RE: [syndication] blogs and syndication

[dave.cantrell@gunter.af.mil]

>I'm hitting a problem that I feel the need to share. It's all related to
>blogs and how they can or should be syndicated. And then how this
>relates to RSS. 

I've come to two conclusions:

1. RSS is inadequate for this problem.

OR

2. The people creating the RSS feeds are not complying with the spec.


#1 is not necessarily true, as those who write to the spec have feeds which
work just fine. However, #2 is not fair because writing is a very fluid
process, and should not be constrained in such a way. We could ask people to
add semantics to their writing (a la span kludge), but that interrupts the
flow -- another reason I like Wikis [1] more and more. But if you think RSS
from a weblog is bad, just try getting it from a Wiki... :)

Maybe we need to re-evaluate the entire approach, starting with the
requirements. It may be as simple as modifying or adding a couple of things
to the spec, but nobody will know until the analysis is done.

Here are my questions:

1. What need(s) does RSS address, i.e. what are the requirements that
generated post-0.91 RSS (since we all know about 0.9 and 0.91)? And for that
matter, which version(s) of RSS addresses which need(s)?

2. How can RSS be used to address the "new" needs? Can it even be used for
this? And I don't mean the "it's a semantic web thang, you wouldn't
understand" answer, but a real, valid, simple answer that can help folks
like Mike and Julian (and me!) solve these problems.

Ciao,
-dave