’s full data feed.
This category is for APIs which enable and extend a product in a significant way – making those products more useful, integrating them more tightly with customer systems, third parties, mobile devices etc. Here there may be a direct revenue relationship which can be calculated between how much the API is used and the revenue generated by the main product. The category can increase both depth of use and breadth of reach for a product. The Salesforce API allows both third party applications to run on top of Salesforce (or on dedicated hosting such as Appirio) and connection from customer/third party server applications.
This category uses the API as a dynamic promotion channel – providing useful but limited content / features to third parties in order to promote usage of the core service. eBay, Amazon and others engage in this through affiliate programs – the API “supports” the affiliate program by allowing third parties to “suck out” exactly the right product meta data to display to their users. Amazon also exposes valuable product popularity data in order to help partners what to display.
This category is often combined with others but essentially uses the API as a way to generate value back into the core product by capturing data rather than releasing it. Twitters traffic is free on the API to write but in turn creates huge value for twitter in republishing back to it’s user base, the youtube API similarly allows for video upload, Foursquare gathers check-in data. How the data is monetised after collection is not connected to the API in general.
- Model is your data- Controller is the business logic- View is how you experience it
- Model is your data- Controller is the business logic- View is how you experience it
Example:
UNDATA.org: enourmous value, but trapped in some other format.
Wine.com – huge value in wine data: now open. Softonic, the same
http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/state-of-internet-operating-system.html (this isn’t necessarilly a layer diagram – but there is a rough ordering of features)
There is more – Tim Berners Lee says it better than me. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights.