2021 Retrospective / 2022 Lookahead (2022-02-04)

[kevinswiber]

2021 Retrospective / 2022 Lookahead (2022-02-04)

Recording: Zoom Meeting

Attending

• Kevin Swiber, Emmanuel, Stu, Taylor, Neal, Jesse, Kin, Marsh, Ron, Jon Clifton, Frank

Agenda

• Intro (5min)
  • Revisit 2021 Priorities from January 2021
    • Make the 3.1 release successful
      • Education and community support
    • Improve the health of the membership
      • ROI on membership
    • Verticals
      • Travel
      • OGC
      • SLA
    • Support the API specifications in the world at large
      • Support ASC 2021
    • Better leverage others' work
• Retrospective (25min)
• Lookahead (25min)
• Wrap-up (5min)

Retrospective

• 3.1 release
  • PR rundown for 3.1 release was well-supported. Webinar, mutual efforts, results with articles. Still need work to carry it through.
  • Challenge: We didn't identify a spokesperson, missed media opportunities with no schedule.
  • Challenge: The jump from 2 to 3 seemed significant with the footprint of 2 and the enhancements in 3. The difference added difficulty to adoption.
  • Challenge: The lack of participation from tool providers led to no support or partial support. Lower incentive for API practitioners to switch.
  • Need a bigger push for API practitioner adoption, as well, as that may apply pressure to tooling vendors. Helps commercial vendors also quantify market demand.
  • Can we identify member participation incentives? Like to involve marketing ppl or even laggard adoption additional fees?
  • Community access and the visibility that comes with that. Having stronger community makes participation more compelling. Should we also have a community membership concept? CNCF and OpenJS communities are massive/vibrant.
  • Concept: an adoption leaderboard/member list
  • Do we really understand why there is not enough demand? Kin just mentioned 3.1 support. No clarity on how much vendors support it. Could we do a better job promoting the benefits? How do we get to a tipping point?
  • The limitation of the charter to avoid tooling adoption may be hurting adoption, no standardized tooling for adoption of 3.1.
  • Should we release a 4.0? Work around SIGs could offer an opportunity for a marketing push around the benefits of OAS.
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
  • Innovation is happening around the spec, and that might be where things head.
  • There is an OAS 4.0 in time, but it isn't obvious what would be so massively better about 4.0.
  • Innovation is happening in SIGs
  • Promotion around SIGs seems to be word-of-mouth-driven.
  • Different groups are trying different things, adding to some cross-over.
  • Last TDC call was a shining example of what SIGs could be, several presentations around the Workflows SIG.
  • Collateral needs to be updated: slide decks, text, documents.
  • Opportunity: How do we "officially" recognize people in order to bolster their day job representation?
  • What DID work was the update of the SIG concept. Dove-tailing with marketing, collaboration was important. Marketing helped make real what was happening naturally in the community. That's a win. Marketing cannot make that momentum happen, but we can help shape it and amplify.
  • Should we consider badges for participation? They can be posted on social channels, LinkedIn, etc. Showcase the work over the monetary contribution. Even just a certificate.
  • Travel SIG: blog post, contributor blog post.
  • SIGs might not have been ready for primetime for promotion. (e.g., Does the Slack channel invite work?)
• API Specifications Conference (ASC)
  • ASC was not just OpenAPI. We could always do more, have more GraphQL, have more AsyncAPI. We did have good cross-spec participation, though it can always be improved.
  • Continued to push conversations that wouldn't have happened otherwise in the lens of supporting API specifications at large.
  • Virtual is difficult. Hallway conversations are more difficult.
  • Continue to promote SIGs.
  • Could be a good opportunity to promote multi-spec SIGs.
  • Should have more focus on tooling.
• Contractors were finally brought on-board, even if a bit later than anticipated.

Lookahead

• Building, supporting, and consolidating the community around OpenAPI.
  • How do we better establish relevance to API practitioners adopting the specs?
• Events
  • 2022 API Specifications Conference (ASC), what opportunities might that afford… and in person!
    • Potentially another in-person member network meeting!
    • Ensure recorded videos and how to share with folks who aren't there in person.
  • Gluecon unconference
  • When might we ramp up meat-ups?
• Contractor efforts
  • Tooling, laying the foundation for those conversations
  • API provider showcasing
  • Plaid and GitHub last year, top-tier providers. Twitter is eager to do storytelling this year.

[mehdim]

APIdays conferences are back in person too, they can, like Gluecon, host an unconference too, especially APIDays main event in Paris December 7-9th (celebrating the 10 years anniversary)
European API practioners would love have their own OpenAPI Unconference!

Same for APIdays Australia for APAC region September 14-15th.