API Collaboration vs datastore competition

Community Zone APIs
#1

Based on a diagram @JohnAdams drew on a whiteboard:

FRONT-END  /-------------\ /-------------\  - - - -
APPS       | HTML Jquery | | iOS/Android | | etc. |  COMPETITION
           \-------------/ \-------------/  - - - -

           /--------------------------------------\
           | API          - activity              |
           |              - aggregate             |  COLLABORATION
           |              - organisation          |
           \--------------------------------------/

           /-----------\ /------\  - - -
DATASTORES | IATI      | | OIPA | | etc. |           COMPETITION
           | Datastore | |      | |      |
           \-----------/ \------/  - - -

           /--------------------------------------\
           |           IATI REGISTRY              |  IATI MANAGED
           \--------------------------------------/

This diagram is similar to that in the slides for his talk at the 2014 TAG: http://discuss.iatistandard.org/uploads/default/40/a386e8913836a7a0.pdf

#2

(from call 26th September)

It would be useful for WG members to discuss the vision of how datastores and APIs can operate independently. In other words, they may not always be from the same service provider.

  • A datastore could be selected by a user around several factors (curation, quality, cost, service).
  • With an API standard, people could then select an API provider along similar factors

It may be important for this WG to discuss this, in order to clarify our focus