nextthing.org

    Before they flew east, Alvy and Ed were apprehensive. They had heard strange things about Ross Perot from a credible source, Scott McNealy, the chief executive of Sun Microsystems, a rising young star in Silicon Valley. Scott talked about how he and Ross were supposed to meet at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to shake hands on a deal. The terms had already been negotiated by their people, but the two leaders had never met in person.
    At O’Hare, Ross Perot sized up the younger man and asked: “Are you married?”
    “No.”
    “Where do you live?”
    “California.”
    That was all Ross Perot wanted to know.
    He stormed away. The deal was off.

- The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

I heard this story awhile ago, but this is the only reference I can find to it in print.

With Flickr you can get out, via the API, every single piece of information you put into the system. Every photo, in every size, plus the completely untouched original. (which we store for you indefinitely, whether or not you pay us) Every tag, every comment, every note, every people tag, every fave. Also your stats, view counts, and referers. […] Flickr actually goes a bit farther, not only can you get your data out, but it gets enriched as it passes through the system. […] This isn’t the exhaustive list, just a few of the things Flickr does to respect, and collaborate with the people who share their time and data with us.

- Minimal Competence: Data Access, Data Ownership, and Sharecropping.

Anyone who writes a web service should be aiming for this. Anybody who uses someone else’s service that doesn’t provide this level of access should be asking why.