Summary
RSS is becoming a standard for content syndication on the web, although competing "standards" versions may be hampering it's growth somewhat, particularly with companies that are concerned about supporting multiple formats. (Updated 2/14/2004)

UPDATE: you can download the slides from this talk here. Audio recordings of ETech 2004 talks should also be available in a few weeks.

-- Elisabeth

RSS is becoming a standard for content syndication on the web, although competing "standards" versions may be hampering it's growth somewhat, particularly with companies that are concerned about supporting multiple formats.

RSS has a rather twisted version history (see xml.com for more), but it's clear by the number of commercial and personal websites that support one or more versions of RSS that it's becoming a defacto standard on the web. However, many content providers and aggregators still request and require non-standard feeds, sometimes based on a standard but modified to support extensions that supposedly provide some business advantage, but end up just creating the need to support multiple formats.

Internally to a company, however, using a standard like RSS for content syndication and collaboration can provide great benefits, especially with the repurposing of content. For example, internal feeds to populate a web site or that are generated for content parters can be repurposed to provide data for external, public feeds, or to provide data for other end clients, such as cell phones and other devices.

RSS can also be used as the basis for collaboration: sharing information and articles internally within a group or company via blogs is a great way to collaborate and share research.

I will be speaking about how Disney is leveraging RSS in content syndication, distribution and collaboration at the upcoming Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego, in February, 2004.

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About the Blogger

Elisabeth Freeman is an O'Reilly author and Computer Scientist. She recently left the Walt Disney Internet Group, where she researched development of video on demand on the internet, digital rights management, and content management. Her background is in programming languages and software systems, and includes creating a visual programming language and an interface for document management on the web. Her interests include writing, digital rights management, learning software, content based applications, blogging and community software, digital photography, the internet in all its endless transformations, and encouraging more women to get involved in the field of computer science.