Grauniad plays the Open Sesame game

Its been rumoured for a while, but this morning the Grauniad announced it was opening up the magic cave of its content - Kevin Anderson:

The Guardian today launched Open Platform, a service that will allow partners to reuse guardian.co.uk content and data for free and weave it "into the fabric of the internet".

Open Platform launched with two separate content-sharing services, which will allow users to build their own applications in return for carrying Guardian advertising.

A content application programming interface (API) will smooth the way for web developers to build applications and services using Guardian content, while a Data Store will contain datasets curated by Guardian editors and open for others to use.

In more detail:

- The Guardian content API includes not only articles but videos, galleries and other content.

- Data Store, provides statistics and data curated by Guardian editors. The Guardian has always collected statistics and data, but traditionally this data has appeared in the newspaper or appeared in a table on a Guardian website. Now, these statistics will be made available for anyone to use.

Both the content API and the Data Store are available for free, but the Guardian has plans to create an advertising network. As Kevin notes;

The Guardian is positioning its Open Platform as a commercial venture, requiring partners to carry its advertising as part of its terms and conditions, while BBC Backstage states clearly that its proposition is for individual developers designers and not for "big corporates".

So, the fascinating question now is "what will the others do?" The BBC already has the Not-For-Profit BBC Backstage feeds, but the other newspapers have yet to open their kimonos.