Jeffrey A. Miller: E-Publishing Explosion

Blog Audio: Odiogo, FeedForAll, and TextAloud

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:34:15 GMT

iTunes decreases my blog consumption

After all this time, I'm finally blogging again. I think the issue has been the lack of time (other things are more important?) and the lack of motivation (i.e., burning desire). Oddly enough, I think podcasts have taken me away from blogging. Since I no longer use NewsGator and FeedStation to download podcasts (I use iTunes instead), I spend less time in my news aggregator. Oh, I still consume blogs, and I think that they're still a great innovation, but I'm not using them like I used to.

A twist on blog consumption: Text-to-Speech conversion

One new product that puts a twist on consuming blogs is Odiogo. It's software that will "audify" RSS content to create MP3 audio consumable by your media player or portable audio device. This is similar in concept to a combination of products I saw a while back: mixing FeedForAll, an RSS publisher, with TextAloud from NextUp.com. This combo allows you to create a "podcast" version of your blog. TextAloud also has other uses for text-to-speech conversion as a stand-alone product. Odiogo, on the other hand, combines an RSS aggregator with a text-to-speech converter in one product. The price is fairly accessible at $29.99. I may try it. There are some sample audio clips of Odiogo available. One thing I noticed is that Odiogo seems to offer only one voice (male). TextAloud, on the other hand, offers multiple voice options with a range of sampling rates from vendors including AT&T (Natural Voices), NeoSpeech, Cepstral, and ScanSoft (RealSpeak). TextAloud comes only in a Windows version and costs $29.95. FeedForAll costs $39.95 and is available for Windows and Mac. They have an interesting set of partners offering complimentary products related to RSS feed consumption, RSS-friendly web hosting, and podcast creation.

Conclusion

I may try the audio blog content option. Unfortunately, most of my podcast solutions involve a lot of manual labor to put it onto my player (my Palm Zire 72 with an SD card). The other downside is that the text-to-speech output can sound somewhat bland, causing me to zone out instead of actively listening. I'll put it on my Someday/Maybe list (GTD).

Don't like "Podcast?" How about "Syndicast?"

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:27:49 GMT

Some people are confused about what the term "podcast" really means. While it originally involved a reference to Apple's iPod, the term has expanded to mean much, much more. I heard somewhere that Microsoft was trying to find a way to refer to a "podcast" without calling it a "Pod-cast." "Blogcast" was the substitute I heard offered. However, that was only a rumor.

I think there's a better word, still: syndicast. Syndication and broadcast combined. Jason Dunn of PocketPC Thoughts describes several alternative names for podcasts in his article on Microsoft's site.

The problem with coining a new term and supplanting the old term is difficult. "Podcast" is already a powerful meme. I don't suspect that it will make much difference proposing it, but I couldn't keep a clever idea to myself.

And for another perspective, Chris Pirillo says some people think it's "not important": "This is Simply Smarter Broadcasting."

It's nothing more than Internet radio at its core, folks. It's audio, on-demand, that's easily synchronized with your computer system / portable media device...

Podcasting, or syndicated downloadable content, by whatever name, is definitely here to stay.

Podcasting Peeves

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:50:30 GMT

Michael Lehman's BuzzCast kept the music loop for the running for an entire ten minutes while talking to Jeremy Mazner about Microsoft's PDC 2005! Dude, kill the music! It's sooo distracting! Even worse than that, MSMobiles.com released an hour-and-a-half podcast rambling about cellphone news, with opera-style music playing in the background almost the whole time! Dude, the music has to go, and I'm not going to listen for an hour and a half. Sorry.

Michael Lehman and NewsGator podcast filtering

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:01:44 GMT

I searched for Michael Lehman today, after listening to the first Buzz Cast on MSDN's Channel 9. I found his Radio weblog. After browsing his list of podcasts I came across this one and left a comment about a typo. As I was typing, I decided to throw in this tip (reposted here for the benefit of readers):

I filter podcasts through NewsGator Online Edition. I subscribe to podcast feeds via NG online and review them occasionally. I pick the ones I like and save them to a My Clippings feed for podcasts. I am subscribed to that feed on my home PC via Radio Userland's news aggregator. Radio Userland downloads enclosures in the background at a configurable number of hours after midnight. The next day, the podcasts I selected are cached on my PC. This allows me to selectively download podcasts instead of wholesale downloading anything that comes across in the feed. Of course this technique means that the downloads are a little time-delayed, but I like the control.

