Zen and the Art of an API Ecosystem: Building Platforms Through Partnership »

This week MySpace launched the Developer Services program to make it easier for developers on their API to use cool tools for creating, deploying and managing their apps. Through the new portal, developers get better and discounted access to frameworks, hosting, monetization and mobile tools and analytics. We're excited to be one of the partners along with services like PushButton Engine, Microsoft BizSpark and PayPal. 

The Developer Services program highlights the new business imperative for API providers- building an ecosystem- and the ways partnerships support that goal.   

From Tech to Platform 

An open API isn't just about making a technology available- it's about building a platform. The new web economy means billions of devices, millions upon millions of users and thousands of APIs. When your API is deeply hooked into the fabric of the internet, the developer world and the ongoing evolution of tools, devices and services, it gains both greater immediate value and longevity.  

Developers are going to use your API with other APIs, they're going to use monetization and analytics tools, and they're more and more likely to use cloud services that make it easy to scale their stuff. There's a growing opportunity for API providers to form partnerships that simultaneously simplify and improve the development process while enriching the API ecosystem. 

This approach to community and ecosystem is both philosophy and business strategy- a belief that empowering developers to access the tools they want is beneficial to all; and a model that supports adoption, innovation and ROI.