Jason Kottke has a valuable view on Web services and the Web as a distributed platform to assemble, splice and publish aggregated content components from multiple re-sources.

"...we need tools that create feeds and then let us combine them into web pages."

He correctly points to the multiple distributed services many of you are already using to store boomarks, favourite posts, images, files and to the growing ability to pull and combine such content together in multiple ways and across several output channels.

"a distributed data storage system would take the place of a local storage system. And not just data storage, but data processing/filtering/formatting."

He couldn't be more correct.

"...you let Feedburner "listen" for new content from all those sources, transform/aggregate/filter it all, and publish it to your Web space; and you manage all this on the Web at each individual Web site..."

Interestingly enough, Marc Canter provides good counterpoints to Mr Kottke statements and concludes:
"Have you heard of SXIP - yet?

The pieces of the puzzle are coming together - right in front of your eyes!"

Related articles:

• Open Media.org and associated Q&A
• Inventing The Future
• The Web As A Platform
• Standards Do We Really Need Them?
• Open standards: Principles and Practice
• Open Standard