At a time when our economy is stagnating, some American political leaders are working to keep the world’s best and brightest out. They mistakenly believe that skilled immigrants take American jobs away. The opposite is true: skilled immigrants start the majority of Silicon Valley startups; they create jobs.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurship is booming in countries that compete with us. And more than half a million doctors, scientists, researchers, and engineers in the U.S. are stuck in “immigration limbo”. They are on temporary work visas and are waiting for permanent-resident visas, which are in extremely short supply. These workers can’t start companies, justify buying houses, or grow deep roots in their communities. Once they get in line for a visa, they can’t even accept a promotion or change jobs. They could be required to leave the U.S. immediately—without notice—if their employer lays them off.  Rather than live in constant fear and stagnate in their careers, many are returning home.

American immigration officials are also clueless.  They do everything they can to make life miserable for immigrants who want to make the U.S. more competitive and create U.S. jobs. As I noted in this piece about the Startup Visa, they interpret rules and regulations as restrictively as possible.

Rapportive co-founder, Martin Kleppmann, who came to the U.S. from Germany, told Brokaw “In our case — we got a beautiful letter from the immigration service asking to prove that we had enough warehouse space to store our software inventory. We don’t even have boxes of software, it’s all on the Internet.”

Sakina Arsiwala, from Mumbai, India, struggled for years to get a visa so that she could work with her husband Naveen Koorakula on their social-networking startup, Campfire Labs. “Why deal with all this, you know, old school immigration systems, just go where you’re wanted”, said Arsiwala, who formerly headed YouTube’s international operations.

Michelle Zatlyn, a Canadian who founded Cloudflare (a TechCrunch Disrupt runner-up), said that American visa policies are very outdated and do not “promote entrepreneurship in this country at all”. She told Brokaw that her startup was trying to create jobs and hire engineers, but that the country had almost made her leave before she had an opportunity to build a company.

Aihui Ong, founder of Love With Food, spoke about America’s being under “technology attack”. Everyone wants America’s techies. Countries such as her home country, Singapore, are working hard to bring people like her back home as well as to attract skilled workers from other countries. Singapore is giving startups four dollars for every dollar they raise, she said.  Sakina Arsiwala added that living conditions in some other countries are “really really attractive”. And the founder of Backtype, Mike Montano, spoke of his home country, Canada, offering startups major subsidies. They all wonder why the U.S. makes it so hard for them though other countries roll out the welcome mat.

These entrepreneurs tell their stories much better than I can. I encourage you to watch the videos yourself. The first video below is the segment that was broadcast on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on March 3. In this, I discuss the big picture and tell my own story—how I came to the U.S. to study, and later started two companies. My first company created over 1000 jobs; and the second, over 200. (The majority of these were American jobs—for American citizens.)  The second video is a more in-depth discussion with the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Unlike a lot of problems facing our country, this one is easy to fix. We just need to increase the numbers of permanent-resident visas available for those trapped in “immigration limbo”. And we should create a Startup Visa that is more inclusive than the VC/Super Angel bill that is being proposed. This may give the economy a significant boost at no cost to taxpayers.

Article taken from the techcrunch.com

At Apigee, which provides enterprise API management technology and free developer tools, we’ve seen the API market not only grow, but diversify, in 2010. APIs have given developers access to important data sets from government data to geolocation, and powerful services from semantic analysis to 3-D. As we head into 2011, here are five predictions for what’s next in APIs:

1. APIs Go Real-time, Big-time

“Real-time” was hot in 2010 as innovations in the API space brought the real-time web closer to reality. The PubSubHubBub protocol, which allows services to “push” notifications rather than forcing clients to poll for events, was implemented by the YouTube API team. Additionally, the high-profile launch of Twitter’s streaming API showcased market desire for APIs that allow real-time access to data.

The real-time web is currently led by innovative platforms like Notifo, a mobile notifications API that pushes notifications from many services to phones. In 2011, we can expect to see APIs take front and center in pushing real-time from the bleeding edge into the everyday.

2. Developers Will Adopt HTML5

This year, HTML5 was a new development darling. HTML5 makes it possible to create a better user experience — like the ones we expect from apps — in the browser. It also means developers don’t have to write new code to reach multiple platforms. With modest requirements for loosely connected devices in a time when reaching many devices is a strategic necessity, HTML5 combines the power of APIs with the ubiquity of browser access to provide a modern app experience that easily crosses platforms.

OpenAppMkt, an HTML5 app store, is an early indicator of HTML5 growth. We can also expect to see HTML5 support added on low-price-point, consumer electronics.

3. JSON Rises, XML Wanes

One of the biggest emerging stories in the API market is the ongoing debate of JSON vs XML support. JSON and XML are the two primary ways APIs exchange data. While many APIs have historically supported both, 2010 marked a turning point as both Twitter’s streaming API (sub req’d) and the Foursquare API ended XML support.

Why JSON? JSON is easier to use in JavaScript, an increasingly popular language for app developers. It is also lighter, requiring less processing, and is more readable by humans. As a result, developers often find it easier to use.

In 2011, we can expect to see more API providers switch to JSON only. There are still benefits to XML, which means it won’t go extinct anytime soon, but for today’s app developer, the tides are turning toward JSON. Savvy API providers will be giving developers what they want – not just for the holidays, but for the whole year.

4. More Companies to Redo their APIs — The Right Way

2010 saw several high-profile efforts by large companies – both consumer and enterprise – to offer more performant, usable APIs that conform to the REST principles that developers love. Salesforce.com launched a new REST API and made it a focal point of its Dreamforce conference. Foursquare also launched a new version of its API focused on speed, consistency and usability.

As developer adoption becomes a competitive necessity, more and more companies must re-focus on offering APIs designed for adoption: simpler, RESTful APIs that are easier to learn and implement. This will be especially significant in the enterprise as it adapts to the new standards of “web 2.0” development. Finally, as more and more API-centric companies (e.g., SimpleGeo and Twilio) prove that APIs are a product in themselves, API design that lowers the barrier to entry becomes tablestakes.

5. API Frameworks Flourish

Although well-designed APIs make it easier to create apps, there’s still a market need for better ways to build APIs. 2010 marked several notable language-specific API frameworks that aim to help developers create usable APIs, including Grape for Ruby and FRAPI for PHP.

In 2011, we’ll see this grow with dedicated API frameworks for node.js, Python, Java, .NET and more. These frameworks will be especially significant in language communities like Ruby that have seen a boom of adoption in the age of cloud services. The $212 million acquisition of Heroku by Salesforce.com reinforces that making life easier for these developers is key, and finding better ways for developers to build APIs, is a ripe opportunity for 2011.