It's even worse than it appears.
Wednesday May 27, 2020; 9:08 AM EDT
  • On Twitter, Joe Pezillo says he's pretty sure Dave Winer (me) got the idea for RSS from Newton. He's also pretty sure I won't admit it. He's wrong on the first count, and right on the second. 😄 #
  • I wrote a tweet that was too long to fit in 280 chars that lists the steps that led to what we think of as RSS today. It wasn't an invention as most people think of invention, it was more of a synthesis, one idea leading to another and then another. #
    • It started with seeing Pointcast, being blown away by the idea. #
    • Then a guy from Microsoft wanted me to do something with XML, so I turned my blog into a feed.#
    • Then Netscape reinvented what I did.#
    • Then I said OK let's do it your way. #
    • Then someone leaked the XML feeds for the NYT to me.#
    • Then I repurposed them and published them so people could use them from Radio UserLand. #
    • Then they shut me down (they were nice about it). #
    • Then they let me have them for free.#
    • Then we turned them into RSS feeds. #
    • Then RSS took off like a bat out of hell! 💥#
  • And thus was born what we now think of as RSS. #

© 1994-2020 Dave Winer.

Last update: Thursday May 28, 2020; 8:50 AM EDT.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)