Andrew Mager, Spotify

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Business of APIs - October 19, 2011 Building a developer community from scratch Tuesday, October 18, 11

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NYC BAPI 2011 Speaker Presentation

Transcript of Andrew Mager, Spotify

Page 1: Andrew Mager, Spotify

Business of APIs - October 19, 2011

Building a developer community from scratch

Tuesday, October 18, 11

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Building a hacker community in the US

• Andrew Mager• @mager, @SpotifyPlatform

• Moved to Brooklyn 1 month ago from San Francisco

• Languages of choice:Python, Ruby, HTML5, CSS, Javascript

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API best practices

Assume your users know nothing about APIs.

When working with cloud APIs, explain what the cloud is. Give high level overview of REST, HTTP.

Be clear about what’s supported and what is not.

Explain how a user authenticates with your API.

Talk about what services your API plays nicely with.

Be open about upcoming projects and attentive to feedback. Relay that feedback to your team.

Have an internal FAQ that you can constantly reference, update, and learn from.

Build social accounts that are clearly focused at developers: @SimpleGeoAPI, @SpotifyPlatform.

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The art of the demo

Show your users how to use your API. Give them real-world examples.

Apigee Console - https://apigee.com/console/simplegeo

Mashery I/O Docs - http://spotify-iodocs-565650870.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/

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Have a really badass developer website

https://dev.twitter.com/

http://developers.facebook.com/

http://developer.apple.com/

Build an outline of your website that includes latest blog posts, commits from Github, Tweets, upcoming events, tutorials, and documentation.

Get a technical editor.

Merge & showcase community code.

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Find great examples of apps built using your API

There are dozens of apps and utilities using the Spotify Platform.

• Spotibot - playlist generator

• Spotify Chrome extension - Scan webpages for Spotify content

• The Mac Box - Use Mac IR remote to control Spotify

• spo.tl - A Spotify URL shortener

• Fuck Yeah Spotify - Top tweeted Spotify albums

• EchoFi - Give an artist and it will play songs you might like on Spotify

• FreshSpotify - Emails you when new music comes out from your favorite bands

• Stalkify - Give it a Last.fm username and it will give you Spotify links for all of your favorite music

• Spotify Applescripts - Control playback with custom Applescripts/

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Follow @SpotifyPlatform

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