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Open APIs are the new open source
Jay Lyman, February 14, 2012 @ 1:08 pm ETWe’ve seen the rise of open source software in the enterprise and also beyond the IT industry, but the real keys to openness and its advantages in today’s technology world — where efficient use of cloud computing and supporting services are paramount — exist in open application programming interfaces, or APIs.
Open source software continues to be a critical part of software development, systems administration, IT operations and more, but much of the action in leveraging modern cloud computing and services-based infrastructures centers on APIs. Open APIs are the new open source.
Read the full story at LinuxInsider.
Comments (5) Categories: Software
Stallman chose to reimplement the Unix API when he started the GNU project to make it easy for people to move programs across, so yes APIs are important to portability, and interoperability.
APIs are probably not covered by copyright, the law is still being worked out, so in that sense they are all “open”, although documentation may be copyrighted which can make writing and documenting your implementations harder if the copyright owners make a fuss (see Google v Oracle over JVM API).
Utility arises from having multiple implementations of the same API. It makes it possible to run the same applications on AIX as GNU/Linux creating a market and competition in the OS market.
The problem with closed source implementations behind an API comes when they don’t do what you want, or the implementers aren’t going in the direction you want, or they simply don’t fix a specific bug. If all the implementations are closed you are then at an impasse. Particularly troublesome if the supplier(s) has(have) some reason not to support you, such as they are in competition.
If at least one implementation is free software (note not Open Source, because that might not convey sufficient rights) you avoid the impasse.
However APIs controlled by a single implementer are rife with the usual traps of proprietary software.
I wrote a server side implementation of the Google Gadgets API, and was able to run a selection of third party Google gadgets from my own webserver without any contact with Google. The day I finished it (it didn’t take long) Google released the next version of the Google Gadget specification, extending it way beyond what we would have time to implement. So whilst the implementation was great for the old style gadgets you end up chasing someone else’s tail if you want to support all gadgets.
Of course the route to avoiding this chasing is always to adhere to APIs for which there is a free software implementation. And if you are doing that, using the free software implementation guarantees you won’t extend your application to use newer aspects of the API, and that you won’t accidentally lock yourself out of a free software implementation. At that point it is both “free enough” and you will be able to take action to keep it all working should you need to.
You highlight some of the key limitations of open APIs with proprietary code and advantages of APIs connecting to open source code, Simon. Thanks. My point of the post isn’t that APIs have replaced open source, though the title might imply it. However, I’m highlighting where I see a lot of attention and buzz. I believe it has big implications for open source and its communities as closed source gets better at competing. The real advantages lie in open components, whether source code, APIs, cloud computing infrastructure, standards or data. Thanks again. Appreciate the discussion that has come out of this …
JL
[...] We’ve seen the rise of open source software in the enterprise and also beyond the IT industry, but the real keys to openness and its advantages in today’s technology world — where efficient use of cloud computing and supporting services are paramount — exist in open application programming interfaces, or APIs. Open source software continues to be a critical part of software development, systems administration, IT operations and more, but much of the action in leveraging modern cloud computing and services-based infrastructures centers on APIs. Open APIs are the new open source. Read the full story at LinuxInsider. MySQL Read the original post on Planet MySQL… [...]
Jay –
I wrote a long response at LinuxInsider.
http://www.ectnews.com/perl/board/mboard.pl?board=lnitalkback&thread=5891&id=5896&display=1
In brief, allowing all comers to USE an proprietary API, implemented by proprietary code, does not make the API ‘open’ in any meaningful sense.
Please allow me to suggest that you’re on the scent of a meaningful trend, of which OpenStack is the prime exemplar: that (truly) open APIs are necessary, IN ADDITION TO open source implementations.
Historically, the two have been divorced. Formal standards bodies cared exclusively about APIs, not about implementations. Open source projects cared exclusively about implementations, not about APIs. But now, market forces are putting pressure on open source projects to expose consistent, stable APIs as “first class citizens,” right along with the implementation code.
Therefore, I encourage you to resist the temptation to use the phrase “open API” to describe “proprietary APIs for accessing proprietary implementations of proprietary services.” Instead, I encourage you to call them what they are: “proprietary APIs.” Save the phrase “open APIs” for APIs that are openly designed, openly governed, and implemented via open source.
Fair enough?
Thanks!
Jim Plamondon
Director, Developer Relations
Rackspace
I’d say, yes, fair enough, Jim, and thanks for posting. Though I’m not sure everyone gets my message when some are indicating I’ve equated open APIs to open source or said they’re better than open source. I definitely should have better stressed that APIs alone do not solve the problems or provide the benefits of open source software. However, the fact they they tend to be just open enough presents a new and different challenge for open source software and its communities. It seems we’re working toward a paradigm where open APIs mean the underlying source code is open source and that seems a legitimate way for openness to retain its true meaning. Either way, I do believe this is a discussion worth having. Thanks again for weighing in.
JL