I just came off a one-hour public conference call with Kintera’s CTO Scott Crowder and chief engineer Jeane Chen. The topic was their new “open API platform,” which they call Kintera Connect.

Kintera has been hyping their new dedication to openness for a while. At the NTEN conference last April, a senior Kintera executive on a data integration panel said, “I’d call it a committment to radical openness. Radical.” [his emphasis] In the July 10 press release about Connect, one of their partners crows, “By opening their platform … Kintera is changing the landscape for nonprofit technology selection.”

Really?

As is so often the case with software, all the hype may not be warranted. What’s the reality of Kintera Connect? Through a series of questions and (sometimes squirrely) answers on today’s call, here are the salient points I picked out:

• Kintera Connect is not yet open for business. Target launch is “October.”
• When it launches, not all data tables will be exposed. At first, they will expose the tables associated with the central “contacts” module; ie, constituent data. Access to the other tables will be rolled out at a later date. This is a wise engineering move, and since 95% of the use cases will involve moving around constituent data, this is the right place to start.
• In theory, the APIs will be open to all. In practice, developers have to apply for a “key” to the API by joining the “developers forum.” Giving out keys is standard practice for all APIs. But we didn’t learn what criteria will be used to dole out keys. Can any developer have one? Or only developers working for Kintera clients? (My guess is that they will control the keys tightly).
• Kintera has already established an “applications partner network” of preferred vendors. (It’s their watered-down answer to the Salesforce App Exchange.) There is a closed application process to become a preferred vendor; Crowley did not give any specifics about what criteria will be used to choose those vendors.
• Technical stuff — the data calls will be made in SOAP; they will provide sample code in Java and C#; and documentation will be available privately to approved developers.
• “About a dozen” engineers are working on the API, according to Crowder. Chen said, “Our best and brightest are on it.” It was unclear how many will continue maintaining it and rolling out updates after launch, but they will have a dedicated “API support group” outside of normal customer service to handle problems and inquiries.

On the whole, this is good news. The biggest nonprofit eCRM vendor in the industry is making pretty big strides towards open up its data. At least, they’ve completely reversed their public philosophy about open data and interoperability. Crowley admitted as much, saying things like, “We haven’t been so open in the past,” and “This is a totally new direction for Kintera.” That’s all very positive — its a big step towards customers actually owning their data and having the freedom to use it how they want.

But the devil will be in the details, of course. How easy will it be to join the “developer forum?” Will any hidden charges creep in? What happens when a competing application wants to join their preferred network? No one should kid themselves — when those situations get sticky, Kintera will do what’s best for Kintera’s bottom line, which may or may not be what’s best for customers.

Regardless, I think its fair to say that “radical” is not exactly the word that most advocates of open APIs would use for Kintera Connect. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong when they launch in October. I’m not holding my breath.

Thanks to Holly Ross for moderating all the questions and comments; she did a good job with an unruly chat technology. And thanks to NTEN for hosting the sales pitch, I mean conference call. (smirk)