Marc's Voice

The NYTimes Congress API, persistent content and the future

I tried to keep the title of this post down to the length of the title field, cause I could go on forever about the significance of the NYTimes recognizing the kind of info we all want to know about and how that content is OUR content and about how a wide range of software developers can now rely upon this content to build other apps and services on top of.

This is what I meant when I talked about ‘persistent ubiquitous content‘ and why it’s an entire chapter in my treatise - “How to build the Open Mesh“.

Having our fingers on persistent content and being able to bake it into - lets say educational software, health software - maybe even (choke, cough) games - is really gonna be a big part of our future.

No more will we have to type in and do data entry on the history of the Roman Empire.

No more will game developers have to research Bobby Rahal’s stats.

No more will entrepreneurs have to pay for yet another copy of the world Atlas.  Or look up the annual output of beef from Argentina.

And for Christ sakes - I sure as hell hope we can build that Grateful Dead Deadbase service I’ve been dreaming of for 10 years now.  I want to integrate live recordings of EVERY Dead show there ever was, with a community of Deadheads who share their concert experiences and search for that kind soul who “gave me a miracle” in the parking lot in Rochester, 1981.

Persistent ubiquitous content means that the cloud goes from being a place where personal and corporate stuff is stored to where ALL stuff is stored.  All history, all art, all crafts and biology and geography and meteorology - everything - is there - all the time.

WHEN we can rely upon this content being there, with everything being a URL - and having it’s own permalink page - THEN we gonna be talking about what I’ve been talking about.

Cause that’s what I’m talking about!

Oh yah - what the Congress is doing and what the NYTimes is doing - are important too. Kudos to both fine organizations.  And to NPR - as well.

We need all sorts of persistent content - there all the time.  Brewster Kahle has been fighting this battle - for years.

And needless to say it’s great to see the NYTimes - when it’s back is up against the wall - react by clearly defining it’s role and place in our world - and what it’s brand stands for.  Blessings to the managers and coders at the NYTimes - hopefully you’ll still have jobs and money to keep these servers running.