Michael Lehman has a pretty cool radio voice. He can read fast too. Just listen to him give the contest information for the PDC event in the Buzz Cast! Michael's podcast, the Manic Minute is available on his Radio weblog via this feed.

Podcasting expands my mind

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:08:25 GMT

Ready or not, Microsoft is podcasting. ";->" [Scripting News]

This is exciting. I've said for a long time, that if I could get someone to read a computer book onto audio, that I would listen to it. Sure code samples don't translate to audio well, but a lot of the content could work. Podcasting (not just Microsoft's stuff) is a nice substitute, plus you get personality and flavor. You get to hear experts talk about technical topics and provide insights that you might not otherwise get to absorb quickly by reading blogs. I'm not trying to pigeon-hole podcasting to technical topics, but this is a great use of it for me.

Make Magazine Podcasts

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 01:46:25 GMT

After my rants about podcast content, I thought it might be good to point to O'Reilly's Make magazine's online blog, complete with an audio show podcast feed and del.icio.us links. I'm not that much of a geek (electronic construction is beyond me), but Make seems to have a lot of coverage on trends in electronics and technology. You can sneak a peek at how to run Linux on an iPod or a Greasemonkey script that reminds you to "get back to work you surfmonkey!" Here's another post about running Linux on an iPod. And here's a Make post on running DOS games under Windows XP. Thanks to Grady Booch for the Make link. Be sure to read the bit (and watch the video) of the Morse code vs. SMS text messaging contest on the Tonight Show. L-O-L.

Why Blog? Because Neil Cox Says So!

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 21:27:52 GMT

I like Neil Cox's content. I don't read enough of it, though, so I'm going to highlight some of my catching up here. Let me start off by saying that this is probably going to sound like I'm kissing up. Whatever--think what you want. In preparing for a presentation on a Drupal community website implementation for a ministry in Columbus, Ohio, I wanted to find material that would reinforce my recommendation that the participants start blogging. Blogging is great stuff, but explaining why to the uninitiated can be a challenge. After all, you don't want it to sound lame, right? To gather ammunition for my persuasion, I searched Google for the phrase "Why Blog." I found a few good hits, and I'll probably go back for more goodies. Ironically, though, I found Neil's "Why Blog" through other means. I was exploring the site, again in preparation for the presenation. I use his site as an example of a weblog that is relevant to ministry. It's obvious from the themes on his website that Neil enjoys making change happen. If nothing else, the names "Got Change?" and "Loving Change" should make that obvious. I can tell that he's making a splash in Indy, spreading hi-tech to ministries that need it very much. Next, Why Feed RSS to the Aggregators makes compelling arguments for why people should use RSS. He personifies news aggregators as the modern "secretary" (very funny, LOL):

Secretaries used to run the world. We all know that, right? ... But then came the information age, economies tightened, and we lost our secretaries. ... Our organizations failed. Global competition overtook us. Enron had to take shortcuts. Gas prices went up. Our dog ran off. Maybe our wife. Life was chaos without our secretaries. Well, baby... SECRETARIES ARE BACK! And they have voracious appetites for digesting & prioritizing information. In fact, now we've gone beyond calling them secretaries or executive admins, we now call them 'aggregators'.

Unfortunately, (and I know this is a stereotype), my aggregator doesn't take dictation or make coffee. :-) I haven't gotten to meet Neil in person yet. I hope to someday soon. We met through this wonderful medium we call the Internet, and he introduced me to someone who has become a dear friend and colleague, Jeff Koenig. Jeff K. was working just seven miles from where I live, and I would have never met him if not for Neil. God works in very cool ways.

RSS and Atom--There Is a Difference

Mon, 30 May 2005 21:43:34 GMT

I tried to leave this comment on the Loving Change weblog, but it doesn't allow anonymous comments, and I wasn't about to sign up for Blogger just to leave a comment. So here's what I would have written to my friend Neil Cox of IndyChristian.com from Indianapolis about RSS on his weblog:

Neil, Your weblog does not support RSS. It only supports Atom. Unfortunately, there is indeed a difference. I run a website for Paul Hoy of Halftime in Columbus. We use Drupal as the site platform. Drupal produces and consumes RSS, but it does not yet consume Atom. I was bummed, because I wanted to include your site in the feeds that I syndicate to the Halftime team. Your icons ( and ) say RSS, but the feed on your weblog is an Atom feed. And, sadly for both of us, there is a difference. Your friend, Jeff

Neil, if you read this, I'm not trying to be critical. I wish Blogger would provide RSS 2.0, but they decided not to. "Them's the breaks," I guess. For anyone interested, try searching Google for the "RSS Atom difference."

