Developer Relations and your Company’s APIs – webinar info and links

This week, I am presenting a DevRelate webinar, “Developer Relations and your Company’s APIs” on Wednesday (May 31) and Thursday (June 1). This blog post contains additional information and links covered in the webinar.

APIs and Your Company

 

Developer Relations and APIs

 

API Documentation Examples

 

API Versioning – Overview

 

REST

  • URI
  • Request parameter
  • Media type (aka content negotiation & accept header)
  • Date
  • Custom request header
  • Domain name

 

SOAP

  • XML namespaces and XML comments
  • UDDI version aware service registry

 

Shared Code Files

  • Filename
  • Version resource

 

API Resource Links

 

API Documentation Generation Tools

 

Additional Swagger Resources

The following Swagger related links were provided by SmartBear Software (thank you Keshav and Tracy)

  1. [Blog] API Design Best Practices – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/api-design-best-practices/
  2. [Blog] What is API Design, and Why it Matters – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/what-is-api-design/
  3. [Webinar] Scaling your API Design Process – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/scaling-your-api-design/
  4. [eBook] Optimizing the Swagger collaborative workflow using SwaggerHub – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-resources/optimize-your-swagger-api-workflow/
  5. [Blog] Design first or Code first approach to APIs – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/design-first-or-code-first-api-development/
  6. [Webinar] API Developer Experience (DX), and good documentation practices for good DX – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-documentation/api-documentation-and-developer-experience/

 

API Versioning – Examples

 

Facebook / Parse (BaaS) API Shutdown Example

 

Evans Data Developer Program Workshops and Assessments

 

If you have additional API links, best practices, tools, tips, tricks, thoughts and questions, send me an email.

 

David I - Developer Relations Conference

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/

Developer Relations Program Spotlight: Uber

Each Developer Relations Program Spotlight blog post highlights the many aspects of a company’s developer outreach activities. Included in a spotlight is some background information about the program, one or more program team members, a question/answer about the features and benefits of the program and an “At-a-Glance” checklist of top program offerings. This time I shine the spotlight on the Uber Developer Relations Program.

Adam Rogal

Head of Engineering, Developer Platform, Uber

adam rogal   Uber_Logobit_Digital_black

Fusing Developer Relations and Platform Engineering

At last year’s Evans Data Developer Relations Conference (2016), Adam gave a great presentation, “Going from 0 to 60 by fusing developer relations and platform engineering”, at the 2016 Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Palo Alto. One of the unique aspects of the Uber developer program is that it fuses together developer relations and platform engineering inside one organization. Uber released their first API for developers in 2014.

Uber’s platform mission is “Build Moving Experiences”.

  • “Build” involves working with developers, forging partnerships and providing tools. The Uber cultural value is to “Let Builders Build”!
  • “Moving Experiences” results in products that bring job, getting people from A to B, provides features for people while they move, makes daily life easier and saving time and money. The Uber cultural value is to “Make Magic”!

Adam presented a slide with many well-known global brand name logos saying “Today, leading brands elevate their experience with Uber”. Adam went on to showcase some of Uber’s APIs and how developers are creating innovative applications that do more than just get the rider from point A to point B. He also gave some suggestions for additional value added features that companies and developers could add to enhance each trip.

At Uber engineering and developer advocacy are joined to integrate the platform, features and SDKs.

UberDrc2016Preso Figure 1

Adam highlighted the synergy of his team’s integration of developer relations and engineering with the phrase, “Enable magical moments through the API”. The closeness allows for features to be provided, developer feedback to come straight into engineering and SDK development to continue in real time.

Developer advocacy ensures that every developer is aware of the Uber API and that the platform direction is aligned with developer needs.

