Re: [syndication] "Narrowcasting" RSS

["Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@hotmail.com>]

> On a related note, one of the things that I'd like to see is RSS to be
> offered as a more dynamic, customizable feed in other contexts as well.
> For example. Slashdot allows users to customise what categories they see,
> but the RSS feed is just a firehose of whatever's published. RSS is just
> another format that's more machine-digestable than HTML; when the content
> is list-based, it should be available in both representations.

Search for Rael's work on Meerkat and it's parameter setups.  This is well
plowed soil here.

I'm in favor of parameterized RSS URLs being used to focus the content.  I'll
offer the opinion that attempting to use it as a means to "filter out" something
will undoubtedly end up losing something you'd rather not miss.  The
ability/reliability of people applying effective metadata (like categorization)
on items is still a very problematic area.  Fundamentally people don't generally
see the value to expending the effort.  Everyone wants categories but nobody can
decide which are truly relevant.  Even less are willing to expend the trivial
amount of energy to click even single checkboxes that would help others get a
grip on the content.  Of course, synthetic metadata is often worse...

-Bill Kearney