RE: [syndication] RFC 2: Branching RSS

["Rael Dornfest" <rael@oreilly.com>]

Howdy,

: From: Aaron Swartz [mailto:aswartz@swartzfam.com]

: I want to thank everyone for their contributions to the discussion so far,
: and here's my proposal for the next step in RSS development. Comments are
: appreciated. Also as usual, I speak only on behalf of myself.

Much of what I write here is synthesized from my earlier posting:

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syndication/message/1704

: ** Freezing RSS
:
: RSS is declared frozen at 0.91. Everyone is asked not to develop any new
: formats with the RSS name. RSS 0.91 is documented through a collaborative
: effort on behalf of the Syndication list, based on Dave Winer's
: version. It
: will be put at a neutral address such as <http://purl.org/rss/0.91/>. The
: specification will maintain a copyright notice that allows it to be copied
: in whole or in part. It can include pointers to other branches of RSS

And this _must_ be done for 0.9 as well; there is a lineage here and to
ignore it is to leave lots of dangling wobbly bits.

: ** Branching RSS
:
: Both branches of RSS take new names, possibly RSS-Semantic (currently RSS
: 1.0) and RSS-Simple (currently RSS 0.92/3). These new names will
: be used in
: the rest of this document but that does not imply that these names must be
: chosen.
:
: The RSS-DEV Working Group will rename their spec and working group but
: continue to maintain the RSS-Semantic branch. They will encourage
: others to
: correct documents that refer to "RSS 1.0".
:
: UserLand will rename the format used in their software as well as the

I will once again reiterate the importance of having this come from the 0.9x
community.  The members of reallySimpleSyndication are a perfect start; drop
in some governance to afford ordered decision-making, and we have a
situation where both sides' interests are decently represented.

: current RSS-Simple specs. They will encourage other users of the
: spec to do
: the same. If an RSS-Simple Working Group is formed it will not use RSS as
: the name of its spec.

This group can simply change their name from reallySimpleSyndication to
RSS-Simple or whatever they decide is the right monicre.

: No party will extend RSS 0.90/1 with new features (new elements, etc.)
: without using a new name. Changes currently in use (such as
: removing element
: length restrictions, etc.) will continue to be allowed.

I'm assuming you mean that 0.91 is frozen per Dave's spec rather than
Netscape's.  While I'm not sure how clean a break with the past this is, I
leave this to the 0.91 developers (Userland and Netscape) to figure that bit
out.  There's more on this and credit in my other posting.

: ** Arbitration
:
: If there are disputes about this agreement, they will be arbitrated by a
: group of three active developers chosen from the Syndication
: list, one to be
: chosen by each side and agreeable to the other, and a Mark Nottingham, the
: founder of the Syndication list, will chose a third (possibly himself) who
: must also be agreeable to both sides. Decisions of the three-person panel
: will be made in a timely fashion and will be final.
:
: ** Acceptance
:
: If this proposal is not accepted by both UserLand and the current RSS-DEV

Again, the RSS 0.9x community.

: Working Group its terms are not enforceable.
:
: All parties agree to put the past fully behind us. Discussion of
: events that
: took place before agreement was reached will be off-topic on all
: three mail
: lists.

Save for learning purposes :-)

Rael