API designers, builders, and consumers face an array of questions and challenges on a daily basis. At each gathering of the Austin Homegrown API Meetup, our presenters seek to answer many of those questions and help attendees overcome many of their industry challenges.
On Sept. 19, we welcomed three speakers from different organizations who helped address the following questions and challenges:
- When is the right time to write API documentation?
- What is the best way to democratize APIs?
- How can you leverage APIs to find and use publicly available information?
The Austin Homegrown API Meetup gets together on the third Thursday of each month at ShipEngine’s headquarters, located at 4009 Marathon Boulevard in Austin. Are you interested in joining us? Sign up for our group’s distribution list to get messages about upcoming events.
To give you a sense of what each meeting includes, here’s a brief recap and video of each presentation from our September gathering.
When to Write Documentation by Adam Altman, Redocly
Everyone knows how important quality documentation is to the developer experience. But, when is the best time to write documentation? Adam Altman walked attendees through various options—before making a recommendation on when to write the docs. Here’s his full presentation:
Democratizing APIs by John Banning, Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice serves retailers by providing actionable information from their brand partners and consumers. During his presentation, John Banning walked attendees through the process Bazaarvoice used to create an API that is truly developer friendly, including the guiding principles used by the Bazaarvoice API development team. Take a look at his presentation:
Open Data Portals by Rick McDonald, City of Austin
A desire to serve the community led Rick McDonald to explore Open Austin and APIs that could be used to access public information. He shared with attendees how to find interesting and helpful public information using the power of APIs, as well as ideas on how to use public information for the greater good. Check it out in the video, below.
If you’re interested in learning more about APIs and/or plugging into Austin’s growing API community, make plans to join an upcoming Austin Homegrown API Meetup. Follow our Meetup page for updates.
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