Battle of the Blog

All is not well in blogland. A war is being fought over who should control the RSS format. CNN News reports.

Battle of the Blog: Dispute Exposes Bitter Power Struggle Behind Web Logs
by Festa, Paul. CNET News.com (4 August 2003)
http://news.com.com/2009-1032-5059006.html?part=dht&tag=ntop

Blogs, newsletters, web sites, and virtually any Internet technology that can use or produce a syndication service use a technology called RSS. RSS variously stands for "Really Simple Syndication," "RDF Site Summary," or "Rich Site Summary," depending on which version you're talking about. And therein lies the rub.

Dave Winer, of Userland Software fame and now a researcher at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, was an early developer of RSS. His message is one of staying true to the simplicity of the original format and to that end, he has frozen its technological core, preventing substantial changes to the heart of the format.

Winer's opponents are seeking a new format that would clarify RSS ambiguities, consolidate its multiple versions, expand its capabilities, and, not incidentally, fall under the auspices of a traditional standards organization rather than being controlled by the Berkman Center. Therefore, there are now two warring versions of RSS, one dubbed RSS 2.x and the other still in search of a name.

If you want to get up to speed, you should first start with the recently released RSS Primer mentioned elsewhere in this blog. Then pick an RSS reader (many of which are listed on the Weblogs Compendium website) and prepare to see the light.

Posted by Tom on September 19, 2003