I am often the only person out there reminding people that it's important to know why podcasting, for example, is so open. No platform vendor controls it. Most people who do podcasting don't know why they can do it without Apple's approval, or Google's or Spotify. Yet RSS gets no credit for it. And that hurts other efforts to create open architecture for the web. People don't see the benefit, but it is there. #
"Listen where ever you get your podcasts," that's the key. That's the sign that we won.#
RSS is a huge success for lower-case "indie web."#
Honestly, the lack of support for RSS is one of the reasons I'm disinclined to embrace the standards they promote. Maybe if I understood why this is the case I'd feel better about seeing myself as part of this group.#
Same with OPML. With the Tools For Thought market getting so much investment now, many millions of dollars, how that market evolves, whether it's a bunch of silos, or an open ecosystem, is up for grabs. I love outliners, been making them all my life, but again, when it comes to promoting open formats and interop, I'm pretty much out there on my own. I've more or less given up on this one, at least for now. But it's a huge deal for the future. #
Last update: Tuesday October 18, 2022; 11:00 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! :-)