XOXO & OPML & Simple List Extentions
There’s a lot of buzz around Dave Winer’s OPLM, an XML dialect for outlines. Wikepedia says:
[tease]
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines. Originally developed by Radio UserLand as a native file format for an outliner application it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators.
The OPML specification defines an outline as a hierarchical, ordered list of arbitrary elements. The specification is fairly open which makes it suitable for many types of list data.
XOXO (Extensible Open XHTML Outlines) looks like a solid competitor to OPML.
Courtesy of Microsoft, we also have Simple List Extensions “designed as extensions to existing feed formats to make exposing ordered lists of items easier and more accessible to users.”
Who knows which of these methods of describing lists will win? I’d give a slight edge to OPML, because Winer promotes it a lot. But on technical merit… you tell me. My hunch is XOXO is the crisp, clean and simple solution.
[via decafbad, Les Orchard] ]
November 26th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
I actually like Microsoft’s approach in that it is loosely coupled lists of lists instead of trying to shoehorn everything into the structure of an outline. What about the issues related to keeping that structure updated so it is remains valid and properly synchronized? Does anyone really understand how OPML and Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) will fit together? How long will it take for the community to agree on this? I suspect that OPML/SSE integration will never happen because Dave does not understand it and he will not be able to find recruits among his minions that will want to understand it. With RSS/Atom to model these lists of lists and XHTML to present and manage them as nested lists (or outlines), I am at a loss as to why we need another redundant format to complicate matters?