Telephones, Mechanical Turks, and the Future of APIs

Telephones, Mechanical Turks, and the Future of APIs

Is our API Economy is one big giant Mechanical Turk; a human-driven system made to look like automation? Are APIs a huge parlor trick like that employed in the late 18th century by the inventory Wolfgang von Kempelen for the intelligentsia of his patron - the Austrian court?

Using examples from the history of the first person-to-person network at the turn of the 20th century - the telephone system - we’ll explore the past and future path of the 21st century API Economy. Will APIs, like telephone switching, become truly automatic? Or will service-to-service communication always require humans (programmers) to constantly code and re-code connections each time a new task is required? Is our current API Economy sustainable?

An internationally known author and lecturer, Mike Amundsen travels throughout the world consulting and speaking on a wide range of topics including distributed network architecture, Web application development, and other subjects.

In his role of Director of Architecture for the API Academy, Amundsen heads up the API Architecture and Design Practice in North America. He is responsible for working with companies to provide insight on how best to capitalize on the myriad opportunities APIs present to both consumers and the enterprise.

Amundsen has authored numerous books and papers on programming over the last 15 years. His most recent book is a collaboration with Leonard Richardson titled "RESTful Web APIs" published in 2013. His 2011 book, “Building Hypermedia APIs with HTML5 and Node”, is an oft-cited reference on building adaptable Web applications.

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