The RSS Blog

News and commentary from the RSS and OPML community.

Dave Winer: Does Apple not read OPML subscription lists? If so, it's hard to say it's a podcasting client. Do they export subscription lists? If so, in what format? If not at all, that's lock-in, a Roach Motel.

Randy: First there was media RSS, which I ignored, it's both funky and vendor specific. Anybody think Microsoft is gonna release RSS feeds with Yahoo mRSS extensions? Of course not. That's why vendor specific XML extensions suck. They could have worked with the community and released an XML vocabulary in a non-Yahoo namespace, but they didn't. Some didn't ignore it. When the community accepted mRSS, I think the other BigCo's clued in. Last weekend, Microsoft released their proprietary XML extension and this week Apple released their totally funky and proprietary XML. As Tim Bray likes to say, it feels like 1994 again (not an exact quote). Has everybody forgotten all the browser extensions that led to 95% Internet Explorer market share. All HTMLs were so incompatible that Microsoft ran all the other browser manufacturers into the graveyard. I beg the community to ignore all vendor specific XML extensions to RSS. If we continue down the slope, then the iPod and iTunes will become the next Internet Explorer (maybe I should buy shares NASDAQ:AAPL). If the BigCo's want community support, point them to the Atom working group, the RDF working group, the Podcast Spec working group or the completely invisible RSS advisory board.

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