The bi-directional flow follows the following flows:

UberDrc2016Preso Figure 2UberDrc2016Preso Figure 3

You will find many of the Developer Relations Conference 2016 presentations on the DevRelate community at https://www.devrelate.com/2016-conference-presentations/

This year, Adam is giving a keynote presentation at the 13th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, March 27-28 in Palo Alto California. “Evolution of a Developer Platform: An Inside-Out Journey”. Join this keynote session for an introspective look at the evolution of the Uber Developer Platform from its inception to today. Find out what worked, what didn’t and lessons learned along the way.

Bio: Adam Rogal is the head of engineering of Uber’s Developer Platform. Uber’s mission is a simple one – transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere, for everyone. Uber’s Developer Platform believes in that same principle, ensuring its APIs are available to everyone, everywhere. Preiously, Adam lead developer relations for publisher ads products at Google, enabling countless developers to monetize their passion, hobbies, and business.

UberSpotlight17

Uber Spotlight Q&A

1. What are the benefits of having the developer evangelism and engineering teams in one organization and are there any negatives of work on more problems because of that alignmentWe experienced a variety of benefits from this model.

For one, the ownership dynamics change radically; Developer Advocacy is empowered to make improvements to products like the SDKs, Docs and Developer Tools. The feedback loop between external developers and the engineering teams is also dramatically tighter. Feedback and bug reports from the community get turned into actions and improvements quickly. Last but not least, it improves the culture of both teams since they learn from each other.

For instance, post-mortems are required for all support requests handled by Developer Advocates who answer two important questions to improve the developer experience: (1) what did we learn from this request? and (2) what was done to prevent a similar question in the future? On the other side, Engineering is more encouraged to think about the impact of their work on developers and make decisions to build the best possible experience for their customers.

2. Your talk showed how you uniquely combine engineering and developer relations into one team. How does your team integrate with other parts of Uber – development, sales, web, marketing, partner programs, etc.?

We operate as a true platform team, even internally. To do this, we provide services and technology substrates to internal Uber teams to use if and when they build products for developers. Just like an API, we have defined an interface and SLAs for interactions with internal teams. We help teams to understand the benefits of an external API and we provide guidance throughout the development journey of new APIs. We intend to ramp this up further with internal talks and advocacy programs as well.

3. How many developers are in the Uber developer program?

We have a few dozen people on the team. The platform powers thousands of companies using Uber’s API, ranging from multinational corporations to city transit planners to dorm-room startups.

4. How many applications have been created using the Uber SDKs/APIs?

Check out our showcases for examples of great integrations. We’re not necessarily looking for quantity so much as quality. We try to provide tools that encourage developers to think about the future and make creative leaps.

5. How has developer outreach positively impacted Uber’s business: revenue, customer satisfaction, partnerships, etc.? Can you share some statistics?

We broadly think of the Developer Platform as a way to enable third party developers to leverage Uber’s capabilities as a starting place for their own innovation and positive disruption. If we can help developers be successful with our tools then, as a contributor to that success, Uber benefits in innumerable ways.

6. Do you track any data about return on investment on the cost of doing developer relations and what it means to the Uber’s business?

Here at Uber, we like to have big bets. This means that we’re willing to take a longer-term-view on some of the activities we’re engaged in.

But, it’s important we have wins along the way. For example, when we go to events, we expect to onboard some new developers to our platform, which we measure by website visitors, new apps, and time to first sandbox and production call.

7. Did you have any challenges or issues in getting buy-in from Uber – to have the developer program number one and number two having it integrated as part of platform engineering

Our leaders strongly believe in the power of open developer ecosystems. They’ve been very supportive and have even encouraged us to think bigger.

8. Are there any other key performance indicators statistics that you track and provide to Uber management to keep them informed and supporting how the developer program is doing?

There are some short-term tactical numbers we pay attention to like Trips and Bookings. But there are also early indicators of longer-term success like our NPS and developer engagement.

9. Is there anything else that you’d like to add about the Uber program its uniqueness and where do you see developer relations and developer outreach going in the future?

