How to extend a website?

This is quite a concept idea. I would like to create a website that can be extend by different programmer a bit "a la facebook" Let's me explain i want to develop a very simple core application that for example would store images and i want to develop or allow external developer to develop web app that would be able to act on the image i can take this example of an OS that would store files and you can "install" different program for example to view the files or edit.

How can i reproduce the model in the Web / cloud plateform using API ?

I hope this ques开发者_运维知识库tion make sense to any body.

Thank you by advance

Web Services. Try looking up REST and SOAP.

The Semantic Web is trying to solve this by publishing structured data with common ontologies.

See this example, describing the user's photos as RDF, using the FOAF ontology: http://www.semanticoverflow.com/questions/201/describing-in-a-foaf-file-assets-of-a-user-photo-album-video-album-etc

The Semantic Overflow website is an excelent resource to find out more about the semantic web in general, and how creating webservices that use a common set of interfaces can allow a greater reach, because tools don't have to be specific to a website.