Update

["Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>]

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago at a dinner with Jeff Barr, I
wished we could add the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and New York
Times to the roster of sources syndicating in RSS. The next day a friend
sent a pointer to a public Web server where XML versions of the Times feeds
were being updated. What I saw was a perfect fit for RSS, but also an
interesting challenge. Their format, while transparently simple, would
require conversion before it could plug into RSS-based aggregators at
UserLand and Netscape and elsewhere.

On this page I describe the conversion, and point to a folder on a public
UserLand-run server where the RSS versions of the feeds can be found,
updated hourly.

http://backend.userland.com/nyTimesRssRouter

There's much more to say. The Times is doing it right, they're pushing links
to articles, following the grain of the Web; not pushing story content. This
builds flow for their site, and ad revenue, and allows them to add
interactive features at a single canonical location for each story. It's a
win for news readers and software developers, because with the Times flow in
the mix, we have news that covers the world and technology, the Times book
and movie reviews, art and education news, sports and editorial pages. This
is by far the broadest availability of syndicated content for a major
newspaper. So the Times is again a leader, not just in print, and on the
Web, but also in the newest XML-based syndication technologies.

Of course this raises the question "Is this appropriate?" and I've debated
this with myself and others over and over. I've attempted to contact the
Times, to let them know what we are doing. While they have not given their
approval, or responded in any way, the XML files are updating and remain
accessible. We are not disclosing their location or format. I see this as a
potential flow-builder for the Times, and a big boost for the developing
medium. While I hope the Times keeps these resources accessible, of course
it's their choice

Dave

______________________________
Dave Winer, UserLand Software
Daily notes: http://www.scripting.com/
"It's even worse than it appears."