The Open API Initiative (OAI), a Linux Foundation project created to advance API technology, announced the 3.0.0 release of the OpenAPI Specification. The OAI provides a foundation for developing interoperability of APIs and other technologies.
The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) v3 release is the culmination of nearly two years of collaboration among senior API developers and architects from across multiple industries, such as payment and banking, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and vendors building API solutions. Under the auspices of the OAI, this collaboration provides a common way to unify how an industry defines and describes APIs—the services fundamental to how applications talk to each other in today's connected world. The OpenAPI Specification defines the interfaces for RESTful APIs, describing resources and operations in a format that is easily discoverable and understandable by both machines and humans.
APIs have been elevated from a development technique to a driver of business, necessary for technology innovation and modernization. According to ProgrammableWeb, nearly 18,000 public APIs have been published since 2005, up nearly 1,000 in the past quarter of 2017 alone. Founded in 2015, the Open API Initiative has swelled to 27 members in the last 18 months and continues to accelerate beyond API vendors to include leaders in banking, healthcare, and governments worldwide.
Current members of the OAI include: 42Crunch, Adobe Systems, Inc., API Evangelist, Atlassian, CA Incorporated, Capital One, Cloud Elements, Finxact, LLC, Google, Inc., Hart, IBM, Intento, Inc., ISA Research Group, Mashape Inc., Microsoft Corporation, MuleSoft, Oracle Apiary, Red Hat, RepreZen, Restlet, Inc., Salesforce, Samsung ARTIK Cloud, SmartBear Software, Software AG, StopLight, and Tyk.
The Open API Initiative (OAI) was created by a consortium of forward-looking industry experts who recognize the immense value of standardizing on how REST APIs are described. As an open governance structure under The Linux Foundation, the OAI is focused on creating, evolving and promoting a vendor-neutral description format. Visit https://www.openapis.org/ for more information.