We enable developers to, with just a few API calls, add a little bit of the real world into their virtual products. Bits to atoms..
The great developer platforms today all provide unique features during key moments in a user’s life. Amazon Echo or Google Home are with you at home. Facebook Messenger is there to help you chat with friends. Slack helps you collaborate with your colleagues. Uber is there with you while you travel from A to B. We believe there’s a lot of opportunity here for Developers of all sizes to elevate and differentiate their apps with features and trip context from Uber. We’re just at the beginning.

About the DevRelate Developer Relations Program Spotlights

In today’s interconnected world, companies in all industries need to publish APIs and cultivate a developer community to access and use them. To be competitive today, attracting and supporting developers is essential. The key to cultivating a vibrant developer community that uses your APIs and supports your platform is a good developer relations program.As part of the Evans Data DevRelate community, David I is creating a series of developer relations program spotlights highlighting companies that are reaching out to developers to achieve higher levels of business success. In collaboration with the leader of a company’s developer program, these spotlight articles will help advance developer program best practices, increase developer successes and enhance each company’s industry leadership.If you want to have David I create a developer spotlight article for your company, contact me at davidi@evansdata.com

Learn the “Secret Sauce” of Developer Relations Programs – Webinar Info and Links

As part of my DevRelate webinar presentation, “Learn the Secret Sauce of Developer Relations Programs“, I am providing the links to the secret sauce info for the developer relations programs, highlighted features and other resources that I used in this week’s webinar. As I mention in the webinar, Evans’s Data Tactical Marketing – Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Programs – developer research reports and Developer Program Assessments are based on the years of Evans Data Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Program research, developers tell our clients that they care about many factors in a program and its outreach. I’ve created a long form checklist to do in-depth evaluations of Developer Programs. To get started I use my subset “At-a-Glance” checklist to do a quick evaluation program offerings. The long form checklist and quick check relate directly align with the results of our primary developer research.

Evans Data Tactical Marketing Reports

You can find the table of contents and a few sample pages from each report on the pages linked below. Contact our salesx team if you want to purchase the reports. The release schedule for all of our 2017 research reports can be found at https://evansdata.com/reports/release_schedule.php

 

At-a Glance Checklist – “Quick Look”

My “At-a-Glance” checklist is the starting point for a quick look that I take when exploring a developer relations program. The items I look for include:

  • SDK(s) / API(s)
  • Programming languages
  • Code / Samples Repository
  • Platforms / OS supported
  • Content / Knowledge
  • Social Networks / Blogs
  • Answers
  • Forums / Newsgroups
  • Spoken languages
  • Developer Support
  • Events / Activities
  • Developer Program Cost

Developer Program Spotlights

Here are links to the five programs that I spotlight in this webinar. I will add additional links during the week.

AngelHack’s Tips and Tricks for Successful Hackathons

AngelHack is this year’s sponsor of the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference 2017 Boot Camp. Here are some tips and tricks that they’ve provided for holding and participating in successful hackathons.

Secret Sauce Info

Email me if you need additional help, links, tools, info

I will keep updating this blog post throughout the week. If you have tools, links and other resources to add, send me an email. If you would like me to work on a Developer Program Spotlight for your program, contact me via email.

David I Facebook Avatar

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/

 

Developer Programs and APIs in the News – Volume 2, Number 3

In today’s interconnected world, companies in all industries need to publish APIs and cultivate a developer community to access and use them. To be competitive today, attracting and supporting developers is essential. The key to cultivating a vibrant developer community that uses your APIs and supports your platform is a good developer relations program. “Developer Programs and APIs in the News” is a series of news items from developer programs around the world.

