The Next 10 at EDP...You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Happy Holidays, Everyone! It's been a busy year and I wanted to give thanks to all of the Developers and Business Partners who have continued to support and enrich the eBay Developers Program. We wish you all continued success in the coming year.

2011 will be the 10-year anniversary of the eBay Developers Program. It's been incredible watching our program grow and blossom. Over the years, we've spent a lot of time building the "eBay" and "Program" parts of our name. I think the time is long overdue for us to rediscover the "Developers."

Developers write code. Code powers apps. Apps are shaping the world. Ergo, Developers Rule the World. Just as you and eBay together have pioneered the last decade in eCommerce, I know it will be continued Developer creativity and passion that will fuel the next. We want to help you get there.

In 2011, the eBay Developers Program will expand into new markets, engage new Developer segments, and access new customers. We'll also be adding new tools and capabilities that will make your work easier. We're also working on ways to connect you with fellow Developers, Designers, and Entrepreneurs that will complement your own capabilities.

Many Developers I talk to think of the eBay Developers Program only as Seller Tools. While it's true that this is a very active and important space in the program, it is also one with the most direct revenue opportunities. That being said, the possibilities for your app and eBay are much broader than you might think. With a slight tilt in perspective, the power of contextual commerce creates more eBay opportunities for you to earn money than you might have considered.

Tickets from StubHub or eBay Tickets to go with your HD video compression algorithm for concert videos. Milo and eBay Classifieds bring local content to your location-aware game built on FourSquare or Layar. RedLaser and eBay Research Labs might help your work with image recognition.

No matter what you're working on, I want to hear about it. Whatever wondrous thing you are working on, when it comes time to figure out how to acquire customers or when you need to tap into a real revenue stream, then think of eBay. Think of contextual commerce. Whatever you have, I can eBay'ify it. Stump me and I'll buy you a beer.

I am looking forward to the new year, to seeing what cool stuff you guys are working on, and to helping you earn more money. I hope you'll take a moment to visit us and see what we've got in the workshop that can help you.

Tax Reminder for US Affiliate Developers

eBay Developers who are also members of the eBay Partner Network will want to take a look at this post:
For US Publishers Only – Review the Accuracy of Your W9 Information for 1099-Tax Forms by Dec 31, 2010

You will receive a 1099 tax form for the year 2010 from eBay Partner Network if:

• You are a United States citizen or legal resident and
• You had $600 or more reportable tax activity for the year 2010

To prepare for this, please log into your eBay Partner Network account and verify that your W9 shows the correct information.

For more information, please see:

For US Publishers Only – Review the Accuracy of Your W9 Information for 1099-Tax Forms by Dec 31, 2010

699 Trading, Shopping, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

The eBay Developers Program Goes to Cloudstock

Cloudstock was a free one-day event at Moscone Center in San Francisco, sponsored by companies with futures in cloud programming and attended by developers with futures in cloud programming.

There were presentation sessions, a hackathon, demo stations, food and drinks, and video games. The eBay Developers Program had a demo booth there. We have thoughts about cloud computing. Also, we think that, cloudwise or otherwise, developers want to make apps that earn money. By the time we got to Cloudstock, we were half a dozen strong.

We had dozens of conversations with developers at our demo station. We'll bring more swag next time--our LEGO man and chart of the eBay functionality and APIs just about ran out. Sarika Paralkar presented her "eBay API Fundamentals" presentation, and Jon Jessup of Cloud Conversion presented about using the Force.com IDE to build apps that leverage the eBay and PayPal platforms.

Because Cloudstock is a very hackerish conference, the Hackathon was a major focus. There were prizes in 14 different categories, including a MacBook Pro for Best in Show.

Scene from Right Before the Hackathon

Hacker 1: "So, what prize are you going for?"

Hacker 2: "Whatever, man. The MacBook would be nice."

An Awesome Mashup

Of all the innovative and surprising entries in the Hackathon, we were most impressed by the one that created a Salesforce app that logged in to the eBay sandbox, listed an item, logged in as another user and bought the item, and tracked the result in the Salesforce app where it also used (we are pretty sure) the Google Prediction Engine to predict future sales.

Some Sessions

You can read blogs about some of the sessions at http://blog.cloudstockevent.com/.