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Press Kit

Index:

  1. AsyncAPI
  2. History of the project
  3. Values of AsyncAPI
  4. Brands and companies using AsyncAPI
  5. Funding
  6. Contact details
  7. Frequently asked questions

AsyncAPI

The initiative is an open source specification that has developed an asynchronous messaging language within the event-driven architecture (EDA). This tool enables the standardization of machine-to-machine communication. The main aim of the project is to make asynchronous APIs as successful and mature as REST APIs. This programming system covers a hitherto unexplored field. There is no direct competition as it is inserted in a new and emerging market.

The project is based on transparency, teamwork and passion, cooperating with other free software initiatives. Also, AsyncAPI can't be understood without the talent and the contributions of its community. It has been crucial for getting to this point.

Inspired by the logic of OpenAPI, in less than five years it has managed to carve out a recognized position for itself in the world of APIs. This project is seeking to improve the current state of event-driven architectures (EDA).

And, although it was born out of the need to fill a gap in the standardization of asynchronous APIs, the differential value of the initiative is that it has created its sense of purpose and has grown without a profit motive.

One of the main challenges is to make the development experience super seamless, from idea to production. Users should be able to create their first API within minutes without prior knowledge of AsyncAPI, the communication protocol, or anything else that's not business logic.

Right now, the strategy of the project is to continue improving the specification, implementing resources that make it more complete and solid. This has led to the partnership with Postman (December 2020), a leading collaborative platform for API development and a reference within this sector all around the world. This partnering allows it to boost the development of more and better tools to help engineers create and maintain Asynchronous APIs while using their favorite programming languages and frameworks.

The next step has been to host the project on a neutral foundation to ensure the long-term sustainability and success of the initiative. AsyncAPI has been hosted by the Linux Foundation since March of 2021.

However, none of the other goals are possible without the support of a large community. AsyncAPI is and must remain a community-driven initiative.

Open governance model

Free software gives users the freedom to apply, modify, and continue in the chain by distributing copies to help others and by, in this case, disseminating modified versions of the specification.

The above mentioned partnership with Postman speeded up the work in the initiative on transferring AsyncAPI to a foundation and forming an open governance model to assure the community that a single company does not control AsyncAPI Initiative. This move takes the project to a higher level.

In doing so, it will be achieved:

  • To ensure an open governance model where no single company dominates the specification and its tools.
  • To make the project as democratic as possible.
  • To rely on an asynchronous decision-making process that empowers the people who "work", not the companies who "pay".

In other words, it will give equal power to individual and corporate contributors [checkout here for more information].

AsyncAPI, in numbers

By 2023, the community that supports the initiative is expected to multiply its size by four. After that, the next goal is to grow 400% till 2026 [to know more check the AsyncAPI Road Map]. These goals can look ambitious, but many other numbers could also have been felt as impossible to reach not so long ago.

Taking the example of the years 2019 and 2020, the unique users visits in the AsyncAPI website climbed from 27.090 to 80.399 (53.309 new ones), and the number of sessions jumped from 50.405 to 142.229 (an increase of 91.824 sessions). Also in just 12 months, the unique pageviews climbed from 143.509 to 348.131, an increase of more than 205.172 pageviews. Great news for AsyncAPI, as the merger with the Linux Foundation and the partnership with Postman, have not yet been reflected in these numbers, as it was sealed subsequent to this data collection [checkout here for more]. The next data will be even better.

Also, the increase of traffic and users in social networks talks by itself.

  • On Youtube, the number of views increased by 1646%
  • On Slack, the number of members increased by 558%.
  • On Linkedin, the visits increased by 296%.
  • On the Blog, the visits increased by 270%
  • On Twitter, the number of followers increased by 257%.
  • On GitHub, the generator downloads increased by 62%.

History of the project

It all starts with a vision, and AsyncAPI it’s not an exception. The initiative was born in 2016 as a side project of Fran Mendez while he was working at Hitch (API Changelog). After identifying the lack of tools for standardized message-based specification systems, this young engineer felt that there was a missing piece and started working on the specification.

He formulated an "API theory", so to speak, essentially, with as many interactive API types as RESTful web services, GraphQL, and message-based architectures. AsyncAPI would serve as a common unifying language for the various formats, protocols, and specifications, enabling standardized communication in the message-based system.

