Seems like the author has stumbled upon SOA - this "content object" idea is basically just a restating of the "business object" from that philosophy. For more thinking along lines like this, I suggest reading up on SOA concepts. They perhaps aren't as widely applicable as the hardcore adherents believe (isn't this always true?), but they can be really useful in your bag of tricks.<p><i>note</i> - rereading this comment the first bit comes across as snarky, but I don't mean it as such. It's a good article and good concept to know, just trying to pass on other search terms for similar modes of thought.
Isn't this how pretty much everyone builds pretty much everything? I didn't know there was a way to build web applications without knowing what data they're based on...