YDN: Hello Marc. There was a bit of buzz about the NYT releasing an API already on the readwriteweb.com but we're still craving for more details. What's cooking and how come you chose to go down the API route?

MF: This is all part of our strategy to open the New York Times as much as possible to leverage the creativity of our readers and the development community. Our goal is to disseminate our news and information as widely as possible and make it as useful as possible.

YDN: That means that you will make the content available for consumption and remixing. In terms of "creativity of users", will there be more user generated content on the site, too?

MF: We will definitely be adding more user generated content. I can't be more specific than that right now.

YDN: Will the content of the NYT and the order be influenced by the API use and user creativity? Is this the start of Digg-NYT?

MF: Our editors will still decide what to cover and how to present it on our pages. That is, after all, a big reason people come to NYTimes.com -- to see what the editors of the New York Times think is important. But we're also interested in giving our readers alternative views and having them share their activities on our site. We'll be releasing some new features around sharing news and information very soon.

YDN: With thousands of mashup-hungry developers out there, how much are you planning to make publicly available?

MF: Over time, all of our freely available news and information will be exposed to some degree in APIs. We will of course have terms of use and certain restrictions that will be spelled out in our license agreements.

YDN: What formats are you likely to support? Yahoo so far has been quite successful by providing data in various formats (XML,RSS,serialized PHP,JSON). Are you going that far, too?

MF: Yes, all of the above.

YDN: Great. What about access? Are you planning to have developer keys and if so did you choose any authentication system? Any support for OpenID or oAuth, perchance?

MF: We are planning developer keys but are still in the process of deciding whether to go Open ID or not.

YDN: How are you planning to deal with the amount of traffic that is very likely to be caused by the API access points. Is there a limitation per requests or are you thinking of monetization plans? If so, which?

MF: We'll impose some limits on the number of requests to a given service within a certain period. There may be a licensing model for commercial use but in general we plan to monetize these through increased traffic back to our site, not through licensing fees.

YDN: That is a bit of a crunch though, as using an API as an implementer to me means not having to send users over to the site it came from. Are you thinking of a Flickr-style agreement where you have to link back to the NYT, or does this entice more rigorous measures like only allowing for excerpts and asking users to click through to the full version?

MF: We don't envision exposing a full feed of all of our content that would give users no reason to return to NYTimes.com. But there will be different levels for different types of content. This is obviously a new area for us and we're going to learn and make adjustments as we go along to try to strike the right balance.

YDN: One of the features I am always sorely missing are read/write APIs. Are you planning to give developers write access? After all, this is a great way of piggy-backing on the success and relevance of other sites and applications.

MF: THe first APIs will be read-only. We're studying read/write and may experiment with that in the future, but I don't think it will be anything we will do this year.

YDN: Understandable, it is quite a moderation overhead. Talking of moderation, you already spoke about limits of access for a certain time. Are you going to track the use of the APIs and maybe offer implementers statistics?

MF: Yes, we'll definitely track usage. We haven't decided how much we'll make public yet.

YDN: How big is the team supporting the API initiative, and what kind of people are in the team?

MF: All I can say is this is a significant effort for us with many developers involved.

YDN: Are you planning to start a developer network to go along with the APIs?

MF: We would like to, yes, but our plan is to release a series of these APIs first and learn from the developer community before we formally establish a network.

YDN: What are the plans in terms of documentation?

MF: We'll have documentation for all the APIs and an area on our site where developers can discuss and ask questions.

YDN: We found that giving developers a place to help each other immensely successful, and saving us time in the long run. Are there
going to be open forums or a Wiki?

MF: Yes, there will definitely be an area on the site for developers to ask questions, and exchange ideas.

YDN: Will there be any events to go along with the release?

MF: We're planning a "hack day" at our new headquarters in New York for later this year or early next. We're working on firming up a date now, and should be announcing that in a few weeks.

YDN: Great! Will this be an open event or are you going to cherry-pick the attendees? Are there any pre-release invites planned? I always found that getting some people in early to have something to show helps a lot when going live and outside help sees things a lot different than when you try to make up examples yourself.

MF: Yes, we want to get some folks in early -- you'll definitely be on the list. But this is just coming together now. I think, just because of the physical limitations of the space, we'll limit attendance to no more than 300 people. But it will also be open to anyone who wants to come so long as we have room.

YDN: What's the timeline for all this? When can we fire up our editors to start mashing up?

MF: The first APIs will be released this summer with frequent new releases and updates throughout the year.

YDN: What kind of mashups and use cases are you looking forward to?

MF: I think the possibilities are endless, and I wouldn't want to bias people in any particular direction. Let's see what people come up with.

YDN: Indeed. Thank you very much for your time and we're looking forward to see what will come our way.

Marc Frons, 52, has been Chief Technology Officer of the The York Times Digital Operations since June 2006. He previously worked at Dow Jones & Co., where he was chief technology officer for its Consumer Media Group, responsible for online product development and applications. Earlier he was consulting editor for CNN Money and vice president and general manager of AOL Personal Finance. From 1995 through early 2002, he was editor and chief technology officer of SmartMoney.com, one of the pioneering sites for interactive news and data visualization online. Mr. Frons also held a variety of senior editor positions at Business Week. He began his career at Newsweek in 1979.