Item Hider Bookmarklet

Thu, 26 May 2005 21:20:34 GMT

Tahdah! (sp?) It's my first published bookmarklet, the Item Hider (see the next link).

jm - Item Hider *By the way, this bookmarklet opens up a new window with a dynamic web interface, so you will need to hold the <Ctrl> key while clicking the link in IE. In other browsers, you will need to allow popups for the current page or site that you are visiting (this is a pain :-( ).

It was originally just an experiment in writing a bookmarklet, but it turned into something very handy: a way to create your own printer-friendly page, no matter whether the publisher provides one or not! I was trying to print some content on Eric Sink's weblog about source control and configuration management. Unfortunately, his site uses tables and is not designed well for printing. The net result was that, when I printed, I ended up with all of the left-side navigation menu and only part of the right-side content. I was left guessing which two or three words were missing at the end of each line. I made an interesting discovery during all of this: when printing, Internet Explorer preserves the results of DHTML changes to the current document, even if they are the result of bookmarklet-appended code! In other words, my bookmarklet gave me the ability to hide Eric's navigation cell in the site layout. When I printed, the navigation was not included, and the output looked like it was designed to be printer-friendly from the start. Just out of curiosity, I also tested the bookmarklet and print preview preservation on Mozilla for Linux (Mandrake 10.1). The bookmarklet code worked there too! Very cool! The Item Hider bookmarklet is also good for hiding advertisements that you don't want to print. Save the ink and the paper! In some cases advertisements are included in <IFRAME> tags; in others, they are tables with embedded images. While I was on the track of hiding images, I realized that my code was searching for elements, not attributes. This means that any document element that supports the background attribute would not be affected by my image hiding. To some extent, this didn't matter, because most browsers don't print background images for tables or cells anyway--but I was determined to find a way to hide those as well. To address the issue, I constructed a way to "swap" attribute values, specifically the background attribute. When I swap the value of the attribute with an alternative value, I use the getAttribute and setAttribute methods of the element to write the previous value to a custom attribute. In this way, I was able to swap the background attribute's value with an empty string, thus blanking out the background as well. I'm so proud of my bookmarklet, I'm going to link to Jon Udell's weblog article about the library lookup bookmarklet so he might find it. Then again, maybe I should just link to Jon Udell's weblog in general. It's not very fancy, mind you. But I'm proud of it all the same, especially because it has a practical application.

Stephen, thanks for the mention, even under the circumstances

Sun, 22 May 2005 03:17:31 GMT

It was interesting to hear my name called out on your podcast. I wasn't trying to troll, that's for sure. I also thought it was interesting to hear how the topic came up--almost accidentally, as a side reference related to the very topic I wrote about. Radio Mike was mentioning Adam Curry's podcast content where "every ten or so words, he says 'F-you' or something...and it's like 'aaannnhh.'" That last word was as close as I could get to the spelling of the sound you make when you are unsure of whether you like something--you know, the so-so sound. In other words, Radio Mike's reaction seemed mixed as to the appropriateness of the language. Here's my point: I'm not saying that people can't say those words. All I'm saying is that some people don't like to hear them, thus taking away from their enjoyment of the content. And, since podcasts are, in most ways, public content, we should keep in mind how we would speak if we were in front of our grandmothers. Maybe the grandmother example doesn't totally fit, but I hope the picture is there. By the way, it sounded like you weren't clear on the part of the podcast I was referencing. The bit that I was referring to was the "Connection is down" song with "Holy S*** Batman! [garbled--Connection is down?]" and, later, "F***ing 404!" I have to say, the song was clever, but...well, you already know how I felt about it. At least I am listening. I heard a quote that says:

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
--Oscar Wilde?

