Wednesday, January 04, 2006
RSS means syndication, not publishing
I just responded to an e-mail from a blog reader who was checking out the code for an ASP.NET 1.x server control I did that acts as an RSS reader. He asked something that several people have done in recent months - he wanted to know how to publish data to an RSS feed manually. I explained that due to the volume of information available through my company's RSS feed and synchronization concerns across platforms (changes made to data need to be mirrored in our desktop, web and mobile formats), I was reading it from a central source.
But amidst my typing I realized a growing problem: that some people are naively seeing RSS as the primary way to add content online.
It's critical to realize that RSS is a syndication technology, not one meant for publishing. More users still access the public World Wide Web than through aggregators (even though sites like mine get more RSS traffic than WWW requests). I realize there may be content producers out there who get away with RSS-as-publication-mechanism, and I don't doubt that some forward-thinkers may be developing creative solutions based on exclusive distribution through RSS/Atom.
But much in the way we've got to continue to develop WAP content even as mobile browsers get better, we need to publish formal web content and not neglect the core avenue of data distribution.
But amidst my typing I realized a growing problem: that some people are naively seeing RSS as the primary way to add content online.
It's critical to realize that RSS is a syndication technology, not one meant for publishing. More users still access the public World Wide Web than through aggregators (even though sites like mine get more RSS traffic than WWW requests). I realize there may be content producers out there who get away with RSS-as-publication-mechanism, and I don't doubt that some forward-thinkers may be developing creative solutions based on exclusive distribution through RSS/Atom.
But much in the way we've got to continue to develop WAP content even as mobile browsers get better, we need to publish formal web content and not neglect the core avenue of data distribution.
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Jason,
I am going to disagree with you here. I think you are mixing apples with oranges here. Publishing in an intent and RSS is a capability. You can publish things in any manner you choose and there are many uses for RSS besides realy simple syndication. RSS was built to scratch an itch. But that doesn't mean it should be limited to that itch. Don't forget that inovations often comes from using things in a manner they were not origionally intented to be used.
As for your readers asking how to publish manually through RSS, may I suggest looking at ListGarden RSS Feed Generator Program
I am going to disagree with you here. I think you are mixing apples with oranges here. Publishing in an intent and RSS is a capability. You can publish things in any manner you choose and there are many uses for RSS besides realy simple syndication. RSS was built to scratch an itch. But that doesn't mean it should be limited to that itch. Don't forget that inovations often comes from using things in a manner they were not origionally intented to be used.
As for your readers asking how to publish manually through RSS, may I suggest looking at ListGarden RSS Feed Generator Program
I see your point...good one. Again, I'm not doubting smart people are doing neat
But I'm seeing more and more people not in the know foregoing normal web publishing and diving full-force into RSS (without really understanding it), as a means of blindly increasing their traffic and avoiding aesthetic design. That's just bad.
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But I'm seeing more and more people not in the know foregoing normal web publishing and diving full-force into RSS (without really understanding it), as a means of blindly increasing their traffic and avoiding aesthetic design. That's just bad.
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