APIs for Modern Commerce

Chapter 1. The API Economy

The world can be seen as only connections, nothing else. We think of a dictionary as the repository of meaning, but it defines words only in terms of other words. I liked the idea that a piece of information is really defined only by what it’s related to, and how it’s related. There really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything. There are billions of neurons in our brains, but what are neurons? Just cells. The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are, comes from the way our neurons are connected.

Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web (Harper Business)

APIs facilitate today’s digital revolution, similar to how steam-powered engines enabled the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s. When you withdraw money from an ATM, check the weather, or buy a new pair of shoes, you’re using hundreds of APIs behind the scenes.

APIs are transformational because they allow for an organization’s functionality and data to be exposed to third parties. When those third parties discover and consume that functionality and data, they often add more value than the sum of the APIs they consume. APIs democratize access to functionality and data, similar to and building on many principles of the World Wide Web.

Note

Metcalfe’s law says that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users. The classic application of this law is to fax machines. A single fax machine in a network offers ...