This is the feedback I gave to Twitter as part of the hackfest. Sharing it here, hoping that we could discuss the idea further.
Lack of strictly defined data-types is going to be like a dynamic programming language. Every client will have to do it's own type checking. For example, an annotation currently specifies the location using latitude & longitude as : "location" : { "latitude" : 45.4, "longitude" : 15.2 } Now each client would have to check if the numbers are valid floating point numbers. What if you suggest a data-type to be appended after the attribute name? for example: "location" : { "latitude_float" : 45, "longitude_float" : 15 } Then, when the annotated tweet is being created, Twitter itself can check if the value conforms to the data type. So all clients can reliably use these types. Suggestions for data-types: int : Integer float : Floating point number url : A well formed URL -- Harshad RJ http://hrj.wikidot.com