Here’s another case study to add to the list of examples of distributed journalism: the New York Times has finally launched its articles API. In other words
“The Article Search API is a way to find, discover, explore, have fun and build new things. We’ve accumulated quite a few blocks/articles over the last 28 years — all of them tagged and labeled with loving care.”
That’s “over 2.8 million articles from 1981–today (updated hourly)”, with each article comprising “~35 searchable fields” (see image below).
As TechDirt says, opening up data like this is turning news into a platform (while pointing out that the paper’s Executive Editor, Bill Keller is simultaneously talking about trying to lock up their content).
This is the latest in a series of fantastic initiatives from the NYT’s data team, including the campaign finance API launched late last year, while other news organisations have made story-related databases public.
For a similar example of a news organisation opening up its API, the BBC has been running its Backstage project for some years now, providing the foundations for a wide range of prototypes and ideas.
[...] Online Journalism Blog - New York Times lets users build things with its content (open API) [...]
[...] 2009 be the year news organisations finally went open? Barely a month after the New York Times allowed users to build on 28 years of content with its articles API (with immediate results), The Guardian is opening up over a million articles to developers for [...]
[...] things — ways that don’t rely on the top-down fiat of King Print. Among revolutionaries, open APIs are discussed with much fervour late into the [...]
[...] media, Technology | Tags: Guardian, New York Times | The New York Times blinked first and opened its 2.8 million articles allowing users to build things with its content via [...]
[...] before then the New York Times and Guardian both launched APIs at the beginning of the year, MSN Local and the BBC have both been [...]
[...] http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/02/06/new-york-times-lets-users-build-things-with-its-content-o... [...]
[...] things — ways that don’t rely on the top-down fiat of King Print. Among revolutionaries, open APIs are discussed with much fervour late into the [...]