Good APIs Project

It is advisable to follow standards where applicable. If possible it makes sense to piggy-back on to accepted Web-oriented standards and use well know standards from international authorities: IEEE, W3C, OAI or from successful, established companies. You could refer to the W3C Web Applications Working Group. Where an existing standard isn’t available or appropriate then be consistent, clear, and well-documented.

Although standards are useful and important it is crucial that you don’t get bogged down by them. Some standards may be difficult to interpret or not openly available. Innovation is sometimes more important than standards.

“Having a hand-designed XML (…) response is much less attractive than reusing standards such as Dublin Core, SIOC, SKOS, Bibliontology and so on.“