Developer Programs and APIs in the News

DataDog – Feb 15 – Datadog Announces General Availability of Application Performance Monitoring – “Datadog APM (application performance monitoring) extends visibility beyond the infrastructure and into the code-level for service-oriented applications. This new expansion of the company’s existing infrastructure monitoring platform will enable development and operations (DevOps) teams to quickly troubleshoot issues in highly distributed, service-oriented applications that use microservices, containers, and run across hybrid cloud environments.”
IBM – Feb 15 – IBM Brings Machine Learning to the Private Cloud – “IBM today announced IBM Machine Learning, the first cognitive platform for continuously creating, training and deploying a high volume of analytic models in the private cloud at the source of vast corporate data stores. Even using the most advanced techniques, data scientists – in shortest supply among today’s IT skills1 – might spend days or weeks developing, testing and retooling even a single analytic model one step at a time. IBM has extracted the core machine learning technology from IBM Watson and will initially make it available where much of the world’s enterprise data resides: the z System mainframe.”
Radar – Feb 15 – Introducing Radar – “The location platform for mobile apps. We’re ten years into the smartphone era, but building products and services with location is still too hard. We’re building Radar to change this.
Radar is the location platform for mobile apps. Our mission is to help companies collect, analyze, and act on location data. Add the SDK to your iOS and Android apps to start tracking user locations with fewer than 10 lines of code. Create unlimited geofences, representing places or regions, via the dashboard, bulk import, or the API. Receive geofence entry and exit events client-side or server-side via webhooks. Or, export events for analysis.”
Google – Feb 15 – Announcing TensorFlow 1.0 – “Today, as part of the first annual TensorFlow Developer Summit, hosted in Mountain View and livestreamed around the world, we’re announcing TensorFlow 1.0. It’s faster (1.0 is incredibly fast!). It’s more flexible (1.0 introduces a high-level API for TensorFlow). It’s more production-ready than ever (1.0 promises Python API stability).”
Galamon – Feb 14 – Gamalon Invents and Commercializes Radical New Approach to AI; Accelerating Machine Learning By More than 100x – “Today, Gamalon, Inc., emerged from stealth mode to announce that it has developed a game-changing new approach to artificial intelligence/machine learning called Bayesian Program Synthesis (BPS). Gamalon’s BPS technology – for the first time – writes and rewrites its own Bayesian programs. This technology achieves higher accuracy and uses orders of magnitude less computation and training data relative to today’s state-of-the-art deep machine learning.”
Google – Feb 14 – Introducing Cloud Spanner: a global database service for mission-critical applications – “Today, we’re excited to announce the public beta for Cloud Spanner, a globally distributed relational database service that lets customers have their cake and eat it too: ACID transactions and SQL semantics, without giving up horizontal scaling and high availability.”
IBM – Feb 13 – IBM Delivers Watson for Cyber Security to Power Cognitive Security Operations Centers – “IBM Security (NYSE: IBM) today announced the availability of Watson for Cyber Security, the industry’s first augmented intelligence technology designed to power cognitive security operations centers (SOCs). Over the past year, Watson has been trained on the language of cybersecurity, ingesting over 1 million security documents. Watson can now help security analysts parse thousands of natural language research reports that have never before been accessible to modern security tools.”
CloudFoundry and IBM – Feb 13 – IBM Sponsors New Node.js Track at 2017 Cloud Foundry Summit Silicon Valley – “Cloud Foundry Foundation, home of the industry-standard platform for cloud applications, today announced IBM (NYSE: IBM) will host a Node.js track at the Cloud Foundry Summit Silicon Valley. IBM is also a Cloud Foundry Summit Silicon Valley Platinum sponsor. Cloud Foundry Summit Silicon Valley will take place June 13-15 in Santa Clara, California and is the premier event for enterprise application developers. The event will focus on microservices and continuous delivery in all languages and frameworks.”
NXP – Feb 9 – Is 2017 the year of the smart meter? – “Ultra-low-power and low data rate applications make up one domain that is particularly well suited for this discussion. For example, devices that address the smart meter domain, building or home control as well as asset tracking and monitoring do not need to run over traditional high data rate telecommunications networks such as 3G or 4G. There are a number of good reasons to seek alternative solutions reaching from cost per connection, handling of SIM cards and the simple fact of course that mobile networks are specifically designed for high data rates incurring high power consumption on the end points.”
Google – Feb 9 – Android Wear 2.0 is here with new hardware features! – “Today, we are releasing the final SDK for Android Wear 2.0. In this release, we have added support for the new hardware features announced yesterday. If you have not done so already, it really is time to publish your apps so as to not miss the consumer hardware launch tomorrow.”
