There’s been something of a ruckus in the geek/tech side of the blogosphere for a few weeks now that I’ve been loosely following, but not involving myself in (primarily because much of the tech bits go far beyond what my lil’ brain can handle).
To give a very loose summary:
- RSS (what the acronym stands for varies depending on who you ask) is a machine-readable text format that allows (among other things) websites to syndicate other websites content, and allows special programs called news aggregators to display many sites content in a single simple interface (I use NetNewsWire).
- RSS was created by, among other people, Dave Winer.
- Many people were not entirely happy with the functionality the RSS specification(s) offered.
- Many of these same people, rightly or wrongly, for various reasons, do not get along with Dave.
- Much drama regarding the RSS specification ensued.
- A group of people decided that it was in everyone’s best interest to create a new syndication format.
- Dave, rightly or wrongly, was less than thrilled.
- Much more drama ensued.
And that, more or less, brings us up to where we are now. If you’re curious about any of the details (and haven’t already been either watching from the sidelines or caught in the crossfire), a few Google, Feedster, or Technorati searches for various combinations of ‘dave’, ‘winer’, ‘rss’, ‘pie’, ‘echo’ and/or ‘necho’ should give you far more information than you would probably want in the first place.
Anyway. The Necho (as I believe it’s currently called) project is coming along steadily, and while it’s still being hammered together, Necho feeds are currently starting to pop up around the ‘net. I even have one here.
What surprised me while going through my newsfeeds tonight is that Dave, while he may come across as an ass at times, is certainly not one to sit on his ass while some new technological goodie comes across his screen (even if it’s one he’s not entirely thrilled with). He announced today the ~~first~~ second aggregator that supports Necho feeds (Fredik Lundh beat him to being the first). I have to say, I’m impressed.
The ~~war~~ ~~drama~~ disagreements may very well continue for a while, but Necho does seem to be picking up steam, and whether or not Dave approves, at least he’s lending his support. Even if it’s just “for bragging rights”, the support is there, and in the end, that’s a good thing.