Mashup Patterns

Fellow New York CTO Club member Dan Woods has c0-authored a book for O’Reilly titled, “APIs: A Strategy Guide”. Since APIs are the lifeblood of mashups, it seemed only appropriate to do a review. I’ve posted it over on SearchSoA:

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/answer/Wheres-the-ROI-in-a-public-API

One issue not covered in the book (which Dan and I briefly discussed) is the resistence to API development I have seen in large organizations. For example, management will argue:

“I can’t afford to take the time to expose our team’s assets! We have to meet the requirements of our specific business users”
-or-
“I can’t risk our systems slowing down because other teams are leveraging our API”

These are comments straight out of silo-ville. This is an example of management thinking more about protecting a fiefdom of data and functionality rather than working for the good of the entire firm.

Yes – there are instances where security or “mission-critical” issues override the desire for an API. But in my experience the amount of systems that could potentially be opened up is far greater. A closed application inventory hampers innovation and -by extension- is a negative impact on the firm.

Dan’s book takes on the API issues at a non-technical level, and has been useful in helping me educate managers to see the benefits of opening up their products to outside collaborators.