API Evangelist Conversations

Lorna Mitchell, OpenAPI Specification Maintainer with the OpenAPI Initiative, and overall API experience expert came by to educate me (us) on OpenAPI Overlays, helping contrast with the core OpenAPI spec, as well as with Arazzo Workflows, sharing how it will help bring more stakeholders into the API lifecycle and contribute to better API experiences. Lorna is a well spring of knowledge when it com...

I recently sat down for a conversation with Luke Seelenbinder, Founder & CEO of Stadia Maps to talk about taking on Google Maps with a more sensible and affordable mapping solution. As I learned more about the Stadia Maps journey I found ourselves talking about product-led motions for companies, and what the meaning of APIs as a product was. Luke and Stadia maps reflects the real world busines...

My friend from Postman days Ian Mai came by to talk about addiction and impulse control with me. This isn't your average API conversation, but neither is my podcast, and I am all about sharing my own struggles, while also giving friends a platform to help others with their battles. I appreciate Ian's honesty in his own struggles with addiction and trying to find balance, and wanted to le...

Greg Dennis who was on my team at Postman, and part of my master plan to spend as much VC money as I could on open source API technology, came by to share his expert view on the diff between HTTP APIs and programming language library APIs. Greg is one of the caring souls who are tending to the JSON Schema specification, and has extensive experience developing and maintaining his .NET JSON Schema l...

I was happy to have Raymond Camden, Developer Advocate at Adobe come by for another conversation. Raymond was on Breaking Changes back in the day, and I've been a follower of his work for well over a decade. He provided his obligatory plug for Adobe APIs he is an advocate for, but what is really motivating him was his new work at the intersection of API and AI. I don't have the time and...

The opinionated and deeply knowledgeable driver of API specifications and VP of Developer Experience at Redocly, Lorna Mitchell came by to share some knowledge on Redocly CLI with me. I have made an executive decision to not have API service providers on my podcast, opting to speak with API producer and consumers, but Lorna transcends her role at Redocly. Lorna is part of the TSC for the OpenAPI I...

Subramanian Krishnan, or simply Subu, Architect and API Integration at Cloud Software Group within Citrix joined came by for an API Evangelist Conversation. Subu was one of the accumulated driving forces that pushed me towards a focus on API governance after our Breaking Changes episode in 2022. So I was happy to have him back to learn more about their API journey. Subu is always pragmatic, seeing...

Sue Smith, Senior Learning Experience Manager at Fastly came by to chat with me about the state of education in the tech sector. Sue has a genuine passion for education and can take just about any area of the tech landscape, dive-in, and begin helping onboard others to some very complex topics. Sue and I share a concern about the amount of investment enterprises and startups make across their oper...

Bruno Vaz da Costa, API Architect (digital plumber) at RHI Magnesita came by to share what APIs means to his enterprise operating in the refractory industry, what their biggest challenges are, and thoughts around how they can standardize around APIs. This type of conversation reflects where I want to go with these API conversations, getting out of the API echo chamber and talking with folks doing...

Heather and I go way back talking APIs and open banking standards, but I invited Heather to sit down and educate me more about Smart Data, and how the intersection of APIs and Smart Data can help us bridge multiple industries like finance, healthcare, and travel. Heather shared insights on how as a community we can speak more in terms of what APIs, data, and standards means to actual end-users, fr...

Jamie and I connected on the API's You Won't Hate Slack channel, where I started subscribing to his blog. After reading a post on versioning, and more specifically why you should start the version for your API at 0.1.0 instead of 1.0.0, I knew I needed to have him come for a conversation. I really enjoyed Jamie's calm and pragmatic approach to what web APIs are, what Semantic Versio...

I had a conversation with Dale McCrory, Software and Product Management Leader at Breeze Strategy about the business and product manager view of the API landscape. I am eager to hear from veteran API product managers like Dale about how we convince leadership to invest in APIs, but also API product managers. Dale has a healthy view of the business of APIs, and how this applies across the many diff...

Robert came by to share his wisdom on why APIs matter and I can always count on him for hot takes on the realities of our API operations. Robert was a constant back channel during my Breaking Changes days, but I never managed to actually get him on the show. Robert and are in alignment on where most of the deficiencies exist across the API space and I'd that we both share higher technological...

Daniel Kocot joined me to share some wisdom from the trenches of API consulting about OpenAPI and TypeSpec, helping me better understand the motivations behind, how these specs can work in concert, and how different stops along the API lifecycle motivate our investment in different API specs.

I brought back my old friend and storytelling mentor Adam DuVander to reminisce about the old days of ProgrammableWeb, exploring the reasons behind its demise, but also what the current realities are for API producers in world where people really don't care about APIs, and more about the business solutions that they deliver.

I dove into the challenges of running a highly curated global nutrition data API with Sebastian Loch, Business Development at FatSecret. He talked about his experience of running a modern API operations that has been around for years, but he also shared his challenges in putting artificial intelligence to work as part of their platform, as well as the uncertainty of providing high quality data via...

A very focused conversation on change management and versioning with Stanislav Zmiev, Tech Lead of Platform Engineering at invoicing and bill pay provider Monite. Stanislav had an extremely nuanced and pragmatic view of API versioning, which I think sets the stage for a very healthy discussion for any company looking to version their mission critical APIs.

This is the first actual edition of the API Evangelist Conversation podcast with my friend Pat Patterson, the Chief Technical Evangelist at Backblaze. Always enjoy learning from Pat as we dove into the meaning behind his title, as well as how Backblaze has standardized their API around the Amazon S3 storage API--essentially treating the API as the industry standard for storage.

This is the introductory pilot for the new API Evangelist Conversation podcast, where I interview myself (Kin Lane) to explore the new format, and work out all the kinks with producing and distributing this podcast. It is a little robotic and awkward as I interview myself, but something that will get more natural once I am talking to other human beings.

This is the second pilot for the new API Evangelist Conversations podcast. This is an off the record edition where I interview my alter ego Tim Lane, but obfuscate my voice and hide my face. Like the first one, it isn't that smooth as it is awkward to interview yourself, but I am also just getting started with all the production around this series.