Re: inquiry re. the state of protocol R&D

[Miles Fidelman <[e-mail]>]

I have to vehemently disagree.  To me, APIs are a step in the wrong 
direction.

Protocol specs - framed as PDU formats and state machine models - 
present a basis for interoperability and distributed operation. APIs are 
language-specific, and all too often are tied to a 
centralized/client-server model of the world.  A big step backwards.

Miles Fidelman

Carlos M. Martinez wrote:
> A world of APIs is a good thing. As long as the APIs are public and well
> documented and, well, standardized.
>
> I believe this is an evolutionary step. After you get a solid foundation
> of interoperable IP and transport protocols, the next logical step is to
> standardize APIs.
>
> What lies behind the API is bound to be propietary, IMO.
>
> cheers!
>
> ~Carlos
>
> On 5/24/14, 1:24 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> For a while, it's been kind of bugging me that the Internet ecosystem is
>> increasingly a world of API's tied to proprietary systems - quite
>> different than the world of interoperable protocols.  Sure, every once
>> in a while something new comes along - like RSS and XMPP, but that's
>> more at the fringes - and in a lot of cases we see attempts at things by
>> folks who really don't have a clue (open social comes to mind). (And, of
>> course, very specific things like, say DMARC.)
>>
>> Obviously, a lot of this is driven by commercial factors - there's money
>> to be made in centralizing systems and monetizing APIs; not so much for
>> protocols.  And it seems like there isn't a lot of R&D funding for such
>> things.
>>
>> Which leads me to wonder - is there much of a protocol r&d community
>> left - academic or otherwise?  IRTF seems awfully narrowly focused - and
>> mostly at lower layers of the protocol stack.  Where's the work on
>> application protocols (beyond refinements to HTTP, and web service
>> stuff)?  Are there still funders for this kind of work?
>>
>> If so, where do folks "congregate?"  For programming languages, there's
>> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/, conferences like OOPSLA, and there
>> seems to be a steady stream of academic papers.  Is there anything left
>> like that for protocol R&D?
>>
>> Miles Fidelman
>>


-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra