syndication and general communication with others out there...

["Mark Kraft" <insomnia@wco.com>]

The big move towards syndication is definitely ramping up, and it looks like
standards are being set by... guess who? Microsoft.
Case in point: http://radio.userland.com/ . The software allows a user to
"tune" into blogs using the same features Microsoft is using as the basis of
its .NET initiative; it also features a simple blog tool for posting
entries. An interview about this is at
http://www.webreference.com/interviews/winer/ .

It looks like the standard that both Microsoft and Userland are going to use
is XML/RPC.  a derivative of XML. ( see http://www.xmlrpc.com/ )  There's a
good article on it at http://www.webtools.com/story/TLS20010206S0004 ...
basically, once everyone else does it, we'll have to do it, or risk people
jumping ship to get more attention and wider exposure for their weblog
elsewhere. Already, the content is there. See
http://www.ourfavoritesongs.com/ ...

Also, Zeldman's site apparently added WAP support last week with no real
effort whatsoever, using this : http://www.webcorelabs.com/i_wap.html ...
it's free. Might be worth looking into.


What are your thoughts on all this? Hard to think of Microsoft cooperating
with anyone to develop standards to make anything work without having a plan
to take over the business later. Makes me wonder just how long it will be
before Microsoft bundles a syndicated weblog in every browser. Phhhhpbt...
m.