Christian Heilmann gives advice on how to succeed on the open web. He recommends focusing on building for the web using existing web technologies and APIs rather than proprietary systems. Specifically, he suggests starting with Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) to build and test APIs by accessing and combining data from various web services and sites. By making APIs and data openly available, it can help developers and others build on your work, which in turn helps gain recognition and an audience on the web. Overall, the key is leveraging existing web technologies and standards through open collaboration rather than trying to do everything alone or reinventing the wheel.

1. An open web for all
Chris&an Heilmann
How to Web, Bucharest, Romania, November 2010

2. I am Chris (@codepo8)

3. I make technology easy.

4. 6 Books,
>120 slide decks,
a few dozen videos,
Blogger:
wait-till-i.com
ajaxian.com
smashingmagazine.com
sitepoint.com
thinkvitamin.com
Microsoft Scriptjunkie

5. People come to me
for advice how to
get known on the
web.

6. Being a success on
the web as a
product depends on
a few things.

7. Having a
1 creative idea.

8. Finding people
2 to build it.

9. Getting found
3 by people.

10. What if I can tell
you that none of
these are a problem
if you shift your
focus?

11. If you build for the
web use the web to
build.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisisbossi/3361593196/

12. Be technology
agnostic

13. If you do all by
yourself you will
burn out quickly.

15. Having a
1 creative idea.

16. I can’t help you with
that - much.

17. The main trick is to
take the old and
make the new by
mixing and
matching.

18. A technique
for producing
ideas.
http://goo.gl/N8S7

19. This doesn’t even
have to be creative!
+ =

20. Please be creative -
even when creating
the $local Facebook
is tempting to do!

21. Finding people
2 to build it.

22. Good developers
are hard to find.

23. The main danger is
that you make
yourself dependent.

24. Your product should
not rely on one tech
person.

25. You should not tell
your techies what to
do.

26. But you should tell
them to document
what they did.

27. Separation of
concerns should be
high on your
agenda.

28. Data and interface
are not the same
thing.

29. The interface will
change and has to
change - look at
Twitter.

30. There is one trick to
make this work.

31. Go and build an API!

32. Reasons for APIs:
You can change the backend or the
frontend when you need to.
You build them in parallel.
You can have various different interfaces
to the same content (mobile, web, iPad...)
You give third parties access to your data
and not to your system.
You crowdsource innovation.

33. Success stories?

34. Using APIs is hard
enough...

35. Providing one
should not be taken
lightly.

36. An API is for
life, not just
for the next
press release.

37. So instead of
building your own
infrastructure test
the waters with an
existing one.

38. YQL http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/

39. YQL turns web
services and data
on the web into
databases.

40. YQL http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/
select {what} from {where}
where {conditions}

41. Let’s have a quick
example.

42. http://winterolympicsmedals.com

43. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/
2010/feb/11/winter-olympics-medals-by-country

46. select * from csv where
url="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?
key=tpWDkIZMZleQaREf493v1Jw&output=
csv"
and
columns="Year,City,Sport,Discipline,Countr
y,Event, Gender,Type"
and Year="1924"

47. http://isithackday.com/csv-to-webservice/

48. You can store
information in YQL
and allow for
writing to your API.

50. All you need is a
developer who
knows how to
access data on the
web.

51. YQL helps you filter
and convert
information - even
for mobile
environments.

52. Using YQL has a lot of
benefits:
No time wasted reading API docs
Using the console makes creating
complex queries dead easy.
Data filtering down to the least
amount necessary.
Fast pipes.
Caching + converting
Server-side JavaScript for complex
conversions

53. YQL can be your
“try before you buy”
offer

54. And a real interface
to play with is much
more powerful than
mockups and a
lovely logo.

55. Getting found
3 by people.

56. In order to get
known in developer
circles, release free
stuff.

57. This can start with
adding your API to
YQL as a new table.

58. All you need to do
is write an XML
schema and put it
on GitHub.

59. http://github.com/yql/yql-tables

60. But if I am
open, won’t
people steal my
ideas and data?

61. Yes, but not being
open makes people
creative in the
wrong ways.

64. Offering free things
is a wonderful way
to make people tell
people about you.

65. Your biggest fear
should be being
insignificant.

66. There are a lot of
tricks you can do -
but that is for
another time.

67. Where to find more
tricks?

68. http://developer-evangelism.com

69. http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/

70. Christian Heilmann
http://wait-till-i.com Cheers
http://developer-evangelism.com
@codepo8