Net API Notes for 2020/05/26 - Issue 131 - Brackets!
Twenty-twenty has been an unusual year. In the process of navigating uncertainty, I missed that this here little endeavor turned FIVE THIS YEAR. I've never been much of the parade and ticker-tape type over arbitrary dates, especially for an email newsletter. However, realizing I've been putting out regular recaps for the last half-decade is as good of a reason as any to reflect.
The newsletter started as an outgrowth of all the learning I was doing at a previous employer. I wore many hats until that point for a variety of mid-sized and startup firms, including chief API implementer. However, this architecture role was challenging me with an unfamiliar enterprise size and scale.
As I worked through my process of discovery, I found that others might benefit from what I was finding. Further, having to explain these abstract concepts, in my own words, internalized and clarified them in a way that just reading them never could. Finally, by publicly committing them to a running conversation, there was a degree of social pressure to continue pushing through even when time and energy weren't at their highest.
When I initially shared my intent to do something weekly, my boss and mentor, at the time, was dubious. He was unsure whether there were enough interesting bits for that kind of schedule. He was right about January and August; both months get a bit lean. However, the amount of new topics, techniques, tools, and trends in this space has meant that most weeks, I have no shortage of shareable things to buzz my brainpan and tickle my QWERTY.
Looking back over the archive, you can see how this #APIeconomy is diverse and prone to reinvention. And since we didn't get March Madness this year, what better way to reuse those brackets and celebrate the newsletter's fifth anniversary than to arbitrarily pair them off for an epic no-prize!
That's right! Over the next five weeks, we will whittle down the most signifigant concepts in the API space until the most impactful is left standing. The first round of 32 got started last night, and polls will run for a week. You can head over to the Twitter thread to get started voting. It only takes a minute, your votes are confidential, and the honor of your favorite ideological shit-stirrer hangs in the balance.
There are already some upsets taking shape. VOTE NOW!
MILESTONES
- Nick Tune has set up a free Miro board showing his favorite Event Storming tricks and patterns. If you've adopted the technique to get a better understanding of your jobs to be done, check it out.
- O'Reilly, after getting out of the physical event business, is putting on a streaming "super-series". It comprising a half day on three different days in June, September, and November and covers architecture fundamentals, microservices, domain-driven design, and event-driven architectures. I'm still trying to figure out how best to add it to NetAPI.events, but, until I do, at least you know about it now.
- Microsoft Build was held virtually last week. Lots of announcements, including additional APIs for Azure and its cloud of office productivity software.
- Remember Strava? The API for the run and cycling tracking app first gained notoriety for inadvertently exposing secret military locations. Then, it got into a tussle over user data exports to other apps. Now, following an increasingly familiar blueprint, they're rescinding which functionality is returned for API tiers. In some cases, data is restricted to paying tiers. In other cases, data is no longer available for any API tier. It has some people upset.
WRAPPING UP
I've updated NetAPI.events. Most events remain virtual. However, there's a surprising handful of European events that appear to be your regular, plain old, get-together-in-a-bar. I'm sure folks are being safe out there. If you know of an upcoming API-related community gathering that isn't listed, I want to know! I'd be glad to list it.
Finally, thank you to the Patreons who support this, and every other issue of the newsletter for the past five years.
Till next time,
Matthew @libel_vox and matthewreinbold.com