Planning for success vs planning for ok

The number of companies releasing APIs continues increase(see programmable web blog post). Whether it is the New York Times, Lonely Planet, Dada Entertainment or WhitePages.com, planning is an important part of driving both adoption and ongoing success. Planning isn’t just about the types of web services you offer, or about the business model that might be deployed. In the words of one of our customers, Tom Tague, from the Calais Division of Thomson-Reuters, “it’s about planning for success vs planning for ok.” In the 7 months the Calais service has been available, he has experience that provides insight to his words.

Tom tells the tale of being “slash dotted” – which to many is seen as the ultimate achievement among the developer community. What is Slashdot? It is one of the technology industries most prominent sites where millions of developers around the world share the their perspectives. In the first month of being launched, the Calais initiative was slash dotted and their registered user count went from a few hundred to over 1000 in a matter of 12 hours. Having the infrastructure and support in place to manage this high activity was extremely critical – even more so for Calais being part of Thomson-Reuters. The press has a reputation for being the hardest on it’s own kind. Not being able to handle this could have created a backlash.

While some people think that traffic volumes might be an issue, Tom told us that one of the key components to success is managing the ongoing user activity. The real notion of planning for success means thinking about what you need for support. Users lose keys, users need to have their access limits increased or decreased, and keys need to be blocked because they are using your content on inappropriate sites. This type of activity must be managed on a daily basis. The ability to have real time insight to user activity and being able to respond immediately are critical. Pro-actively managing what is happening from a business perspective is important to your success with your partners and community of API users.

Launching an API requires some thoughtful planning and requires continuous nurturing. Whether it is for a handful of strategic partners, or scaling to thousands of users, you must have the necessary infrastructure and tools to be able to support their changing needs.

If you get a chance to hear the Calais story, you really shouldn’t miss the opportunity. Tom has much to share.