A few days ago the Oatmeal person lamented that RSS was not a wave anymore. It's more like a big lake not a roiling ocean. People go boating, have a picnic, swim in RSS-land, but it isn't like a moon mission or even a Sting concert. :-) #
I responded that RSS could be fun again if people would work with each other. Instead of being in it for their own glory, only -- people have to see the benefit of other people and products winning alongside them. #
This is not the way tech thinks, or news. They all build self-contained castles. And very rarely do people work together. And that's why RSS stays where it is. Its growth feeds off collaboration.#
People don't know this, but RSS got its initial wave, the one you all remember so fondly, from a collaboration between UserLand Software and the New York Times.#
We're still coasting off the energy unleashed in that combo. That's how stuff like this happens. People still have the myth of The Great Visionary who sees the right path and leads us out of the wilderness. But that's not how it works.#
Instead, two parties with enough power and influence decide, consciously and deliberately, to work together.#
If you want to win big, put aside self-glorification and getting ahead for a brief moment, and focus on how you and someone else can break through, creating something that could never exist otherwise. For everyone, not just yourself.#
And if someone offers to work with you, think of reasons to say yes.#
copyright 1994-2021 Dave Winer.
Last update: Saturday July 10, 2021; 3:04 PM 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! :-)