Is anyone aware of / working on /interested in a simple, standalone
program that takes an RSS feed and e-mails it in text format as it's
updated (configurable, of course) to people that are subscribed to a
list?
If this were done so that it were independent from the feed source,
it would be an aggregator that most people would get - because the
'subscribe to this list, get our updates' kind of e-mail is precisely
what RSS is aiming to replace.
This would encourage publishers to make more data available in RSS,
because it fits nicely into their workflow, in a way that's
understandable. It makes the learning curve for getting users up and
running with RSS more gentle, and makes it easier to wean them to
more sophisticated aggregators (or they can use multiple aggregators,
which I'm becoming convinced will be necessary).
I'm imaginging something that one could interact with like a
traditional mailing list, as well as use like a traditional
aggregator (with a Web management interface).
Food for thought...
--
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/
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