Values of AsyncAPI

  • Innovative. There is no other specification that covers the messaging needs in the event-driven architecture that AsyncAPI is covering. What it tries to do is to integrate with the existing tools and remove walls for communication.
  • Free. It’s a free software project: it seeks the user's liberty by offering a tool that can be used and enhanced without restrictions.
  • Open. As it's an open-source project and not a company or a product, it works in a change of paradigm: it does not sell anything, it moves away from fierce competition and bets for cooperation.
  • Multicultural and inclusive. It’s an initiative with an international and multicultural vision. It’s organic, always in constant mutation and change. It also actively demands compliance with human rights, respect for racial, sexual, and cultural diversity equality. And, of course, the equality between women and men.
  • Transparent. The initiative it’s built on transparency, being one of the main values of AsyncAPI, both internally and externally including its financing. All the relevant data of the project is public. The tasks that are being and will be worked on are public and participatory through Slack and GitHub.
  • Horizontal and participative. Its structure is based on horizontality; most of the decisions are defined as a group, including the Community. Anyone can submit improvements, lines of action, or elements to be taken into account to strengthen AsyncAPI.
  • User-friendly. AsyncAPI bets for a seamless API development experience. Users should be able to create their first API within minutes without prior knowledge of AsyncAPI. It has to be natural, simple, intuitive.

Brands and companies using AsyncAPI

The total number of companies and projects using AsyncAPI as well as their identity is impossible to know. So far, we are aware that the following ones operate with it.

  • Slack: Business Communication Platform that permits to operate with multiple channels (public and private). It currently has more than 10 million daily active users worldwide. It was recently acquired by Salesforce.
  • Adidas: Company dedicated to the manufacture of sports equipment and fashion products. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, second largest in the world. This company has more than 150.000 sales outlets around the world.
  • Salesforce: Business consultancy company. It provides (CRM) service and other services. It manages from small businesses to FORTUNE 500 companies and it has more than 150.000 customers.
  • IBM: Company that manufactures and markets hardware and software. It has operations in over 170 countries and provides hosting and consulting services in many areas.
  • SAP: Company dedicated to the design of computer products for business management. Develops business software to manage operations and business-to-customer relationships. It’s a large company with 100,330 employees.
  • IQVIA: Company providing services for the combined health information technology and clinical research industries. It employs more than 58.000 people in over 100 countries

Funding

AsyncAPI is an open source project and is therefore funded by talent and voluntary contributions. It relies on the expertise and dedication of the Community developers who believe in the project and contribute to its evolution.

Financially, there are individual donations and contributions made by users of the project, and others that come from different companies and initiatives that trust and support AsyncAPI through sponsorship. The main sponsors that contribute to sustain this initiative are Postman, IQVIA Technology, Mulesoft, Salesforce, SAP, SLACK, Solace, and Tibco.

All the information about the project's economy, the amount of the donations, the identity of the donors, the sponsors supporting the project and the use of this money is public. 99% of the funding goes through the Open Collective but has also been enabled by GitHub sponsorship [More information here].

Open Collective is an online crowdfunding platform for open and transparent communities. It provides the necessary tools to collect and share the finances raised with complete transparency. It is an ideal collective for communities such as collaborative groups or open source projects among others. This platform can be used to raise and transparently disburse money for the benefit of their members, their registered projects, and those who want to support them.

GitHub is a project management platform that also has the option to manage part of the financing. It is also important that the company making the largest contribution to the initiative is Postman.

Contact details

  • Press & communications info: [email protected]

  • Twitter: It's used for disseminating all the news and information regarding the project, but also for resolving user queries and sharing news of projects related to technology.

  • Slack workspace: The main place of encounter for the whole community of AsyncAPI.

  • Newsletter: To learn about the status of the project/news, actualizations, and recorded events and meetings.

  • Blog: It’s used to disseminate information related to the project. It's also open to collaborations.

  • Linkedin: It's used to publish news related to the project or its environment. It’s also used as a source of information.

  • YouTube Channel: Where you can find conferences, AsyncAPI Open Meetings and much more.

  • GitHub: Issues, for bugs and feature requests, pull requests (PRs) for fixes or new features already discussed, as per the contributing guidelines.

  • AsyncAPI Open Meetings (biweekly):

    • See the shared Google Calendar, with the main activities.
    • For Outlook users we exported the calendar to an ICS file.
    • To get invited to the mailbox, just add yourself to the mailing list on the website.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is the goal of the project? To make asynchronous APIs as successful and mature as REST APIs.

  • What protocols does it support? The latest version supports any protocol.

  • Who are the users of AsyncAPI? AsyncAPI users are mainly software developers of any application programming interface (API) that base their work on the asynchronous method.

  • What is the AsyncAPI Community?s It’s the core of the initiative. The AsyncAPI community contributes to the development of the tool, it promotes access and distribution of the specification allowing freedom of use, study, copying, modification, and redistribution to anyone who wishes to do so. The cooperation between these people in all areas of software production generates a substantial improvement in the quality of the software, as well as greater dissemination and sustainability over time, and prioritizing the benefit of society over any other.

  • Who can use it? Everyone who wants. It’s open to use and contribute. To use it, all you need is a device with an operating system and the latest version of AsyncAPI.

  • Where can I find more information?