Ben Hutton of the Guild came by to talk about his recent LinkedIn thread about APIs vs SDKs. The topic is an evergreen one that brings out all of the opinions and I enjoy talking with Ben about it to get his pragmatic view of things. Ben has a lot of experience as a software engineer and working on the JSON Schema specification, which I think gives him unique perspective on what is needed when it comes to integrating with APIs. Ben was on my team at Postman, but we are now collaborating on helping people understand the importance of getting their enterprise schema house in order. Thanks for coming by Ben, and I am looking forward to further unpacking what enterprises are needing from schema to SDKs in future conversations.

API Evangelist Conversation with Ben Hutton of The Guild Software

My friend Emanual had tagged me in one of Reza's posts on LinkedIn about API integrations being dead, so I invitied Reza to come over and explain more about what he meant. I knew the title was bait, but I was interested in hearing Reza's argument and after the conversation it is clear that he's done a lot of thinking at this intersection and wasn't just adding to the AI hype. It was interesting to hear the reasoning for signalling a shift in how we see and abstract away the work APIs are doing, and it was validating to hear that governance will play an important role in KILLING API integrations.

API Evangelist Conversation with Reza Shafii, Product Executive At Kong

I have been wanting to sit down with Dave for a while now, but I needed to spend more time with Vaccuum to understand where it would fit into my world of API governance. I did that, and then finally got to sit down with Dave Shanley of Princess Beef Heavy Industries, and creator of Vacuum, OpenAPI Doctor, and other important OpenAPI tooling. I finally got the full background of why he felt Spectral was falling short when it came to linting our API specifications, and it was much more than just about speed. I left our conversation with a head full of ideas and a bunch of notes on what is next for API governance and rules, and need to have Dave back talk about OpenAPI Doctor, libopenapi, and his other great work.

API Evangelist Conversation with Dave Shanley of Princess Beef Heavy Industries

I sat down with Vincent Biret, Microsoft Graph SDKs Principal Software Developer at Microsoft to talk about all things integration. I am interested in the intersection of APIs, specifications, and integrations where Vincent operates. Vincent shared his view of important role that OpenAPI plays in taming the Microsoft Graph API landscape, but specifically how it gets applied as part of producer or consumer driven SDK generation using Kiota. Vincent shared all kinds of experience and wisdom at this intersection, but he also shared a pragmatic view of the role APIs, specs, and integrations play when it comes to training LLMs, but also feeding agents deployed on top of those LLMs with the real-time resources and capabilities they will need. It was an illuminating conversation and one I learned a lot, and will be crafting more stories about over the coming weeks.

API Evangelist Conversation with Vincent Biret Microsoft Graph SDKs Principal Developer at Microsoft

Adrian Machado from Zuplo came by for a talk on API rate limiting, but not just the technical bits. Zuplo is doing a good job at bridging the business and technical aspects of rate limiting at the API gateway layer, and we had a compelling discussion around how planning your rate limits will shape your overall API business plan. Adrian provided some compelling thoughts around the need for standardization of API rate limits and how we approach the API access plans and policies we are implementing in regions around the globe. After the gateway layer Adrian shared more about the Zuplo ethos of API documentation should be free with their Zudoku offering, something I can definitely get behind. Thanks for the great talk Adrian, come by antyime.

API Evangelist Conversation with Adrian Machado Staff Software Engineer at Zuplo

Daniel Kocot came by again to talk about the lines between our private and public APIs. We had been talking about internal, first-party, and third-party APIs back and forth on LinkedIn, and I recommended that he come by and we will have a conversation. He helped me realize that my separation between the layers was more about access, control, and velocity over just about being inside or outside the firewall and DMZ. Daniel sees this for what it is--it is about people. Lines of business, teams, tribes, and partners. Daniel has that very outside-in view of API operations, but Codecentric is being brought inside to solve the big  problems for their customers. Talking with Daniel makes me realize how important it is to have these conversations about our APIs and portals, because not everyone has a handle on the nuance of what is happening at the edge of our enterprises.

API Evangelist Conversation with Daniel Kocot, Head of API Consulting at   codecentric AG

Quobix from from Princess Beef Heavy Industries came by again, this time to talk about OpenAPI Doctor and libopenapi at it's core. I knew "The Doctor" was a modular OpenAPI editor w/ governance built-in, but I didn't realize how deeply modularity is baked into it's design. This modularity allows Quobix to stitch together Vacuum, libopenapi, OpenAPI changes, wiretap, and other Princess Beef Heavy Industries solutions, but also potentially other 3rd party solutions. This modularity in API hubs, dashboards, and tools is fast becoming a common themes in conversations that I am having, and something I am going to work to leverage more as part of my work. This episode went 30 minutes because I wanted to do two separate episoides, 1) OpenAPI, 2) libopenapi, but the stories are so entertwhined we just did it back to back.

API Evangelist Conversation with Dave Shanley of Princess Beef Heavy Industries (Part Two)

Tech storyteller and journalist Jennifer Riggins came by for a conversation about why nothing has changed in the world of APIs for the last fifteen years. Jennifer and I go all the way back to the beginning, and she has seen all the same things I've seen. We complained a bit about the impacts of AI, but really that most of the lack of change has been a business thing and not really just technical. I like Jennifer's focus on developers in this moment, and she got me thinking about the relationship between the legacy API management we both have lived through and this new platform reality we operate within. I always enjoy sitting down with Jennifer, and it has been way too long, appreciate you coming by to share some wisdom around why things aren't as progressive as they could be in the API space.

API Evangelist Conversation About Nothing Changing in the World of APIs with Jennifer Riggins

Adron Hall came by for a conversation about trains. Adron and I share a love of transit and trains, who also make their living slinging APIs. Adron had recommended I read Nothing Like It in the World by Stephen E Ambrose and Empire Express by David Haward Bain back a couple of years ago, which I finally did. Then things kept happening with AI and the current presidency that kept reminding me of the stories in these books and I kepting thinking it would be fun to have Adron come by to share his view of things. I won't spoil any of his great stories, but both books and Adron's view of them, as well as his ability to apply in this moment is gold. Adron is a great storyteller and he gets the technology, but he also the business and politics of technology in a way few do, making for a very entertaining 30 minutes.

API Evangelist Conversation About Trains, AI, Rich Fat Cats, Big Money, and Politics with Adron Hall

Frank Kilcommins of SmartBear came by to talk about the OpenAPI Arazzo specification. He shared the history how it came to be and how it is changing the conversation inside and outside the OpenAPI Initiative (OAI). Franks done amazing work to move the API workflows specification over the finish line, but also keep it evolving and moving forward afterwards. The specification has renewed energy with API service providers who are integrating the spec into their API guided walkthroughs, SDK generation, and testing. I am a big fan of Frank's work, and wish we had 10 more of him working at the OpenAPI, so if you are feeling like you have some spare cycles, I recommend you rolling up your sleeves and getting involved. Thanks for coming by and sharing Frank!!

API Evangelist Conversation With Frank Kilcommins About the OpenAPI Arazzo Specification

I am the API Evangelist.  Not in the sense that I’m evangelizing a single API to you--In the sense that APIs are important for everyone to be aware of.  I’m paying attention to not just the technical, but the business and politics of the web API movement.  I share my insights by blogging on the business of APIs at apievangelist.com, politics of APIs at apivoice.com and you can find more information about me at kinlane.com.

Kinlane

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