Today at Delphic Sage was our brown bag lunch, where food is ordered early and everyone sits in for a presentation. My presentation today went well, no one fell asleep, and there was good group participation. We discussed Application Programming Interface or APIs in much more depth than this slideshow will portray, including brainstorming, observations, and solving the example problems using APIs.
I think the best real world example of an API is the gas pedal in your car. You press it and move forward, and you don't need to know anything about internal combustion to drive a car. APIs are in use everywhere, and in this day and age, if you are a website, and you provide a service, the API (or lack thereof) could ultimately be the deciding factor between success and failure. Enjoy the slideshow.