WARNING THE LINKED TO ARTICLE IS A DIFFICULT READ!!! The concepts are good but there is almost no conclusion and a really hard path to follow. The reason we are pointing to it is to try and help form a conclusion. The bulk of the article talks about what the author sees as a sift from open source to open API’s. Will companies sift away from Open Source? The problem with the question is that it’s not a zero sum gain. Take Google for instance, they offer both Open Source software they develope and Open API’s for developers to use. As does both Amazon and E-Bay. There are serious problems when you build an applicaiton or business on open API’s as opposed to Open Source. With Open Source the software is yours to use and while you may be never get another update to the code you at least have the code and could hire a developer to fix/update to meet your needs. With an Open API if the company shuts off the API you are out of luck. The most recent example of this is the changes over at Twitter. Twitter wanted to make money and changed how things worked to make it happen. Unfortunately if you wrote an app that relied on something they removed from the API you are out of luck and get to re-write your app. So what do we want to make you aware of? Remember when you write your application that you need to control where your data is and comes from. If you don’t have data you really probably don’t have an application. So if all of your data comes from an Open API what will you do if that API goes away? What if the companies who’s API your using goes under or starts competing with you.