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the-early-seeds-of-apis.md

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The Early Seeds of APIs

APIs emerged in the earliest days of digital computing back in the 1950s, later evolving to meet the needs of a variety of business sectors.

The Beginning

The computer and network origins of APIs began with these investments by the U.S. military, universities, and industries:

  • Sage - In 1954, the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) began its six- year development to be used as an early warning air defense system.
  • Saber - In 1964, IBM built upon SAGE to develop Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE), an air travel reservation system for American Airlines.
  • Arpanet - The early stages of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) began in 1966—planting the seeds for what we now know as the Internet.

Laying the foundation

Networks opened the opportunity for information to be shared across multiple physical locations.

  • Corba - In 1991, the Object Management Group (OMG) introduced the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) allowing applications to communicate using APIs.
  • SOA - In 1998, the idea of service-oriented architecture (SOA) emerged to provide more structured approaches to transmitting business data between networked servers.

Creating a business model

Over the years we realized we needed more structured approaches to exchanging business information, and began using networks that were rapidly becoming what we now know as the internet.

  • Corba - In 1991, the Object Management Group (OMG) introduced the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) allowing applications to communicate using APIs.
  • SOA - In 1998, the idea of service-oriented architecture (SOA) emerged to provide more structured approaches to transmitting business data between networked servers.

As the web emerged, industry forces came together to formalize XML specifications in service of an SOA vision for the industry. But a simpler, lower-cost, and increasingly ubiquitous web would provide a much more powerful approach for delivering our digital resources and capabilities. While taking shape for several decades, modern web APIs began to emerge in their current form during the e-commerce and social networking revolution of the early 21st century. They were pushing what was possible when it comes to buying and selling in the digital world, but also realizing that consumers are very social creatures, and we’d want to bring our friends, family, and followers along for the ride.