communicate :: collaborate :: commemorate

Really Simple Sharing

by Volker Weber

This is the kind of posting I hoped for when Ray announced the return of his blog. Apparently his brother Jack Ozzie and George Moromisato have worked on an extension to the RSS format to foster a very simple sharing of items and outlines between applications. Think Notes replication for RSS and OPML. From the FAQ:

Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) is a specification that extends RSS from unidirectional to bidirectional information flows.

SSE defines the minimum extensions necessary to enable loosely cooperating applications to use RSS as the basis for item sharing—that is, the bidirectional, asynchronous replication of new and changed items among two or more cross-subscribed feeds.

For example, SSE could be used to share your work calendar with your spouse. If your calendar were published to an SSE feed, changes to your work calendar could be replicated to your spouse's calendar, and vice versa. As a result, your spouse could see your work schedule and add new appointments, such as a parent-teacher meeting at the school, or a doctor's appointment.

If we now can agree on using this stuff, life could become much easier.

Comments

another example of wrong usage...
why not invent a whole new format? it would surely be better. I don't like the RSS format overall but I especially don't like it for sharing calendars - it's totally wrong IMO.
better invent something around RDF (wich is way cooler because it's not just a tree like XML but a graph where any node can be linked to any other wich IMO would be better for calendars and a lot of other things, too)

I like it, but can't see a way to enforce access control - who can read/update/create/delete items.

Couldn't you use something like a ssh 'known_host' certificate ?

My theoretical RSS/SSE feed only accepts 'modify' connections from other feeds when their certificates are in my known_host lists, and vice versa.

But that wouldn't work if you move around a lot using different computers, I guess.

"One of the great things about once again having an active blog is that it enables me to engage in discussion about concepts I’m excited about"

Is he still trying to wind me up? How can one "engage in discussion" when one doesn't allow comments on the blog?

Ben, it's called Trackback. You publish your comments on your site and post a trackback link on his.

Nobodies like me can have a relatively open comment section, but Ray certainly cannot. It would be an idiot magnet.

Right. Alas, now I am just waiting for trackback spam to ensue.

Re access control, maybe a way around it is to have the processor which applies the changes optionally prompt the user with a comparison of the old and new version of the document and request an accept/reject. If rejected, the feed would be updated to revert to the original again.

I think this is the start of us finding a better way to collaborate, not only among people at work, but everyone we communicate with. RSS isn't exactly the right tool, but it's a good start.

Ceci n'est pas un blog

vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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