Weekly API Evangelist Governance (Guidance)
Let’s give a warm Monday welcome to our documentation partner Theneo and our SDK partner APIMATIC. API Evangelist storytelling occurs because of Theneo and APIMATIC, and I am thankful to have their support for this exciting ride!
It was a light work week. I took Tuesday through Thursday off. I slipped in some light storytelling on Monday and Friday, but most work cycles were spent on preparing the API and application for the API Pulse—which I will be making available widely in April.
The hype over Model Control Protocol (MCP) was unavoidable this week. My current stance on the new protocol being positioned as an API killer is that if true, that would mean the end of API producers, leaving only very ravenous API consumers—an approach that will lead to more API specification fragmentation and rot. And, I am always happy to talk to folks about where MCP fits into the bigger picture with anyone championing the spec.
As I worked on guidance for customers I helped strengthen arguments around why team awareness of API governance rules matters. And while I have been planning this research for a while, a quick dive into the variety of consent API, felt very appropriate with the storytelling around MCP, but also the celebration around ChatGPT being able to produce images reflecting the Studio Ghibili style—which in my opinion helps us visualize the MCP potential also being celebrated.
I am shifting my API Knowledge Builders from weekly office hours to be personalized email newsletters. I will be providing weekly drips of knowledge across twelve weeks for the following topics:
Schema - Focusing on the fundamental role that JSON Schema plays.
APIs - The technical details of using OpenAPI to describe our APIs.
Governance - Diving into the specific rules used to govern APIs.
HTTP - Covering the basics of the most essential transport for APIs.
API Service Composition - Having an plan for API value exchange.
API Proxies - Looking at how API operations can be reverse engineered.
API Operations - Expanding API governance to cover our operations.
API Changes - Getting a handle on the change occurring at all levels.
API Evangelism - Baking in storytelling into everything you do.
The goal of this shift is to keep the recurring drip of API governance knowledge, while also better aligning with people’s busy schedules. People can choose which topic fits their interests and needs, and get an email in their inboxes for the next twelve weeks with snackable information that helps them build up their API governance knowledge and expertise.
There will be continue stories published to the blog, but I am keeping this core API knowledge behind what I consider to be a “freewall”—I don’t want it available on the web site for consumption by bots, but still want people who are in need to have access. Email seems like the best option. I will be evolving the content every twelve weeks based upon what I learn from the people who have subscribed to each of the API Evangelist Knowledge Builder series.
If you need API Evangelist to help out with API governance please let us know how we can help. And thank you again to APIMATIC and Theneo for their continued support. If you are interested in sponsoring our work and site please review out sponsorship package, and drop me an email today.