I’m APItalist — this is what I do
I’m APItalist. APItalist is the value machine. APItalist is the magician with numbers and understands the dynamics of API-based service economy. They know how to replicate Twilio style hockey stick growth. Furthermore, APItalists master developer experience tricks to maximise developers’ love towards APIs. I can also share some wisdom about how to build efficient API tool-chain and processes.
I work at APInf Oy which develops solutions for companies to blossom at API economy. One of the solutions is APInf platform (API management and catalogue). I’m also APIOps community manager and customers & communities team lead. Before turning “professional” I ignited and managed API Finland community (apisuomi.fi)
What APItalist does?
Some people have asked what is your profession like? What do you actually do? This blog post gives some hints about my activities as APItalist. Is my every week similar? No! The below story is just an example and should not be taken as stereotypical week of APItalist.
What is not mentioned below is constantly learning about what’s happening in the industry, what kind of topics puzzle developer at the moment, normal social media activity every day, writing blog posts, participation in product development as voice of the customers. Those and more is what I do practically 7 days a week.
Travelling to Lapland and preparing for the week
The week started on Monday by taking train from Tampere to Rovaniemi. The trip takes roughly 6 hours and offered a perfect moment to prepare for the week. Why train? Getting from Tampere to Rovaniemi with airplane does not make sense. While enjoying train travelling I was able to make some conference calls and write a few offers for customers. After I arrived in Rovaniemi, I had a long conference call with public sector client while I took taxi to hotel.
At the hotel I met for the first time some key partners from VAMOS! -project and we discussed project related issues while enjoying excellent food. One of the key players in Lapland is Ylläs. Ylläs has many diferent kind of activities to offer, variety of services, events and new experiences for you on your holiday. During the dinner I had a long discussion with Ylläs (sports resort) MaaS Manager about their current APIs. She tossed me a challenge to show how to improve the situation.
Evaluate and consult existing API platform for Ylläs
After the dinner I went to hotel room to check out Ylläs APIs. This was around 10pm. I studied the APIs and crafted Swagger driven design which exemplified the improvements. The next morning I met the MaaS manager and showed the findings. She was delighted to have something concrete to take away and we agreed to continue co-operation.
Participate in building MaaS + services platform
On Tuesday I participated VAMOS! Value added mobility services project meeting in Rovaniemi — city in Lapland. The project has collected mobility service providers and local holiday related service providers under one umbrella. Our platform (apinf.io) is planned to be used in the background and enable flexible service platform development. I was asked to speak in front of all participants and describe the value we will add to the project outcome. That I did, but I also injected an idea of Lapland as a Platform to the audience. Instead of thinking only local companies as ecosystem, it might make more sense to see whole Lapland as a Service (Platform).
Cruising with sports car Tesla!
In the middle of the day I found out that the project has Tesla Model S P85D in use. I was given the opportunity to cruise around Rovaniemi with it! Tesla — full of APIs. It’s made for APItalist :) Tesla P85D looks like a normal car, but it’s a super car: 700 hp, it gains 100km/h in 3,3 seconds. In other words it has better performance than for example Porsche 911 GT3, Shelby GT500, Ferrari 599 GTO.
Then it was time to head back to Tampere, this time I took a flight back to Tampere (via Helsinki). I was home around 8pm and spend some time with kids (5 of those in the house).
Participate strategic level closed industry hackathon
On Wednesday I participated API Business Lab kickoff at Valmet Automation in Tampere. Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries.
The API Business Lab is 5 week long strategic level (closed) hackathon with invited partners to create new API driven service concepts and solutions around Valmet Automation products. I was engaged in designing the hackathon as well. My role was to preach about API developer experience and mentor participants in APIs related issues. I will continue with them during the following weeks.
Meeting with CIO of Estonia
Thursday began with train trip from Tampere to Helsinki. In the morning I rendezvoused with our CEO (Chandra Challagonda) in cafe in Helsinki. We discussed some cases and future strategic plans. After that we went for lunch with a potential APItalist who had expressed willingness to join us.
After lunch I went to give another presentation in an event which was kicked off by Taavi Kotka, ex CIO of Estonia. After the presentations me and our CEO had a chat with Taavi about API economy related trends and ideas where APInf would bring value to customers.
Reboot machine industry in Finland
Friday started with meeting with a few partners with whom we are planning to reboot R&D for SMEs. That plan includes bringing together hackerspaces, APIOps community and local machine industry in Finland. Those three will create a triangle of magic in which APIs enable IoT device/service innovations. APIOps community is the API economy core component of future IoT innovation platform (social).
Expert talk to application developers across Europe
On Friday afternoon I gave a presentation with my colleague Taija Björklund about the significance of API management and API Developer eXperience at Futurice office in Tampere. The presentation was broadcasted to all Futurice offices in Stockholm, Munich, London and Helsinki.
Main message was that “just putting out docs” is not enough and that next generation API on-boarding + support will be Chatbots driven. We at APInf happens to be developing APIBot solution which can be integrated to chat environments such as Slack.
Some of the developers challenged me and I was glad to tell them that we’ll show the solution in next APIOps meetup in Tampere Tuesday, May 2, 2017. The meetup will be broadcasted to Youtube to maximise participation.
Want to join us?
Anyway, that was the week. Interesting and full of amazing discussions with different people. If the above sounds interesting and something that you would like to do, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are constantly recruiting APItalists as well as Full Stack JS developers.
- Drop me an email (jarkko(ät)apinf.io),
- engage in Twitter (Jarkko Moilanen) or
- connect in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarkkomoilanen/
You can check out our staff from http://apinf.com.
