ReadWriteWeb

What we today call the "mobile app" could, in a very short period of time, become known as the portable app, or just the "app." It tends to use such a simple and straightforward model of interaction that people are starting to prefer using their smartphones for certain tasks, even when their PCs are right in front of them. By this time next year, portable apps originally designed for use on smartphones and tablets may be running on laptops.

The extent to which this changes everything is a topic that no one, not even ReadWriteWeb, has fully fathomed. The Web as we have come to know it will be affected significantly. What users have come to know as Web sites will be willingly and eagerly substituted with Web apps. In Part 2 of our interview with the co-author of APIs: A Strategy Guide, Netflix lead API engineer Daniel Jacobson tells us the one huge difference between an app and a site involves the extent to which they rely on an API. It is part of every app's DNA.

The first place I had ever seen an API actually at work was as part of an operating system. It was a strange OS at that, a permutation of CP/M that used a graphical front end called GEM, which would later be ported to the Atari ST. The definition was explained to me like this: An "interface," as everyone knows, is a specification for how electrical components interconnect. Well, now it's possible for an application program - the part that does what users need - to interconnect with the operating system, which does what the computer needs. This way the operating functions don't have to be built into every program, they can just be handed off to the OS and the connection will look seamless. The principle was called a layer of abstraction. It was 1984, and it was the first time I'd heard the term.

It would be wrong to call the concept "revolutionary," unless you measure time in units of eons. Nearly three decades after its introduction, only recently have businesses come to realize how widely this architectural principle could be applied. No longer do complex processes have to be bound to precise, policy-intrinsic procedures. If teams can work independently, and computer resources devised to suit each team individually, then all that needs to be specified is the exchange of information between them.

There are parts of the world where it's understandably difficult for the topic of Internet piracy, or the theft of U.S. intellectual property, to be elevated to critical significance. There is still rioting in Syria, a cruise ship has run aground killing some passengers, and Japan is still struggling to emerge from the devastation of the tsunami.

But Saturday's statement from the Obama Administration awakened many broadcast organizations to a strange and, for some, unexplored new question: Is the U.S. truly planning to implement legislation that could shut parts of the Internet off? That's how the Saturday statement truly appeared for some who had not been following the goings-on (such as they are) in the U.S. Congress.

The digital product team over at NPR is always busy tinkering away and creating new ways for people to consume the news organization's rich library of content. Their latest innovation, called the Infinite Player, is a stripped-down, browser-based tool for listening to NPR content in a serendipitous, yet personalized fashion.

If the player's interface reminds you of Pandora, it's no accident. The team deliberately borrowed from personalized media services like Pandora, Flipboard and Zite when building out the Infinite Player. Its controls are sparse, containing only a few buttons. Among them are a pair of icons for voting stories up and down, much as one would on Pandora. In time, the player learns what you're interested in and plays back content accordingly.

His brainchild is SproutCore, a JavaScript library whose goal is to accelerate HTML5 apps on multiple platforms, including tablets, so their execution speed approaches that of native apps. Charles Jolley began work on SproutCore at Apple, and was a key architect for Apple's vision of HTML5: a standards-driven effort that could yet be maneuvered to showcase Apple's strengths.

But one of that effort's first culminations was MobileMe, Apple's first attempt at a data-syncing service for Mac and iPod/iPhone customers. That effort became synonymous with "disaster," one which then-CEO Steve Jobs promised to rebuild. Not very good with failures, Apple let MobileMe languish, and its HTML5 message was dialed down. Rumors such as a reconceiving of the iWork platform diminished, and eventually Jolley left Apple, taking SproutCore with him.

Wildly popular public radio show This American Life has released an app for the iPad (iTunes link). The app was built by the Public Radio Exchange, the same organization that built the fabulous Public Radio Player iPhone app two years ago.

How is the iPad app? It's ok. It's certainly worth the $4.99 it costs, if you're a fan. It's a great way to listen to archives of the show. I can't help but be disappointed though, to see that it's read-only. There's no way to discuss the content with other members of the listening community. Can you imagine how great it would be if text or even audio comments could be submitted, enjoyed and maybe voted up or down in an app like this? There's so much potential here to augment the official content with discussion from topic experts and everyday people. Making the app another method of broadcast instead is disappointing. None the less, it's a good app that makes it easy to consume great media.

There's no better way to see Tweets about the Middle East than by following NPR Senior Strategist Andy Carvin. He's curating, verifying when possible and reporting on Tweets from and about the contentious region day and night.

How diverse are the Tweets Carvin is curating? We used the handy web app Needlebase to scrape, analyze and map the Twitter community Carvin is bringing into the streams of his own community of followers and found some interesting data points. He's retweeted 186 distinct Twitter accounts over the last four days alone.

Maria Thomas, former head of digital media at NPR and CEO of craft marketplace Etsy, has joined this year's Knight News Challenge and will participate in judging hundreds of funding proposals to create the future of news media, the organization announced today. The Knight Foundation began 70 years ago next month to support innovative news organizations; the deadline for submissions to this year's challenge is December 1st.

Previous years' winners include Ushahidi, Global Voices, MobileActive, the Public Radio Exchange and of course the MSNBC-acquired hyper-local news site EveryBlock.

Over the last several months we have mentioned how minimalist micro-blogging service Tumblr has attracted traditional media outlets. The New York-based startup has begun providing publisher-friendly features and even managed to snag former Newsweek editor Mark Coatney, who serves as a liaison for traditional media.

Today, National Public Radio (NPR) became the latest media group to join Tumblr, and I spoke with senior strategist Andy Carvin to find out how the organization plans to leverage the quickly growing platform.

National Public Radio first began offering its content via API nearly two years ago now and business, to say the least, has been booming.

According to a blog post today by NPR Director of Application Development Daniel Jacobson, the API delivered more than 1.1 billion stories last month, and almost 5 billion since tracking began six months ago.