GoogleFuzzing PCI express: security in plaintext – “With the risk of malicious behavior from compromised PCIe devices, Google needed to have a plan for combating these types of attacks, especially in a world of cloud services and publicly available virtual machines. A key weapon in our arsenal is fuzzing, a testing technique that uses invalid, unexpected or random inputs to expose irregular behavior, such as memory leaks, crashes, or undocumented functionality. The hardware fuzzer we built directly tests the behavior of the PCIe switches used by our cloud GPUs.”
Microsoft – Feb 8 – Run ad campaigns using Windows Store services – “Use the Windows Store promotions API to programmatically manage promotional ad campaigns for apps that are registered to your or your organization’s Windows Dev Center account. This API enables you to create, update and monitor your campaigns and other related assets such as targeting and creatives. ”
Intel – February 8 – Intel Supports American Innovation with $7 Billion Investment in Next-Generation Semiconductor Factory in Arizona – “Intel’s Fab 42 will Target Advanced 7 nm Technology and Create More Than 10,000 Jobs in Arizona – ‘Intel’s business continues to grow and investment in manufacturing capacity and R&D ensures that the pace of Moore’s law continues to march on, fueling technology innovations the world loves and depends on,’ said Krzanich. ‘This factory will help the U.S. maintain its position as the global leader in the semiconductor industry. Intel is a global manufacturing and technology company, yet we think of ourselves as a leading American innovation enterprise,’ Krzanich added. ‘America has a unique combination of talent, a vibrant business environment and access to global markets, which has enabled U.S. companies like Intel to foster economic growth and innovation.'”
Intel – Feb 8 – Intel Unveils Deep Learning Library for Apache Spark – “Intel today announced the open-source BigDL, a Distributed Deep Learning Library for the Apache Spark* open-source cluster-computing framework. The deep learning library is part of Intel Corporation’s strategy for enabling state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence in the industry. The BigDL features an efficient large-scale distributed deep learning library built on Spark architecture that makes deep learning more accessible to big data users and data scientists. BigDL enables the exporting of AI expertise to data scientists now working across thousands of applications in hundreds of fields.”
Intuit – Feb 7 – The $100,000 Small Business App Showdown is back – and this year, it’s YOUR turn to win the $100,000 grand prize! – “Intuit Developer is excited to pre-announce our second $100K Small Business App Showdown – an awesome app contest exclusively for developers who successfully publish their apps on Apps.com between August 16, 2016 and August 15, 2017.”
Intel – Feb 8 – Intel Unveils Security Readiness Program to Help Prevent Cybercrime in Health Care – “Intel has teamed up with over 40 solution providers to create the Healthcare Security Readiness Program, aimed at helping to prevent breaches, including cybercrime hacking and ransomware. Nearly 90 percent of health care organizations – often seen as vulnerable targets lagging in security compared with peers in other industries, such as financial services – have experienced a breach in the past two years.”
Intel – Feb 5 – Intel Drones Light Up Lady Gaga Performance During Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime – “Today during the Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime Show, Intel Corporation collaborated with the NFL, Pepsi and six-time GRAMMY®*-winning music icon, Lady Gaga, to create a unique drone light show experience to kick off her performance. Three hundred Intel® Shooting Star™ drones lit up the sky in a choreographed aerial performance marking the first-ever drone integration during a televised event and a Super Bowl.”
Google – Jan 31 – Introducing the Mobile-Friendly Test API – “The Mobile-Friendly Test API lets you test URLs using automated tools. For example, you could use it to monitor important pages in your website in order to prevent accidental regressions in templates that you use. The API method runs all tests, and returns the same information – including a list of the blocked URLs – as the manual test. The documentation includes simple samples to help get you started quickly.”
GM – Jan 26 – Tech Crunch: GM’s new SDK for in-car infotainment apps offers access to nearly 400 data points – “Historically, the automakers haven’t made it very easy for partners to really utilize the connected vehicle experience, Wrenbeck explained. So we set out about seven months ago, as part of our API platform to really fix that and make it very easy for the corporate community to exploit the connected vehicle experience.”
Uber and Garmin – Jan 4 – Introducing the Uber ETA app for Garmin wearables – “Today, we’re excited to introduce the new Uber ETA app by Garmin for Connect IQ – powered by the Uber Trip Experiences API. ‘The insight that each screen or device serves a specific purpose in the life cycle of any workflow – including an Uber ride – is a great one. We’re excited to work with Garmin to create an elegant solution for their wearable devices that makes it easier than ever for riders to keep an eye on their ride’s status with a flick of the wrist,’ Chris Saad, Head of Product, Uber Developer Platform”

