Sinclair Target unpacks the history associated with RSS, including the parts played by those like
Dave Winer and
Aaron Swartz. This includes the forking to ATOM. Having come to RSS during the demise I was not aware of the background, especially in regards to
ATOM, associated with the standard. (Although Cory Doctorow argues that Target focuses too much on the
micro rather than macro.) Its interesting to consider that its demise stems from the rise of social media. Ironically, I came to RSS dissatisfied with social media. Also, I wonder what happens if social medias promise fails? A return to
RSS or is there something else again in the development of the web?
I response, Colin Devroe argues that we need to stop talking about RSS and instead call it subscribing. Here I am reminded of Doug Belshaw’s work with ‘dead metaphors‘.
Chris Aldrich highlights SubToMe as a means of subscribing, while Jeremy Cherfas shares the way in which News Blur allows users to train the algorithm associated with multiple subscriptions.
