A few days ago, I read that Dave Winer had offered the W3C the keys to RSS if Atom goes to the IETF. Today, I'll indulge in wild speculations on the subject.

First, why would Dave make the offer? The source quoted Dave as saying:

1) He didn't expect they'd accept the offer.

2) He...
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The Atom syntax mail list has been busy recently. Issues that were discussed at length (long before I got involved) have been reopened, and if previous decisions are overturned, big changes may be in store. I heard that the size of the mail list has ballooned significantly since the push to join either IETF or...
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A proposal was added to the Atom wiki this morning for drastically simplifying the options for what types of content can appear in an Atom feed. My first reaction was, "Woah! Let's not hamstring the format!" But the more I think about it, the more I like it. The proposal suggests limiting content constructs, whic...
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I just got back from a long weekend at Zion National Park, and spent a few hours catching up on 'net reading. I started downloading email and saw that I had 260 messages coming. Ugh! Maybe I should take another vacation. 130 or so were SPAM, and were automatically shunted off to a junk mail...
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When one installs a newsfeed reader, it often comes with a default set of newsfeeds already subscribed. As feed readers get integrated into operating systems (or should I say, operating environments), or begin to come pre-installed on computers, the opportunity arises to do some very good things using the default subscriptions. I have a dream...
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Discussion on the Atom syntax mail list has hilighted an issue: sometimes the entries in a feed share certain information with the feed they appear in, but sometimes they don't. And a related issue: sometimes an individual entry travels by itself and needs a way to carry information inherited from the feed along with it....
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This morning, I decided to do a little reading to better understand what RDF is all about. A quick skimming of the RDF Primer told me what I felt the need to know, in particular, what is meant by "triples". Triples are a way of writing down RDF statements as a subject, predicate and object....
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RSS and Atom are both XML-based formats. One of the complaints many Atom advocates have about RSS is that it has become commonly permissible for RSS feeds to be invalid XML--RSS readers compensating for a variety of errors made by publishers. Not all in the Atom community advocate cracking down on invalid feeds, but promoting...
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Every time I hear someone suggest the idea of using an RSS client to access their email, it boggles my mind anew. I can understand people casting about for a solution to the problem of spam (and the flood of legitimate email some people receive, for that matter), and the fact that newsfeed items disappear...
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The latest issue to arise on the Atom syntax mail list could almost have been inspired by my entry two days ago: Should Atom handle today's problems or tomorrow's? The question is whether to create a group within or connected to the Atom community (or whatever standards organization Atom goes with) to keep an eye...
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