Open APIs – what and why? Adam Arndt Danish National IT and Telecom Agency

API according to Wikipedia: An application programming interface (API) is a particular set of rules and specifications that a software program can follow to access and make use of the services and resources provided by another particular software program that implements that API. It serves as an interface between different software programs and facilitates their interaction, similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.software program implementsinterface user interface An API can be created for applications, libraries, operating systems, etc., as a way of defining their "vocabularies" and resources request conventions (e.g. function-calling conventions). It may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and protocols used to communicate between the consumer program and the implementer program of the API.applicationslibrariesoperating systemscalling conventions routinesdata structuresobject classesprotocols

Implementations Often WS REST SOAP Can be even more simple RSS ATOM Or proprietary format

Open API (according to Adam): An API that partly conforms to the criteria for open specifications: Fully documented Publicly available Free to use (both and ) Maintained in an open forum

Danish efforts Get to grips with the concepts Consider minimal requirements Mandatory?

Key questions Can and should we specify minimal functionality of Open APIs? Should Open APIs be mandatory? Where are Open APIs particularly important Cloud solutions Case and Document handling GIS systems Health or other sectors