 

Send me your Developer Programs News!

If you have news about your Developer Relations Program, send me an email about the news.

David I - Developer Relations Conference

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/

Voice Control APIs – Actions, Skills, Cognition and more

With almost everyone on the planet having a smartphone and/or a desktop computer with a microphone, platform companies are adding Voice Control APIs to their technology offerings. Developers have multiple choices to add speech control for their applications. Consumers have been experiencing speech recognition systems when calling companies (airlines, department stores, etc.) and using voice commands instead of having to hit keys on their phones. Major platform vendors, online services and others have opened their APIs for developers to add voice control and conversational user experiences in their applications. Developer program SDKs and APIs are available from Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, SoundHound, and others. In the background, powerful AI, machine learning and natural language processing systems are helping with the “heavy lifting” of voice control and recognition. A challenge for developers is choosing which APIs to support (probably all of them). A challenge for developer relations programs is how to quickly help developers integrate Voice Control APIs for their applications. These developer innovations are also allowing other developer programs to integrate with and provide added value on top of these APIs for their own platforms, products, and services. This blog post lists a few of the many Voice Control APIs that developers can use.

2541.W10_Cortana_Lockup_blue_4AD44544  Amazon_Alexa_App_Logo  Google_Assistant_logo  Siri voice control API.AI Logo-360x280  facebook-art uber logohoundify-logo

 

Voice Control APIs and their Developer Relations Programs

Microsoft – Cortana / Skills – Microsoft leverages the Bing Speech API and Microsoft Cognitive services to power Windows and Android applications like Cortana, Skype Translator and Bing Torque. According to Microsoft, “Cortana connects users to your services, across platforms and devices”. The Cortana Developer Center provides the skills kit, documentation, and samples. You can sign up for the preview to arrive in early 2017. The Cortana developer page also provides guidance for programmers with existing code: “Re-use your custom skill code built for Amazon Alexa”, “Using the Microsoft Bot Framework? Cortana brokers connections between users and bots using the skills kit and the Cortana channel “, and “Import Cortana voice commands from Windows 10 apps”.

Google – Assistant / Actions – Google recently announced the opening of Google Home and Google Assistant for developers. For years we’ve been saying “OK Goggle” into our smartphones. The Google Assistant APIs allow developers to create Actions. The Google Actions site says “Actions on Google let you build for the Google Assistant. Your integrations can help you engage users through Google Home today, and in the future, through Pixel, Allo, and many other experiences where the Google Assistant will be available.” Developers can learn how to quickly integrate voice control into their apps using the Conversation API and Actions SDK. Developer guides, samples, reference documentation and a Web Simulator are available on the Actions on Google developer site.

