History of YDN

Lessons Learned from Building the Yahoo! Developer Network
Jonathan LeBlanc
Principal Software Engineer
Yahoo! Developer Network
Twitter: @jcleblanc
Website: http://www.jcleblanc.com

What We’re Going to Cover
The history of YDN and where we are now
Our technology stack and what we’ve learned from it
Successes and failures: Our partner strategies
How we handle developer outreach
Final lessons

History of YDN: The Founding (2005)
Developer Network launched
Staff of 2 dedicated employees
+1 on search
Single product focus (search)
Servers only on the west coast
Funded by Jerry Yang to be the Yahoo! Technology Backbone

History of YDN: Year of the Developer (2006)
Focus on the developer community
20 developer APIs in YDN
The first external hack day is created to foster the culture of hack
Developers!
Developers!
Developers!

History of YDN: Year of the Open Strategy (2008)
Focus on “open and social” development through new platforms and APIs
Renewed focus on Open Source
Strong evangelism and developer outreach programs
Continued growth of Hack
Open APIs
Open Source
Social Strategy

History of YDN: Year of Innovations (2011)
Focus on fostering internal and external innovations
60+ developer offerings in YDN
Internal and external hack events
HackU program for university innovations
Tech Innovation
Hack Day
HackU

Final lessons

Technology Stack: Our Products and Services
63 APIs and Tools
http://developer.yahoo.com/everything.html
Application Platforms
YAP, Connected TV, Desktop Widgets
APIs and Web Services
YQL, Flickr, Local, Maps, GeoPlanet, Shopping, Social APIs
Business Tools
Finance, BOSS, APT
Communication Tools
Messenger, Mail

Technology Stack: Building a Product Focus

Technology Stack: A Commitment to Open Source
Authentication and Authorization
Platform Technologies
Server and Cloud Technologies

Technology Stack: What We’ve Learned
Abstract out difficult to implement technologies with SDKs.
Focus on several core features of your technology offerings, not the entire stack.
Open source initiatives provide an excellent “get started quickly” technology base.

Final lessons

Partner Strategies: Integration Success and Failure of Zynga
First round of “Mafia Wars” as an initial game partner for YAP in 2009. Failed to produce high install rates and difficult to integrate.
Second integration of “Mafia Wars” and “FishVille” in late 2010. Higher install rates, new viral channels and little integration pain.

Partner Strategies: Failure to Integrate “Company”
Third round partner integrating with our social services.
They created their own OAuth implementation since we did not have an appropriate SDK.
Integration failed near completion of the code.

Partner Strategies: Successful Integration of Mint
Second round productivity application partner.
Helped them integrate a high-security model into a low-security transfer platform.
Highly successful application push.

Partner Strategies: Core Takeaways
Have tools in place to support development efforts (SDKs, Documentation).
Ensure that you have a partner support arm to provide hands-on aid (E-Mail, Skype, Conference calls).
Have a flexible product and release schedule where feedback can be implemented quickly.

Final lessons

Handling Developer Outreach: Forums
http://developer.yahoo.net/forum

Handling Developer Outreach: Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/ydn

Handling Developer Outreach: Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/yahoodevelopernetwork

Handling Developer Outreach: Takeaways
Not all outreach channels can be treated the same way.
You need appropriate support
channels internal to the company.
Developers are your best source
of bugs and features.

Final lessons

Final Lessons: Takeaways
If you can’t support it, don’t do it.
Support your community where it starts, don’t artificially create one.
Developers are not your enemy.
Learn from your mistakes and your user complaints. Build a better product.
Foster a culture, not a brand.

Questions?
http://www.slideshare.net/jcleblanc/historyofydn
Jonathan LeBlanc
Yahoo! Developer Network
Twitter: @jcleblanc

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History of YDN

by Jonathan LeBlanc

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History of YDN

by Jonathan LeBlanc

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