It's time to get together on RSS

Michael Gartenberg | April 27, 2004, 03:51 PM

Dave's right and it's a great analogy and very correct. I went to site the other day and there were links to all three formats. Does that make any sense to anyone (other than a proponent of a given standard). It's confusing as hell to novice users (who barely understand syndication in the first place). It's time for everyone to sit down and agree on something that will benefit everyone. Compete on the execution folks and not on the technology. A lot of the folks engaged in this debate will be in NY in June for the InternetPlanet show where we are doing a Weblog/RSS in business session. That would be a great time to get together for dinner and see what might come out of that. I'm happy to host... any takers?

At last night's dinner I sat across from an entrepreneurwho runs a company that makes content for cell phones. He told the story of WAP and WML and how they had splintered and reformed so many times, that now there are thousands of variations, and it's basically impossible to make applications that work over enough of the market to be economically viable.

This is a cautionary tale for the RSS community. When people say more formats, or varying practices don't cost, they are either naive or acting in their own interest, not ours. In all likelihood, RSS is going down the same path. But it's not too late to do something about it.

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