de hÓra, Subbu, Tilkov: 2009 Data APIs
de hÓra posted a very nice article on what he sees as key issue for 2009 - Data APIs:
Speculation: for Data APIs in 2009 there will be two developments and one debate. All are centered around an important technical principle in web design - uniform interfaces (an idea that goes back quite a bit in distributed systems).
in his piece, de hÓra points out the need for more linking in Data APIs and notes questions on whether there should be "that many custom formats."
Subbu thinks at least some of this is tied to limits at the software level:
The debate that Bill mentions, viz., "should there be that many custom formats?" will continue to happen, and I am not yet convinced of the options available and prescriptions being made, and think that there is a lot of work that needs to be done both at the conceptual level and the software level.
Tilkov notes this is part of an ongoing debate.
this is all encouraging talk. one of the key constraints of REST is application state driven by hyperlinks. another is the shared understanding of Internet media types. APIs authors who fail to incorporate these key concepts are in danger of killing the value and reach of the very data they wish to publish.
i suspect 2009 *will* be "The Year of the Data APIs." if that's true, and API developers 'get' these two key concepts, we'll all be better off for it. however, if these two important concepts fail to make their way into the new data offerings, 2009 may turn out to be "The Year of the Data Fail Whale."
