Why CouchDB is the File System for the Open Web

Jan's arrived, and we're getting ready to head out to the Palm developers dinner with Ben and Dion. I'm excited about getting CouchDB on that device -- because I got the same feeling first looking at the Pre's OS, as I did looking at CouchDB the first time. For me this means something. I'll learn tonight how they are following through with the endeavor.

Also, the fit is obvious. Talking points:

Local Data is King

• low latency
• client-side http server
• dedicated processing and rendering resource

Offline mode for free

• one app, shares JavaScript code across User Agent and CouchDB layers.
• replication solves the data island problem.

Lowest Common Denominator

• Porting existing Ajax apps to CouchDB doesn't require a full rewrite.
• Replication with other data backends isn't hard to do.

Challenges

• distributed identity
• document signing
• partial replication