Re: [syndication] Digest Number 130

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

Hiya Rick --

On Sun, 24 Sep 2000, Rick Winfield wrote:

> Thanks for the info Ian, I had downloaded some of your older notes from a
> message on this list but will take a closer look at the newest info later
> this week (I need to finish up the syndication format/system I'm working on
> at work first thing this week so I can get examples to our partners).

Yes, more goodies should be up later in the week. It's a pity I have
a real job that keeps me from doing all this fun stuff ;-)
 
> Some quick thoughts:
> 
> 1) I'd like to see a format that is painfully simple.  Something like RSS or
> UserLand's new OPML format, something my HTML producer and project manager
> can understand and even create documents using.

Yes, simplicity is the big thing, as far as I am concerned. Our original
idea was to take RSS and try and separate the syndiation model from the
data model, so that you could 'plug in' new data models whenever you want.
That is still the intention, but it introduces soome problems as well.

> 2) It needs to be supported by iSyndicate and Screaming Media.  Whether or
> not these companies have the right model or what we think if them they are
> very compelling to a small content company like the one I work for and we
> plan to work with both (iSyndicate has their own very simple format and
> luckily, you can add things to the XML and they'll just ignore the extra
> elements).  Of course, with even a small amount of momentum behind a format
> both these companies would have to support it.

I of course would love to have that happen, but I also want to make sure
the language makes sense ;-)  

> 3) I'm most interested in syndicating web pages.  I read a lot about
> supporting different types of content but if that comes at the expense of
> simplicity I think it would be best to have a format for web page
> syndication and a different format for other content types.

That's one of the things we are worring about also. The main issue I see
is that HTML is not well-formed XML, so you can't just stick it in an XML
message and have things work. The two options we have though of are
(a) put the HTML inside a CDATA section (to escape it, so to speak),
or (b) use things like base64 encoding (and/or compression) to package
the data up.  Both are, unfortunately, non-simple.....


> I'm going to ask my boss if I can share our format (doubt it will be a
> problem, but since the company does officially own it, I better ask).

That would be great. My particular take is that this has to be an open
format, so it needs to be developed in an open forum. That helps to
build interest in the language, and helps to build implementations. 
Or, at least that's the idea :-)



Best --

Ian

> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <syndication@egroups.com>
> To: <syndication@egroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2000 2:32 AM
> Subject: [syndication] Digest Number 130
> 
> 
> > There is 1 message in this issue.
> >
> > Topics in this digest:
> >
> >       1. Re: Introduction and Opinion
> >            From: Ian Graham <ian.graham@utoronto.ca>
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________
> > ________________________________________________________________________
> >
> > Message: 1
> >    Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 11:38:30 -0400 (EDT)
> >    From: Ian Graham <ian.graham@utoronto.ca>
> > Subject: Re: Introduction and Opinion
> >
> > Hi Rick --
> >
> > With a colleague here at UofT (Toronto, not Texas) I have been pursuing
> > this direction for a few months now, and have posted some messages on this
> > topic on this group -- to little feedback unfortunately. However, we have
> > soldiered on, and now have some reasonable notes up online explaining the
> > issues as we see them, and providing some very early outlines for a
> > possible XML syntax.  The notes are up at:
> >
> > http://www.java.utoronto.ca/news/index.html
> >
> > More material (outlining the rationale for some XML design decisions)
> > will go up later this weekend or early next week.  I'm very pleased
> > to find others who are interested in this same issue, and look forward
> > to some fruitful discussions on more generic syndication issues.
> >
> > Ian
> > --
> > Ian Graham ............................ http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/
> > Information Commons  ........................ University of Toronto
> >
> > On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Rick Winfield wrote:
> >
> > > Howdy Folks,
> > >
> > > I've been lurking on this list for a couple months now.  I'm currently
> > > the CTO of a small web content company geared towards small businesses
> > > online called workz.com and have spent the last couple months building
> > > a content management and syndication (thus my interest in this list)
> > > system for workz.  After talking with a few of my colleagues about
> > > this whole RSS issue this afternoon I was inspired to follow Dave's
> > > advice and write an essay about my opinions.  I'll warn you ahead of
> > > time my opinions tend towards Dave's:
> > >
> > > http://rick.weblogs.com/stories/storyReader$46
> > >
> > > I'd love to see this list move beyond RSS and towards some more
> > > general syndication issues.  Looking forward to the continued
> > > conversation!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________
> > ________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
>