APIs are real, and very important. So when a corporate vendor “deprecates” an API we’ve built on, it’s really hard to shrug it off — especially since these changes usually modify the contract between developers and the platform. It’s very rare that the benefit accrues to the developers. Very often when the API changes our apps are broken and gone … for good.
Recently new life has been pumped into Flickr by Yahoo, something longtime users are surely glad to see. But, with that new life comes concerns that the API will break. Because that’s what big tech companies do when they move.
It’s particularly important with Flickr because it has been unmoving for so long, which usually has a big downside, but it has one huge upside: The API has been stable. Without breakage, we’ve been able to build some very good and useful systems on Flickr. Stuff Yahoo probably doesn’t care about, but which we do care about.
As I was looking for a way to express the idea, it hit me — why not start a petition on whitehouse.gov to declare the Flickr API a National Historic Landmark?
That’s how neighborhoods in the physical world protect their character from corporate wrecking balls.
If we didn’t do this, the city where I live, New York, would have a freeway running down the middle of it. The East Village would only have NYU dorms. There would be no Central Park. And so on.
The founders of the city of New York were visionaries, and there’s no reason we can’t have such vision for the future of the internet.
Let’s make the revitalization of Flickr a complete win. Let’s make sure Yahoo knows we want the API to remain stable, so we can continue to build on it as a platform. We think it’s good business for them, but hey — even if it isn’t — let’s make sure our interests are represented.
Let’s do something constructive to save some of the DNA of the net. It’s worth it. Sign the petition, now!
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article appeared on the author’s Scripting News blog.
Why We Need to Protect Some APIs — Like Flickr's — As National Landmarks
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Why We Need to Protect Some APIs — Like Flickr's — As National Landmarks
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Why We Need to Protect Some APIs — Like Flickr's — As National Landmarks