You could probably change that to say "The only thing worse than being listened to is not being listened to." Well, it doesn't have the same ring, does it? But, again, I am listening. And I'm also learning: about podcasting, music licensing, and bluegrass music. So, when I do my first podcast, I'll have you to thank as an early example (not a negative one either). By the way, while I'm kissing up, I'll use this opportunity to plug a product that Stephen first informed me about, FMRadioStation (a.k.a FMRadio) for Radio Userland. Check out the FAQ. FMRadio does a good job of putting a friendly face on Radio, an application that is powerful and feature-rich, but not always friendly to users that want just a little more than the basic experience. Digging around in the outliner in Radio is not exactly the interactive experience I'm looking for. One of the features that I like about the product is that, similar to other news aggregators, it allows you to group news by source--something that Radio's web version of the news aggregator does not do by default. With Radio's news aggregator, you get exactly that: news. You know, like "Here's the latest headlines from all your subscriptions." But it's all mixed up. FMRadio does better at this without replacing Radio Userland--it's a good complement. Stephen was wondering how he made my "blogging short list." I added his blog, Blogging Alone, to my blogroll in June 2003 when he sent me an email message about FMRadio. I've been reading off and on since then. You can now find his podcasts (the Word of Mouth show) with Radio Mike at the Austin Podcasting Network.

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:10:36 GMT

Dan Gillmor moves to Drupal: Bayosphere.

Dan Gillmor is a prominent journalist, author and commentator on technology in the San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley), known for his technology articles in the San Jose Mercury. He recently left the San Jose Mercury to start a "grassroots journalism project", and it is finally here: it is called the Bayosphere and is powered by Drupal. Jay Campbell, Dan's Technologist, writes about why they chose Drupal.

[drupal.org - Community plumbing]

Mon, 16 May 2005 18:52:35 GMT

RMail - Receive the Feed for This Blog Via Email.

I'm such a big fan of RSS and newsreaders (I use FeedDemon) that I sometimes forget that not all of the readers of DennisKennedy.Blog use a newsreader or consume the RSS feed rather than visiting the blog on a regular basis.

RMail from KBCafe is a new service that allows you to enter the URL for the feed for this blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/index.xml) and your email address, and you will automatically receive my new posts by email. I still recommend using a newsreader, but this will give you an email option for subscribing to my RSS feeds and blog posts.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

[DennisKennedy.blog]

IT Conversations, .NET Rocks!, and the F-list

Mon, 16 May 2005 14:46:49 GMT

IT Conversations is a set of interviews and recordings featuring well-known technologists on today's hot topics. The shows are often hosted by Doug Kaye from RDS Strategies. It's good stuff. Here are just a few of the featured personalities:

Steve McConnell
Jon Udell
Tim O'Reilly
Rasmus Lerdorf

I also enjoy .NET Rocks, which is syndicated (but not officially endorsed) by Microsoft Corporation. My one complaint is that the interviews are not edited for language. I would certainly appreciate the occasional <bleep> over the F-word (with Adam Curry for example on IT Conversations) and the S-word. I'm all for free speech. And I can understand the want to reproduce content in its truest, rawest form. But still, if you want to pretend that you're on par with real broadcast journalism, a little more professionalism is warranted. Sure, the Internet allows more freedom of expression than other media. That is to be appreciated in some ways, but in other ways it can be detrimental. Here's my F-list (those who have used the F-word or some other vulgarity in print or in podcast):

Dave Winer

Adam Curry

Stephen Dulaney (I didn't hear him say it, but he syndicated audio content with it in his "Daily Audio Browse")
I did, however, enjoy his podcast about SXSW with the bluegrass music samples.
Update: Stephen picked up on my rant, and, to my surprise, he mentioned it on his podcast. It's always scary when someone picks up on your criticism. But then, that's another reason why this medium is so great.

Mark Miller via .NET Rocks

Rory Blythe via .NET Rocks (not the F-word, but he did call Mark Miller a d***-less ignoramous)

and, surprisingly? (or not), Dick Cheney, here and here. Dave Winer complained about people questioning his professionalism and responded with this graphic from Mike Donnelan "demonstrating it." I won't pretend that I have never used those words. I have. But I make a point of keeping them to myself, rather than, as some Christians are accused of, "forcing my views [or language] upon someone else." I have a hard time enjoying content from the above list because of the reason I mentioned. Yes, I know--if I don't like it, I can always go away. I will keep that option open.

Microsoft: Where's the feed?

