I’ve been talking a lot about remixability lately, but Nat Torkington just pointed out that the web services and APIs from commercial organizations aren’t as infrastructural as we might think.
Offering the example of Amazon suing Alexaholic (for remixing Alexa’s data), he tells us that APIs are not “a commons of goodies to be built on top of for fun and profit, like open source software.” Here are his “six basic truths of free APIs:”
- Free APIs are not a god-given right. Businesses offer them for their own self-interested reasons. If you build on top of the API but aren’t delivering the value for the business that provides the API, your use of the API will probably go away.
- If you build your own business on top of an API, you need a contractual relationship to ensure the service doesn’t get taken away from you. These generally cost money.
- If you find a way to get something from a site that isn’t explicitly offered as something for you to build on, your use of it will probably be fought unless you’re delivering value as in (1).
- The provider of your API will find it easier to implement services on top of their API than you will. Therefore you have to add something of your own that’s difficult to replicate, something beyond a simple UI tweak or a feature like “search”, so that the business that provides the API doesn’t simply compete with you when you look like you’re succeeding.
- For these reasons, free APIs are a very poor substitute for having the source and the data and thus owning and controlling every piece of your application.
- For these reasons, there’s no such thing as a free API if you’re looking to build a business.
Surely Torkington means free as in free beer APIs, as many of the problems he cites arise because the data and services are not free as in free speech. And this leads to two things I want us to be aware of in libraries: giving over our data to companies that lock it up behind licenses that restrict how it can be reused and remixed is dangerous; and we have an opportunity — some would say responsibility — to build out some of that information infrastructure and deliver free as in free speech APIs and data for all to use.
remixability, mashups, self interest, public good, api, apis, free, free beer, free speech,
Related:
Posted April 30, 2007 by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: api, apis, free, free beer, free speech, mashups, public good, remixability, self interest.
No Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
User contributed tags for this post:
remixability (121) - api business models (74) - sex fak (68) - arap sex (68) - fak sex (58) - arap porno (56) - ???sex (47) - arap 69 (45) - arap 69 tv (44) - free API (39) - SEX ARAP (39) - sex tv2 (35) - soa (34) - WWW ARAP SEX (32) - WWW Arap sex com (31) - www.arap sex.com (30) - arap porn (25) - arap pornosu (22) - ΠΟΡΝΟ (15) - arap.sex.com (12) - arap-69.tv (12) - business (11) - www arap tv com (11) - arap sexsi (11) - www arap tv (11) - sex fak you (10) - arap sex tv (10) - arab 69 (10) - fak porno (10) - fak you (9) - arap sextv (9) - arap sex video (9) - you sexs (9) - www porna sex canlı (8) - www.arap.sex.com (8) - canlı sex arap.com (8) - 89 com (8) - arap sex.com (8) - www.arap sex (7) - sex.arap (7) - www arap 69 tv (7) - arap sex com (7) - six arap (7) - arap sexs (7) - arap six (7) - sxe fak (7) - www.arap.tv (7) - grandma had more sex grandma sex stories (6) - bangladeshi porno (6) - sexs tv (6) - bengali porno (6) - arap.porn. (6) - www.canlı porno.com (6) - www arap sex tv (6) - bangla sex.3 (6) - www.arap.sex (5) - sexy fak (5) - sexs fre (5) - 8091220069870 (5) - arap.porn (5) - sex-arap.tv (5) - canlı sexs tv (5) - six.arap (5) - sextv 2 (4) - arap-sex.tv (4) - bengali sex.com (4) - free fak (4) - business self interest (4) - bengali porna (4) - canlı sexs pornosu (4) - www.arap porno (4) - www sex arap (4) - arap.69.tv (4) - www.canlı sexs.com (4) - xxxl sex v (4) - arap sex.tv (4) - bangla porno (4) - 6 arap (4) - free arap sex (4) - six fak (4) - www arap 69 (4) - sex fre (4) - sexs tv2 (4) - sex xxl fak (4) - 69 sex dreams tv (4) - arap.sex (4) - bengali sex stories (4) - vedeo sexs fre (3) - Porno fak (3) - fak sex move (3) - free photo arab 69 tv (3) - arap.porno (3) - fak for sex (3) - sextv 1 (3) - sex with great grandma (3) - 89 X SEX TV (3) - arap six com (3) - sexs fak (3) - fak porn (3) - sex.tv.2 (3) - arab 69 tv (3) - sex fak free (3) - ???sex védeo (3) - www.arap six.com (3) - porn movies (3) - arap sex vidio (3) - sex.tv2 (3) - canlı sex arap.com (7) (3) - sex (3) - www.arap (3) - bangla xxl (3) - free vidio sexteacher (3) - xxl arap (3) - fak sex video (3) - arap sex t.v (3) - xxxl arap (3) - sex arap tv (3) - arap 69 sexs (2) - apış porn (2) - free videos arap (2) - free arap six (2) - arap porno film free (2) - WWW.YOU PORN ARAP,COM (2) - www arap 89 com (2) - free sex fak (2) - x arap sex movıes vs. (2) - sex video free cost 89.com (2) - .arap-69.tv (2) - sex x ???sex (2) - free fak sex (2) - free x.x.x.l sex t.v. (2) - grandma sex.com (2) - site:maisonbisson.com bangla sex 89 (2) - sex tv 1.tv :free sex tv feeds,free porn vide (2) - porno stories book in Bangla (2) - fak you in filme (2) - arap top (2) - ,www.arap porn (2) - porno 1 tv (2) - canli sexs film (2) - www.sex arab.in (2) - www.arap.69.tv (2) - arap.sex.tv (2) - 66.arap (2) - www.arap-69-tv (2) - www.sex arap (2) - www.arap porno com (2) - sex arap free vidio (2) - sex.com.fak (2) - www.fre sex tv.com (2) -
