I really like David Weinberger and Dave Winer is clearly a leader in this area, but BOTH these guys have got to get specific.
Harping on about 'Open formats and protocols' and anything with the word 'future' in it - is a waste of time (IMHO) UNLESS: you get specific - you talk about exactly WHAT these new extensions are, HOW they work and WHO's going to create and help promote them.
Up until now we've been able to pigeon hole blocks of text into an RSS 2.0 feed, but the moment you start talking about 'writing for the web' - you're leaving out 95% of the people - who don't consider themselves 'literate', 'intellectual' or 'amateurs' at anything (except changing a TV channel or opening a beer.)
Writing for the Web to 'normal' people will mean the three R's: Resumes, Recipes and Reviews. And Calendar Events as well. For THESE new kind of micro-content stdnards to evolve, we need more than just token statements about 'open formats and protocols'. We need specifics.
RVW and ENT are all examples of SPECIFIC open formats and protocols - but what I can't understand is why Dave Winer or David Weinberger don't openly support and help these RSS 2.0 extensions succeed? Having OpenReviews or shared clouds of Topics - can move the blogosphere forward and 'down the pyramid - to a HELL of a lot of more people, then the current base of "literate' people.
The Shape of Blogging's Future.
| The Shape of Blogging's Future |
Dave writes:
Weblog software is going to be like mail servers. Lots of ways to deploy, every niche filled. For the masses, services like Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Blogging servers for corporations, inside and outside of the firewall. For schools, for the military, specialized systems for lawyers, librarians, professors, reporters, magazines, daily newspapers. The next President will have a blog. Writing for the Web, the prevailing form of publishing in the early 21st Century, will come in many sizes and shapes, flavors and styles. It won't be one-size-fits-all. Open formats and protocols will make this possible. I'd bet on the formats and protocols we're using now, RSS 2.0, OPML and the Blogger API.
Sounds right to me. (Well, the next president will have a blog but won't write it himself. [I'd say "or herself," but who are we kidding.]) Also, I don't know if Dave agrees that what we do with these blogging servers may not look all that much like blogging.
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Joho the Blog]
Back to Marc's rant:
Let's look at this another way. Dave put up an image of a postman next to his blog post. Unfortunately that image DOES NOT flow through into the Radio aggregatopr which I use - which is a Userland product. So Dave's own Manilla blogging tool doesn't support one of the most basic of all features - having an image be part of a blog post.
Next - the image of a postman I'm sure is meant to mean something about delivering data - comparing the old way to the new way. But when I see an image of a member of the 'working class' - I think "this guy is NEVER gonna blog, but he MIGHT post what his feelings are about the local car mechanic, his wife's hair dresser or MAYBE a local restaurant or resort they took their vacation at...."
Blogging just ain't gonna make it mainstream folks - admit it. Even Journals and Diaries are not something NORMAL people do. But Resumes, Recipes, Reviews and Calendar Events DO have a chance of going mainstream. That's why we need support for RVW and ENT. NOW. IMHO.
