My ongoing stories around how APIs can help make business, educational, healthcare, government, and the other transactions that we are increasingly seeing move online, be more transparent--enjoy a regular amount of snickers, subtweets, and laughs from folks in the space. Whether it is about opening up access to our social media dtaa, all the way up to how our home or student loans are hammered out, to how international trade agreements are crafted--I feel APIs have a role to play when opening things up (yeah I know I'm biased).
With that said, APIs are NOT the answer in all scenarios. I do not see them as the aboslute solution, but they do offer promise when it comes to giving individuals a voice in how social media, financial, healthcare, and other data and content is used, or not used. A lot of people who are part of the startup machine love to laugh at me, pointing out how uninformed I am about how things work. We have to keep things private, and in the hands of those who are in the know--this is how business works, and everything would come to a screeching halt if we forced everything to open up.
While there is a wide variety of motivations behind why people poke at me about my persepective, I am noticing one important thing. They disagree with me when I point out things that are downstream from them, but they agree with me when it is upstream from them. Meaning if I focus on federal agencies like the IRS, or possibly banking on Wall Street, and other regulatory and legal influences -- they are all about transparency. If it is downstream from them with their existing customers, or would be customers for their future startups --hell no, transparency will always hurt the things. Just leave it to the smart, cool kids to make the important decisions, the average person shouldn't worry there little head about it..
This is privilege. You are unable to see people below the position you enjoy in society. You have an overinflated sense of what you are capable of, and that you will always do right by everyone You possess a attitude that all your customers, and users who will be using your platform and tooling should just be thankful that you are so smart, and built this amazing platform for everyone to use. Please do not bother us elite with concerns privacy, security, and well being. We know best! They have things under control. However those bankers building the banking platform we depend on, people runnign those higher educational institutions, or those nasty regulators who craft the platform we are required to report business operations -- they can't be trusted! #TRANSPARENCY
Ok. Done ranting. Let me close with saying that transparency does not equal good. Transparency can be very bad, and I am not prescribing it in all situations. I am just pushing back on those who push back on me when I ask for transparency in the platforms in which I depend on for my business. Please do not try and disarm me with absolutes. I'm just asking for transparency in the business and political dealings that directly impact me as an individual, and my business. While also suggesting that more tech folks work to understand that there is a downstream impact from their world, they might not see, because of the priveleged position you enjoy, so please thinking a little more deeply as you race to get what is your.
