I attended the Business of APIs Conference earlier this week in New York City, held by API services provider Mashery, and heard some interesting thoughts on what APIs are all about in today's world (literally today, not two years ago or in the ancient times of 5-10 years ago in Technology Land).
ProgrammableWeb founder John Musser was the first speaker of the day, and later in the afternoon, he told me that there's often a fear or risk involved in opening up an API. To combat that fear, organizations should open APIs gradually.
"Open up pieces of functionality one by one and see how it goes," Musser said. "And then take the next step. You don’t have to go straight in to the point where you’re opening yourself up to things you might not be prepared to handle."
Chad Dickerson, CTO of online handbag marketplace Etsy and former Yahoo employee, made the point that there is always room for improvement when it comes to APIs. "A good API is never finished," he said.
"In the same way that you launch a website and are always adding to it, I think the same thing is true for APIs. If you’re starting an API, you can’t just leave it. It needs to grow as your business grows."