Comments on: How Barack Obama Uses blist

By: The World A.T. Ways » In which I’m in new web blist

The World A.T. Ways » In which I’m in new web blist — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:36:11 +0000

[...] it’s a good read, right? In any event, blist really peaked my curiosity when I heard that the Obama-Biden transition team used blist for their Change.gov site. So I checked out blist and was taken by its ease-of-use and robust functionality. Currently there [...]

By: Mike Farrow

Mike Farrow — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:22:40 +0000

Are you planning an api in the future?

I love your product and would be interested in building other products around it, giving people the ability the query the data in an ad-hoc manner.

I would want to be able to get at the data and the data definition in an automated way and further down the line be able to update it.

Warmest regards, Mike

By: Jane McCarty

Jane McCarty — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:47:30 +0000

Thats really huge. Any service would appreciate such opportunity.
Out of curiosity I checked how other major services would handle the task blist is responsible for right now.

http://webappsatwork.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-else-wants-to-be-chosen-by-obama.html

By: Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:59:19 +0000

@Oliver Travers:

We do have a CSV export feature; as you say it’s incredibly important to be able to get your data into and out of blist easily.

Thanks,
Matt

By: Barak Obama using a Flex Application on Change.gov | Ryan Stewart - Rich Internet Application Mountaineer

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:08:30 +0000

[...] of your political leanings, this is pretty cool. Change.gov is using a Blist spreadsheet on the donor page. blist has two great things going for it. One, it’s among the coolest Flex applications out [...]

By: Jonathan Beall

Jonathan Beall — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:53:47 +0000

I had this pointed out to me just before I saw this entry. Nice work!

By: Spreadsheet startup blist shares list of Obama’s donors » VentureBeat

Spreadsheet startup blist shares list of Obama’s donors » VentureBeat — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:47:00 +0000

[...] where President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition team can interact with constituents, just unveiled a neat tool using startup technology — through blist, the simple database for non-experts, the team is sharing its giant list of [...]

By: Marcelo Calbucci

Marcelo Calbucci — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:46:10 +0000

Congrats Kevin, this is awesome!

By: Olivier Travers

Olivier Travers — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Interesting to see Blist used by a large scale “publisher.” What’s the way out in case Blist changes its business model, goes bankrupt, or any other reason why a publisher might want to change what they’re using to handle such lists? Some sort of CSV export I presume? As a publisher I tend to look as “my way out” before I’m going to really consider embedding third-party software to deliver functionality (if it’s something I want to offer to my readers on a long term basis, not just an adhoc one-off add-on).

In the mapping world for instance, there’s the Mapstraction library. I think it would help adoptions if some common standards pre-empted (at least to some extent) vendor lock-in in the online database/spreadsheet world (i.e. it needs to be reasonably painless to move from, say, Blist to Zoho or Dabble DB if need be). I mentioned CSV import/export, and no doubt data portability is a start. But how do you preserve *functionality* from web app to web app?

By: Jordan Mitchell

Jordan Mitchell — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:28:02 +0000

Pretty darn cool Kevin. They paying you?