Mashery Developer Blog

The Echo Nest has launched the first in a series of music API's called Analyze. You can analyze a music file in seconds and get interesting information such as tempo, beats, song sections, and a bunch of other attributes. They have created a pretty cool sample app called "This is My Jam", a site where users can create beat-matched, DJ-quality micro-mixes of favorite songs to share on blogs and social networks. More stuff is coming - keep watching their developer site!

Mashery is thrilled to welcome Laura Merling to our management team as VP Sales and Marketing. Laura's brings a wealth of experience from Krugle, SDForum and Intershop - her full bio is here. Matt Asay at cnet was kind enough to join in the welcome.

If you haven't met Laura, you'll have a great chance to do so in New York on March 17 at The Business of APIs - not only will you meet Laura, but you can learn a ton about APIs too! Hope to see you there!

UrbanMapping launched their Mashery-powered API last week, and were kind enough to mention Mashery in their blog...thanks! We had fun with the implementation, and look forward to seeing some great Trulia / UrbanMapping mashups!

Reuters announced yesterday that their "Open Calais" API launched yesterday. We at Mashery are proud of the quick deployment of our Mashery Pro API infrastructure service for Reuters - check out the Mashery-powered API portal here.

One of the questions we're often asked is "once I launch my API, how do I attract developers to build cool things with it?" Well, Reuters has decided on a tried-and-true method - a $5,000 cash bounty for the first developer to build an OpenCalais-powered plugin for WordPress...and they have said that more such bounties will follow. Is it working? Well, there have been a lot of developer keys issued during the first 24 hours, and at least one developer has blogged that he's already working on an opencalais Ruby interface. Good luck to all!

Dave Cancel posts that Compete, the company he co-founded (but left to start Lookery with Rafer), has seen its compete.com site pass alexa.com in number of visitors.

How did this happen? Well, they did a lot of things very well, but juxtaposing the inflection points on this graph with the milestones Dave showed in his slides at The Business of APIs Conference, their Mashery-powered API was a big contributing factor.

Mashery is thrilled to have played a part in this important milestone in Compete's growth, and thanks Compete for being an early customer and ardent supporter of ours - and for showing the world how one can gain immense value by offering a free, open API.

Congratulations to the entire Compete team!

[cross-posted on Praxis]

In case you missed "The Business of APIs" conference (or just wanted to review some of the talks from our outstanding speakers), we have posted the presentations here on our site. Presentations from Oren Michels, Thomas Howe, Asha Velliakal, David Cancel and Dave McClure have all been posted using Slideshare, which allows you to view the presentations directly from the webpage. The conference was also recorded and we'll be posting the videos in the near future.

Over 200 attendees spent Monday afternoon learning about the Business of APIs, and by all accounts, it was a rousing success. The room was packed – attendees spent the afternoon learning the benefits of opening their API from companies who have successfully done so and how they, too, can open their API to quickly and easily expand their partner network.

The day began with a presentation by Thomas Howe, who spoke to the breadth of opportunity for companies who want to engage developers with their product. Other topics included how Telcos are working to open their APIs in a move towards “Telco 2.0” and how RockYou was able to create popular applications on various social networking platforms. Attendees were treated to an energetic presentation by Dave McClure who posed that recruiting a "Geek Advisory Board" is one key to building a successful developer program. Quentin Hardy, Senior Editor at Forbes, moderated three panels, including a discussion on how the Facebook platform has changed the current landscape by opening up their platform to developers. The conference concluded with a panel of investors discussing how their investment strategies have changed to favor those who have an open API as part of their business plan.

Mashery is thrilled to have sponsored this inaugural conference and we appreciate everyone who was able to attend. We also want to thank Dealmaker Media, the producer of the conference, as well as all of the speakers and the other sponsors, Sun Microsystems, Plumbline, and Programmable Web.

Missed it? Want a recap of your favorite presentation? We'll be posting many of the presentations on the site in the next few days. Also, the conference was recorded so we’ll be posting videos of some of the panels here on the Mashery site in the near future.

We're getting ready for the upcoming Business of APIs conference, which Mashery is producing in association with Dealmaker Media. The speaker list is very strong, and the agenda should be relevant to anyone with an interest in APIs.

The first segment of the conference talks about the business case for launching an open API. We'll have case studies from companies that have launched successful API programs, including Pikeo , Compete and RockYou. We'll also hear from executives at Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL about what the "giants" are doing in APIs.

The second segment dives into the nuts and bolts of API infrastructure. Dave McClure, who launched one of the most successful developer/API programs around during his tenure at Paypal, will talk about the essential elements of a successful developer program. Then we'll present an overview of Mashery's on-demand API infrastructure.

The final segment will cover the implications of the Facebook Platform on APIs and business, and the effect that web services have had on investment and corporate strategy. This segment will be led by Quentin Hardy, Senior Editor and Silicon Valley Bureau Chief of Forbes.

Registration for this conference is already over 70% of capacity, so if you're interested in coming, sign up today. We look forward to seeing you there!

Opening an API is the first step toward getting your web service built into third party applications, including applications on the Facebook platform. By efficiently packaging and broadening the distribution of a company's services, APIs present immediate benefits and promising growth opportunities for businesses large and small, young and old.

In an inaugural one-day conference entitled The Business of APIs, Dealmaker Media and Mashery are bringing together industry experts who have successfully launched their API distribution channel to share their strategies. Find out why and how they did it, how they measured success, and how you too can rapidly launch your own API program with minimal involvement from your internal development and IT teams. Speakers include Bradley Horowitz, VP of the Advanced Development Division at Yahoo!, Jia Shen, CTO and Co-Founder of RockYou, and Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. The conference will conclude with a discussion led by Quentin Hardy, Senior Editor and Silicon Valley bureau chief of Forbes, with prominent investors and M&A executives about how the trend towards API has influenced investment, valuation, and strategy.

This exciting event will take place on Monday, October 15, 2007, at the San Francisco City Club -- a beautiful art deco facility in the heart of the Financial District -- from 1:00pm to 6:00pm.
A hosted cocktail reception will promptly follow.

Full conference information can be found at apiconference.com. Space is limited -- sign up today. Hope to see you on October 15th!