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API in plain English
API is a programming term, which stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is a way of accessing your data directly, instead of going through our website in your browser. A developer or administrator could use it for example to do regular backups themselves, to export data into another application, or to build an entire application outside of our site itself.We have a few ideas of our own that we'd like to build on top of our API, but essentially it opens things up for customers and enables many possibilities that we may not have thought of ourselves.
Content ownership in software
We see this as very important since content ownership needs to rest with the customer, not with us (the service provider). This has always been a big issue in software, not just with SaaS services, but SaaS does change things up.Traditionally, proprietary software used proprietary file formats, meaning that while you had your files, you were still locked into their file format, and so you had no choice but to use that software, or change with some difficulty. The Open Source software movement helped change that by raising awareness and by ensuring the code and also the data formats were open and interoperable.
Where SaaS changes things
The problem with the traditional software model is that by installing software yourself, you bear the burden of maintaining that software and the machines it runs on. For complex software, this often requires a full-time system administrator to be hired.Software-as-a-Service solves that by letting us be your software host so we take care of the technical details for you, which can save a company lots of money, but it can potentially put your data into a closed scenario again.
So customers should be careful to make sure any vendor provides a means of accessing the data in a way they can take with them, that way the control and ownership rests where it belongs, with the customer and not the vendor.
Future interoperability
Over time, I believe standards will continue to develop and be adopted by SaaS companies too, and I think it's in everyone's best interest for that to happen.Just like today OpenOffice.org can import and export Word files and new file standards are emerging for office documents, so too will ways of standardizing data formats for more specific applications like e-learning. And in the meantime, if we all do our part to make sure customers maintain clear ownership of their data, then we ought to be well poised for a future where customer relationships with SaaS services are built on quality, value and trust.
