The API is dead, Long live the protocol 
by Simon Tennant (Buddycloud Ltd.)
Thursday, 08.05.2014, Stage C, 14:45-15:30 Uhr
Track: Mobile Devices
In 1993 we build successful applications like email servers and clients - successful because they were build on open protocols. In 2003 we built great web servers - successful for being distributed and runnable by anyone. In 2013 we build applications against APIs that came usage limits and that would shut you down if you were in the wrong “quadrant”. Where did we go so wrong?
Open standards usually prevail: the car, the personal computer, GSM. But are failing in the social networking world. This talk looks at the current efforts to fix this, and shows you concrete things that you can do to help open standards in social networks prevail.
About the author Simon Tennant:
Simon Tennant became an entrepreneur at an early stage with several ventures under his belt before buddycloud. He grew up in South Africa and has always been a technologist. Studying computer science at Warwick University in the UK, he left early to start his first venture. Simon has had extensive experience building internet applications for startups and UBS, Deutsche Bank and at AOL, when he eventually launched buddycloud. Currently he splits his time between London, San Francisco and Munich.
In his spare time he enjoys long distance running, rock climbing and most things in the mountains. Simon helps promote open standards through his work on two internet standards committees: the XMPP Standards Foundation and the W3C federated social network incubator.