HOWTO: Securing your ecosystem

Twitter has one of the largest APIs and developer ecosystems of any site by usage on the planet. In part, its success was born out of the easiness and openness of its API. In early 2010, Twitter decided to move its platform from one using basic authentication to one using OAuth over the course if 6 months. This is the story of how Twitter decided to secure its platform while remaining open and easy to use and by not losing or alienating any developers in the process. There are lessons to be learned in how to create a platform properly in the beginning, and how to manage and migrate the community you gain.