Amazon – Alexa / Skills – Amazon opened up their Alexa voice service to developers. Alexa is also supported on Amazon’s devices including Echo, Tap and Dot. The Amazon Alexa developer page answers the question “Why Alexa?” with: “Alexa, the voice service that powers Echo, provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. Examples of these skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm or timer and more. Alexa is built in the cloud, so it is always getting smarter. The more customers use Alexa, the more she adapts to speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.” With Alexa, developers use APIs to  create skills for application voice recognition and operations. Developers can find additional development information on the Alexa Skills Kit site.

Apple – Siri / Domains and Intents – With the release of iOS 10, Apple opened up Siri to iOS application developers with the introduction of SiriKit. According to Apple’s SiriKit site: “SiriKit enables your iOS 10 apps to work with Siri, so users can get things done with your content and services using just their voice. In addition to extending Siri’s support for messaging, photo search and phone calls to more apps, SiriKit also adds support for new services, including ride booking and personal payments.” Developers can learn how to integrate voice control using the SikiKit Programming Guide.

API.AI – Agents / Entities / Intents / Actions / Contexts – natural language platform for developers to create conversation UIs for apps, web applications, devices and bots. SDKs and libraries are available for Android, iOS, watchOS, macOS, Ruby, Javascript, Node.JS, HTML5, Python, C++, C#, Java, PHP and more.  “Our goal is to make the process of creating and integrating sophisticated conversational user interfaces as simple as possible.” You can find the SDKs, APIs, documentation, etc. on the API.AI developer site.

Houndify – Domains – “Houndify is a platform that allows anyone to add smart, voice enabled, conversational interfaces to anything with an internet connection. Once you integrate with Houndify, your product will instantly understand a wide variety of questions and commands.” Houndify, by SoundHound, has developer SDKs for iOS, Android, C++, C#, Java, Javascript, Python, and other platforms via HTTP/REST/JSON. You can join the Houndify developer program for free (there is also a fee level for higher API call volumes) and gain access to the APIs, SDKs, documentation, tutorials, etc.

 

Facebook Jarvis – Voice Control, the “Voice of God” and someday an API

This week Mark Zuckerberg introduced the world to his year long AI development project called Jarvis – “It uses several artificial intelligence techniques, including natural language processing, speech recognition, face recognition, and reinforcement learning, written in Python, PHP and Objective C.” According to news reports, Zuckerberg personally contacted Morgan Freeman so that Jarvis would have the “voice of God”. You can read about how Zuckerberg built Jarvis and watch the introduction on Faceboook. Zuck also built a Facebook Messenger Bot for Jarvis – You can learn about the bot framework at messenger.com/platform.

Voice Control APIs

Uber and Voice Control Integration

The Uber app for iOS now allows you to use your voice and Siri to launch the ride app. First you need to go to your iPhone’s Settings and click on Siri. On Siri’s settings page, choose “App Support” and turn on Siri support for Uber (and other apps that are listed).  I looked in the Uber Developers Ride Requests documentation to see if there was an API related to Siri, but did not find anything yet. Would it be cool if the Uber API had extensions for several Voice Control APIs for custom application development on iOS and Android? I did find an article on the Uber blog titled “Hound and Uber — The voice interface future is here” that talks about the SoundHound Hound app’s integration with Uber. The blog post starts with “We’re on the brink of a voice interface revolution. In an increasingly connected world, we will speak to the products and services around us.” The post also goes on to talk about “Hound, a consumer voice search and assistant app, and Houndify, a developer platform that enables any developer to add a natural, conversational voice interface to their products.”

Does your Developer Program build APIs on top of other Voice Control APIs

Let me know if you have voice control API extensions for one or more of the above platform vendor APIs. If you have your own developer Voice Control APIs send me an email and I will take a look at what you offer.

David I - Developer Relations Conference

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99