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You just have to make sure the interest of the company who owns the API and your own interests are aligned. Take two examples: Twitter: as a client developer,

You just have to make sure the interest of the company who owns the API and your own interests are aligned. Take two examples: Twitter: as a client developer, your interests are competing -- you want control of the stream, Twitter wants control of the stream. Guess who wins? PayPal: You want to process payments, they want to make money taking fees for processing payments. That API isn't going anywhere. I think the first case can be mitigated if there's a "developer account" that you pay for, and I've predicted that Twitter and Netflix will both come out with (paid) developer accounts in a short time. We'll see.

nomnomnom 14y ago
But that's not "making sure" at all - you're still at the mercy of others. Just because you pay them doesn't mean they can't discontinue the product, for example. Also, PayPal seems to have a horrid history of freezing accounts nilly-willy.. sure, their API might not go anywhere (as long as PayPal doesn't ;).. but what's the use when your access to it might go away any moment?
- Domenic_S 14y ago
  "Making sure" may have been too strong of a phrase; what I'm talking about is minimizing risk. Sometimes you can form relationships or partnerships with the 3rd party, sometimes you can shovel them money, and at all times you should do your best to make sure you're not using a 3rd party to compete with itself.
blake8086 14y ago
"Making sure" is signing a contract with them. That's what contracts are for.
- spindritf 14y ago
  Can you afford to actually enforce a contract against a much larger company? Are you willing to waste all that time and resources?
  - blake8086 14y ago
    Ok, I apologize for the tone of my previous post, it was pretty flippant. Yes, I don't think you should even go into business without either: 1) A reasonable expectation of getting screwed (maybe reasonable is less than 1%, maybe it's 50%) 2) Money to pay at least some legal fees In order to ensure fairness, you have to play some kind of game of attrition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_attrition_(game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_attrition_(game) against others who would seek to gain by harming you disproportionally. In the U.S., we usually play that game with lawsuits. Perhaps in Russia (I am broadly generalizing and stereotyping) you might play it with bribes and cronies. In Somalia, it might be with actual guns and attrition. You can enforce a contract against a larger company, size does not have a 1-to-1 correspondence with court case outcomes. Again, sorry for sounding like a big jerk.

nomnomnom 14y ago

But that's not "making sure" at all - you're still at the mercy of others. Just because you pay them doesn't mean they can't discontinue the product, for example. Also, PayPal seems to have a horrid history of freezing accounts nilly-willy.. sure, their API might not go anywhere (as long as PayPal doesn't ;).. but what's the use when your access to it might go away any moment?

Domenic_S 14y ago
"Making sure" may have been too strong of a phrase; what I'm talking about is minimizing risk. Sometimes you can form relationships or partnerships with the 3rd party, sometimes you can shovel them money, and at all times you should do your best to make sure you're not using a 3rd party to compete with itself.

blake8086 14y ago

"Making sure" is signing a contract with them. That's what contracts are for.

spindritf 14y ago
Can you afford to actually enforce a contract against a much larger company? Are you willing to waste all that time and resources?
- blake8086 14y ago
  Ok, I apologize for the tone of my previous post, it was pretty flippant. Yes, I don't think you should even go into business without either: 1) A reasonable expectation of getting screwed (maybe reasonable is less than 1%, maybe it's 50%) 2) Money to pay at least some legal fees In order to ensure fairness, you have to play some kind of game of attrition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_attrition_(game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_attrition_(game) against others who would seek to gain by harming you disproportionally. In the U.S., we usually play that game with lawsuits. Perhaps in Russia (I am broadly generalizing and stereotyping) you might play it with bribes and cronies. In Somalia, it might be with actual guns and attrition. You can enforce a contract against a larger company, size does not have a 1-to-1 correspondence with court case outcomes. Again, sorry for sounding like a big jerk.