Re: [syndication] Coming soon -- Syndic8.com...

[Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>]

Hi Jeff,

This sounds great! I've been thinking along much the same lines for a
while now.

My biggest concern is the control of the site; who makes decisions
about what stays and goes? We don't want to get into a situation
where a bunch of people contribute to what they believe is the common
good, only to have it mucked up in disagreements when someone has
other ideas (sound familiar?).

I've been going back and forth on this a bit; I don't think it should
be one person, but I don't think it should be a formalized committee
either. Any ideas? I don't want this to be a blocker for such a great
effort, just something to be considered up front.

Whatever happens there, I've been planning to work on articles about
syndication, etc., and would love to contribute. Whenever you're
ready, I'd be glad to talk.

Cheers & thanks,




On Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 06:13:57PM -0700, Jeff Barr wrote:
> Ok,
> 
> We've been talking about a way to organize our plan to
> evangelize the concept of syndication.
> 
> I registered the domain syndic8.com today (I know it's
> too cute, but I really like it).
>  
> After I return from vacation, I will put up a site that will 
> allow us to coordinate our efforts.
> 
> I plan to keep several interesting things on this site:
> 
> 1. A database of sites that are currently the targets of our
>    evangelization efforts. Each entry will be "owned" by some
>    user, who will be responsible for talking to the site, 
>    getting them to syndicate, and (if that fails) arranging 
>    for some scraping.
> 
> 2. A master list of syndicated sites. I want to have my own 
>    list and I want to have a dynamic monitoring facility so
>    that I can measure things like site availability, site
>    productivity (articles per day), etc. I also want to 
>    track contact info. The list itself will be available
>    in XML, and I am thinking about a cool XSLT-driven 
>    feature to allow users to create their own variants of
>    it. I am also thinking about a way to allow users to
>    extend the basic site list schema on a per-user basis.
>    That way, if I want to keep some information for my
>    purposes, I can do so without necessarily polluting 
>    anyone else's space. I should also be able to import
>    OCS into this list.
> 
> 3. A strong mission statement, and some articles on why it is
>    good to syndicate, and on how to do so.
> 
> Clearly, all of this is going to take some time to get going.
> I want to play the role of "infrastructure provider" -- I will
> set up the framework and deposit the data that I have, and
> then I want the community to supply lots of energy and data.
> I'll do my best to keep things running if everyone else is
> keeping the data pipeline full.
> 
> I'm going to need lots of help. I've got a brand new machine
> all set up and ready to go, and I should be able to do the
> PHP and XML without too much trouble. Beyond that, there will
> be more than enough room for you to contribute. I do want to
> have some mirror sites for the master list, since I do have
> to pay for bandwidth.
> 
> Certain parts of the site will be available to the public;
> much of it will be available only to registered users. 
> Registration will be free in exchange for your commitment to 
> help out in some way. There will be a set of user roles 
> that will grant read or read-write permissions on a per-
> user basis.
> 
> I won't be able to do anything besides thinking about this
> until late in the month, but I am already starting to 
> think that this is going to be pretty cool. I will be 
> traveling and almost certainly unable to respond to email
> for the next couple of weeks. I'll catch up when I 
> return, and then things will start to move!
> 
> In the meantime, think about the features that you would
> like, and how you are willing and able to contribute.
> 
> How does this sound?
> 
> Jeff;
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 

-- 
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/