Updated below: An interesting opening of sorts by NPR, which has been among the most progressive organizations online: it has launched an open API, which will allows user and developers to take NPR content and include and share on individual websites and blogs. This API will also allow the 860 NPR member stations around the country to incorporate more NPR news and info in their digital media products and services, and “establish a framework for eventually sharing their own content,” it said. Some of the external widgets that are using the API are here. More details on the API here on their own blog.

But there are some caveats and restrictions, as Mashable points out: The terms of use says that “API users may use only a limited amount of content from the API.” Also, the API currently excludes things like NPR Blogs as well as some very popular shows like “Fresh Air,” “Car Talk,” “This American Life,” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” not to mention anything dated pre-1995, when NPR.org was originally launched.

Updated: Andy Carvin from NPR explains why some of the major shows are not included, something that I should have thought of before…he writes in comments below: “The reason why shows such as Prairie Home Companion and This American Life aren’t included is because they’re not NPR shows. They’re among the many shows that are produced by American Public Media and PRI, and we have no affiliation with them...As for shows like Car Talk, Fresh Air, etc, that aren’t included in the beta release, it’s because they are shows that are produced outside of NPR and we haven’t secured the rights to distribute them online via our API.” That explains it..something TV networks also went through when they first started putting shows online; they could only use the network studios produced shows to start with and then started doing deals with other production studios later.