One of the most noticeable developments over the past decade or more has been the growth of web APIs as the mechanism through which data and services are accessed.
The process could, very roughly, be summarised as follows:
1) About 20 years ago, certain companies such as SalesForce and Ebay begin to expose data or functionality through endpoints (http://nordicapis.com/tracking-the-growth-of-the-api-economy/)
2) APIs move to the fore as both start-ups and incumbents build solutions around the assumption that APIs will be the primary (or exclusive) means through which their service will be consumed.
3) Platforms such as Mashape, RapidAPI and Algorithmia emerge, providing API and microservice marketplaces for developers to both sell and consume APIs.
For the average developer today, almost any requirement they have: user verification, payment handling, facial recognition, textual analysis, image or video processing and transcoding etc. etc., there will be at least one API to do it, and probably more. Perhaps more interestingly, tools such as Zapier allow end users to build workflows by connecting a series of API calls together, without requiring in depth knowledge of how to call these directly (such as an understanding of REST or HTTP codes).
For many communities in developing countries, the availability of a growing library of API “building blocks” which can be chained together to form effective workflows could be very promising, especially if these could be paid for by something akin to Stellar, as opposed to credit cards (which incur prohibitive fees for small transactions and necessitate a bank account and fixed address.)
In the first instance these APIs – developed specifically for such communities, could be consumed as-is, either by HTTP or SMS, for a very small transactional fee, providing basic information such as weather data or local market buy/sell prices for example. Once established and the relevant use cases identified, communities or individuals within them could use open source tools to create their own workflows from this ever-growing library. These workflows could be for personal use, or built specifically for others to consume. Use cases could include setting up a workflow to push images of locally produced goods onto a regional message board for potential buyers, or to source and distribute informative videos to others.
By permitting low cost micro transactions, Stellar may be able to facilitate communities developing APIs and workflows for their own specific needs.
