RE: [syndication] An idea for RSS distribution - push it through Jabber!

["Jeff Barr" <jeff@vertexdev.com>]

Hi Dion,

Yes, let's think of a way to merge this. I definitely want to enable
the use of Headline Viewer and other RSS clients via the Jabber network.

I am stuck in LA today at a client site, but this will definitely be
on my mind today. I will return to Seattle tonight and perhaps we can
get something going in the next week or so!

Jeff;

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dion Loy [mailto:dion-yhoo@loy-fu.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 7:45 AM
> To: Jeff Barr
> Subject: Re: [syndication] An idea for RSS distribution - 
> push it through Jabber!
> 
> 
> Hi Jeff,
> 
> I was actually thinking through the same things yesterday. I 
> was about to start the design and class structure today.
> 
> My take was slightly different though, perhaps we can merge 
> the two efforts somehow, or bounce some ideas off each other ...
> 
> I was about to code up a Jabber agent, that would register at 
> a specific address, ie headlines@jabber.com.
> 
> Users logged into Jabber that wished to receive headline 
> updates, would send instant messages to this address to register, ie:
> 
> 1. 'subscribe Userland'
> 2. 'subscribe http://www.cnn.com/cnn.rss'
> 
> Now these would be 'fed' into the headline agent through 
> another publically available server (probably in XML-RPC/SOAP 
> format, maybe with the Blogger API ??).
> 
> You would register your RSS file under a 'keyword' (in 
> example (1) above, it would have been 'Userland').  The 
> server will store your RSS file and disseminate updates to 
> all those subscribed to that 'keyword'.
> 
> If the RSS is not registered, then the user would have to use 
> method (2), which would poll and aggregate RSS files for distribution.
> 
> We can scale this up by putting multiple datastores / request 
> handlers on separate machines even on different networks:
> 
>                      [jabber client]
>                              |
>                              |
>                      [Jabber.com server]
>                              |
>                              |
>                      [headline agent]
>                             /|\
>                            / | \
>                           /  |  \
>                          /   |   \
>                        [1]  [2]  [3]
> 
> Where [1], [2], [3] are the aggregator and data store servers 
> that hold the RSS.
> 
> In fact, the 'return' message, might not even have to go back 
> through the headline agent to reduce the bottleneck, we could 
> just IM the results directly from [1], [2], [3] to the 
> [jabber client] (it would come from a different address).
> 
> News publishers would send their updates to one [1], [2], [3] 
> which would communicate between themselves to keep their data 
> stores up to date.  These data stores would also be 
> responsible for polling for updates for specific RSS files 
> requested by users that are not sent in by the news providers 
> themselves.
> 
> Are we thinking along the same lines?  I was about to set up 
> a domain name today and start writing some documentation for 
> this idea. Or were you thinking of using Headline Viewer as 
> the Jabber client?  I suppose with the backend in place, it 
> really wouldn't matter or care what client it was talking to 
> as long as it's Jabberese =).
> 
> Thursday, August 23, 2001, 7:07:45 AM, you wrote:
> 
> JB> I have been thinking about the problem of RSS clients overloading 
> JB> news sites such as newsisfree.com.
> 
> JB> Then I read all about Dave Winer's work with XML-RPC and Jabber:
> 
>         
> JB> 
> http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/08/22#tunnelingXml
> JB> rpcW
> JB> ithJabber
> 
> JB> And then I read the following message:
> 
> JB>         
> http://wmf.editthispage.com/discuss/msgReader$5270?mode=day
> 
> JB> And when I woke up this morning I realized that we may have an
> JB> interesting solution. To wit:
> 
> JB>         What if we use Jabber as our distribution vehicle?
> 
> JB> It is based on XML, it is widely available, and the processing
> JB> overhead seems to be pretty low.
> 
> JB> Basically we would create a single "Newsfeeds" conference.
> 
> JB> Providers of syndicated material (or third-party 
> re-posters) would 
> JB> then post new messages into the conference. Each message 
> would be a 
> JB> complete RSS file. We could create multiple conferences to reduce 
> JB> the load on the client, but this is a decision we can make later.
> 
> JB> Clients would subscribe to the conference, and would be notified 
> JB> when new news is available.
> 
> JB> I have not thought this through all the way, but I think it could 
> JB> actually work. One interesting aspect of this is that it 
> would force 
> JB> the use of valid XML (you can stop cheering now, Morbus :-). It 
> JB> would obviate the need for clients to poll for updates. 
> And it would 
> JB> give us something akin to a real-time news feed, which would be 
> JB> very, very cool.
> 
> JB> We do gain a new single point of failure. If it turns out 
> that the 
> JB> servers at jabber.com are not reliable enough, we could consider 
> JB> running our own server(s).
> 
> JB> How does this sound? Is it crazy enough to work? Again I will
> JB> repeat my usual offer -- if someone wants to do the server side
> JB> stuff I will add experimental support for this to Headline Viewer.
> JB> Do we have a news provider ready to step forward and start posting
> JB> RSS to Jabber?
> 
> JB> Ideas, feedback, etc?
> 
> JB> Jeff;
> 
> 
>  
> 
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> 
> 
> 
>  
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