Foresight API & the future of Hypothesis

Foresight API’s functionality is likely key to our vision for the long-term success of Hypothesis. The notion of a new set of equitable and actionable data points that accurately represent a person’s understanding of the world is best manifested when those data points can be meaningfully acted upon outside—but still within the context—of the Hypothesis ecosystem.

For users and publishers alike, Hypothesis informs the world of one’s value, either based on Usefulness and honesty in the case of publishers, or based on intuition in the case of users. While these metrics are central to Hypothesis as a platform, they can be exponentially more meaningful as tools to be leveraged as both personal and institutional reputation-builders that have the ability to produce real value for their owners. We understand the uncertainty implicit in the introduction of such novel metrics, and that their widespread adoption relies largely on the extent to which Hypothesis achieves mainstream success. Ultimately, though, we believe in acting as a guiding force for Hypothesis, inviting a new, independent set of applications and feature sets to be built by third-parties using its Foresight API framework, either through integration into existing platforms or in the form of fresh innovation.

According to this philosophy, we maintain an interest in building constructive relationships with those publishers, developers and institutions who are committed to making use of the Foresight API in ways that run parallel to Hypothesis' core values. A world where stakeholders can profit according to these values is a world that Hypothesis was founded to build, and as such is dedicated to the development and maintenance of those tools that lead to its realization.