Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all. • Hacker News Board

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#31

Post by mehdim » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 1:13 AM UTC

lr wrote: post #30

For the IdM side of things, there is SCIM: http://www.simplecloud.info/ It started as Simple Cloud Identity Management, but once it got to IETF, it was changed to "System for Cross-domain Identity Management". This initiative has been backed by Google, Ping Identity, Salesforce, Cisco, SailPoint, UnboundID, and others. You can see some of these names on one of the RFCs: http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-scim-core…

This is not always the "standard" which wins. You may have also de-facto standards like MS-DOS in 1980' which was an "shell to rule them all" and which has made Microsoft a multi-billionar company and has been more used than UNIX which was better and open!

Either is the standard, either it the the most adapted product/company (not necesseraly technologically) which wins the pot. This is technology AND business model, user community, strategic partnerships which will make an API to rule them all a defacto standard which will lead the programmable web. But you're right that IETF standards for APIs may be so long that I consider it is not possible untill decades !(or a leader which will open and free its winning standart to all only)

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#32

Post by mehdim » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 1:15 AM UTC

You say 8000 APIs, but for example on http://apihub.com , you have more than 13000 APIs registered. And OpenAPIs are only the emerged part of the iceberg. Soooooooo many services ran by private APIs in big companies...more than you expect.

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#33

Post by mehdim » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

For better understanding why we need an "API to rule them all" you can check the http://apijoy.tumblr.com about everyday's developer pain with APIs.

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#34

Post by indridcold » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 3:44 AM UTC

YQL ?

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#35

Post by kevindykes » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 10:01 AM UTC

the team behind rules.io are leading an open source API framework project called Geekier which is exactly this. Take a look at the details here in Github https://github.com/rulesio/geekier/wiki - there is a link to the Google group for the project as well.

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#36

Post by kevindykes » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 10:03 AM UTC

mehdim wrote: post #27

Will you do it for non-developers like http://Zapier.com , http://IFTTT.com , http://rules.io and http://elastic.io , http://ritc.io , http://kynetx.com/ or more focused on developers like : http://temboo.com , http://singly.com , http://webscript.io , http://cloudsnap.com , http://script.google.com , http://webshell.io What would be your main paradigm and what do you want to bring to the ecosystem? Disclosure : I wo…

Hey, Kevin here from rules.io. Thanks for the mention. I'd love to connect with you guys - will send an email.

Re: Review my startup idea: One API to rule them all.

#37

Post by Someone » Thu, Jan 03, 2013, 8:06 PM UTC

evv wrote: post #29

Someone wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There's SOAP, but nobody really cares or wants to use it anymore." Do you know why? What makes you think we won't end up at "There's OneAPItoRuleThemAll, but nobody really cares or wants to use it anymore." or even at "There's OneAPItoRuleThemAll, but nobody really cares or wants to use it." If you cannot answer that, I wouldn't bother working on something like this. Also, who do you think will be interested in havi…

> Also, who do you think will be interested in having a common protocol? I think the answer will be "those with little data of their own". Big players do not want you to build tools that work together with 'their' data (clear example: Twitter: open while small, but now closing down its API) This is some scary logic. By that logic, why would great open protocols like HTTP or email have ever gained popularity over prop…

HTML? By having many small players, plus by virtue of the US department of Justice.

E-mail? By having many small players, or at least not one player able to call the shots.

Even today, many parties try to make carve out their own communication kingdoms. Examples: BlackBerry, MS Exchange, Apple's iMessage and FaceTime, GMail (doesn't do push email anymore via Exchange emulation)

And yes, HTTP is open, as is TCP/IP. That, IMO, is because of two things: lower layers get commoditized and network effects. Even disregarding the latter, there is too little money to make in such low-level stuff (that also is why Apple builds on BSD and Google on Linux, and both use OpenGL.)

And that democratic mindset? I tried to make an observation, not to tell you what I thought the world should look like.