Invention, Innovation, and New APIs

Keeping computing standards up with the pace of change in software and hardware development requires paying attention to methods by which such innovations are created, adopted, updated, and socialized within their target user communities. Significant changes are taking place in practice, led by work from individual contributors as well as formal and informal organizations. This column discusses some recent developments in application programmer interfaces (APIs) and factors that affect them, and explores new trends that are emerging from both standards organizations and software companies.