So after thinking about API’s and mashups this got me thinking about the phenomenon of web 2.0. Studying this unit is a perfect example of how powerful it is. Prior to this unit I would have never acknowledged that there actually has been a major change in the way the internet connects people.
Until now.
Using all these web-based communities, hosted services and applications I am now starting to make connections with digital communication networks and how it is central to not only our pratices in media arts but also to our all-communicating world.
The common feature of web 2.0 sites, APIs and mashups are a prime example of one of the ways this new internet revolution has advanced. Information is being repurposed and more websites are starting to become services. We are also a starting to see that by using open APIs we are creating competitive advantages because data is open to be utilised by anyone. An example of an open platform used as a competitive advantage is Twitter.
In an excerpt I found from an interview with Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, he commented that:
“The API has been arguably the most important, or maybe even inarguably, the most important thing we have done with Twitter. It has allowed us, first of all, to keep the service very simple and create a simple API so that developers can build on top of our infrastructure and come up with ideas that are way better than our ideas. and build things like Twitterrific, which is just a beautiful elegant way to use Twitter that we wouldn’t have been able to get to, being a very small team.”
“So, the API which has easily 10 times more traffic than the website, has been really very important to us. We’ve seen some amazing work built on top of it from tiny little mobile applications like an SMS timer that just allows you to set a reminder over SMS to call your mom or something like that, to more elaborate visual recreations of Twitter like twittervision.com which shows an animated map of the world and what everyone’s doing around the world with Twitter.”
twittervision
So you would think that by creating an open source so that anyone could utilise Twitter it wouldn’t be very beneficial to their business model. Wouldn’t this drive more people away from Twitter? However after continuing to read the excerpt I learnt that it is in fact the exact opposite. Stone commented on this issue:
“There are definitely leading contender business models that we have mapped out where the API plays a significant role in generating just more traffic to our system. It puts us in an enviable position.So, the API becomes not only crucial for us on a creativity level and something that we can offer to the developers so that they can build their own applications and experiences, but it also becomes a way for us to grow and a way for us to potentially – depending on what business model we choose – do well there, business-wise. No matter what, we’re going to be considering the API. We’re going to be considering what folks are doing with it going forward so that it becomes part of what we are and what we do.”
So that answered that question for me. I would never have imagined!
