Thoughts, questions, and issues.

[Ian Graham <ian.graham@utoronto.ca>]

I've read the RSS 1.0 spec.  As an RDF-aware extrapolation of RSS 0.9x
this is quite nice. However, I am looking for something a bit different:
namely, a syndication framework that can contain RSS-style data, but that
could also contain other sorts of data.  In particular I would like to be
able to distribute event descriptions (conferences, concerts, etc.), the
full text of some articles, and so on.

I've been mulling this over for a few weeks, and have some rough thoughts
on this model and its relationship to RSS.  To my mind, this would call
for a modular language that can describe the following classes of
information:
  
  * location data  - where the 'resource' can be accessed from
  * metadata describing basic properties of a resource (data type,
    last modified date, who is the author/owner of the 'resource', etc.)
  * metadata describing syndication rules for the resource
    data (when it should be displayed, how it can be redistributed)
  * descriptive metadata describing the content of a
    resource (the language it's in, keywords and category labels,
    etc.)
  * the resource itself.

Most of this information is defined, in a limited way, in the various RSS
elements or attributes. However, I suspect that by abstracting these away
from being tied to the RSS 'channel' model, and by constructing a suitable
XML framework for generic syndication data, we can make a more extensible
specification that can encompass RSS 0.9x-style data in addition to other
forms, and that can also allow for extensibility in the other metadata
regimes I mentioned above.

My model for doing this is still very rough, and I am already happily
stealing clever ideas from the new RSS 1.0 draft and adding them in.  The
current document is very rough, and a bit embarassingly so. However, if
anyone else is interested in pursuing this line of thought, I'd be happy
to pass it on.

Ian
--
Ian Graham     ................  http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/