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 15:43:17 GMT

Microsoft has certainly joined the blogosphere in a big way, whether it's the famous Scobleizer or a host of developers (onsite and offsite). Much of the MSDN content is available via RSS. Ironically, however, a visit to the MSDN Blogs page, which lists the most recent blog posts from the MSDN Microsoft clan, fails to turn up the famous XML () or RSS () images. In fact, I have yet to find a master list of RSS feeds on Microsoft's website, although this FAQ about blogging and RSS/Atom points to some helpful feeds and resources. A Google search turns up a page of Microsoft PressPass RSS feeds and a Security Updates page with this feed. I did find a couple of RSS feeds on the Architecture page and a link to a list of architecture-related blogs, but again without a group RSS feed for the list of blogs altogether. You have to visit each blog to find the RSS link. Simon Guest's black-on-blue RSS link is hard to see, demonstrating the disadvantage of diversity in weblog layout. My best guess is that the URLs just map to the blog software of choice for each author (ain't the web grand?). I did unearth a very cool gem while digging through the MSDN blogs, though. Jack Greenfield's blog pointed to a blog by Grady Booch! Talk about cool! I'd only heard legends about the guy, you know, Booch Notation, the "Three Amigos," UML, Rational, etc. He has a blog--how cool is that? And he also has a picture, which I think I will add to my mugroll. Then there's also Martin Fowler's "bliki", or in his words:

A cross between a blog and wiki of my partly-formed ideas on software development

I need to come back to absorb the essence of his bliki approach to publishing. Fortunately, his hybrid approach still offers an RSS feed. And, of course, Martin has a picture too. Bottom line: Microsoft should make it easy to find RSS feeds on their site, including a link on their site map. Update: I found (after much searching) a page which lets you search the Microsoft site blogs. It serves up RSS feeds and OPML for categories of blogs.

Mugroll

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 19:34:32 GMT

I was thinking--wouldn't it be neat to display small pictures (when available) of the persons listed on your blogroll. We could call it a "mugroll". It would be a similar concept to the custom icon displayed for the website and/or bookmark for a website. Now, there's always the question of how to standardize and automate such a project. Would you force a specific filename on a website like /robots.txt does for search engines and bots? Maybe a standard-sized (what dimensions?) PNG, GIF, or JPG file called /aboutme.png. I think requiring a specific path could help automate harvesting, but it might be too restrictive for more complex scenarios than a single-author website. Or maybe we could add an optional <authorpic> element to the various syndication feeds. And what about a multi-author blog? Could you have an OPML file with authorpic entries, one for each author? Just rambling here. Would it be OK to reference graphics on the author's site? Or should we snarf it and host it ourselves to save the author's bandwidth? Maybe we could add some kind of new HTML META or LINK tag that points to the picture. Oh, and by the way, to get the "mug" rolling, here's my mug (in no standard dimensions):

A gem

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 19:16:39 GMT

This is a very simple post here, but I like Sam Ruby's bit of wisdom in response to Depak Alur's apology for being "inexperienced" in the blogging world, expressed in a comment thread on Sam's blog:

As near as I can tell, there is no right and wrong here. Everybody approaches the "blogosphere" differently.

I have been part of the blogosphere in some form or another since late in 2002. I have tried many times to keep up with the "A-listers," but time and life have beaten me many days, so my reading and writing frequency has been less than admirable. But, as Sam asserts above, that's OK.

The Blogging Guru without an XML feed

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 18:31:07 GMT

I've been spending a lot of time lately cancelling email newsletters and switching to RSS/Atom feeds. A friend of mine referred me to Hugh Hewitt's website to look for interesting blogs. I looked and looked (around 5 minutes, including a Google search of his site) and found zero mention of a feed except his confession that someone else complained that he doesn't have one (via BeliefSeekingUnderstanding Update: now moved to "Apprehension"):

When, oh when, is Hugh going to get it about RSS feeds? There is no stinking way any person could read the number of blogs mentioned at the end of the book without one. Furthermore, he doesn't have a feed of his own, which is a total pain in the neck for his readers. I commend Hugh for being in front of the curve for getting the blogosphere, but it makes no sense that someone who gets the blogosphere doesn't get feeds and aggregators.

(emphasis mine) Here's an excerpt from my email to Hugh:

I took a brief look at your website after receiving a referral from a friend. Try as I might, I could not find an RSS or Atom feed anywhere. I did, however, find an ad for a book on blogging that *you* wrote. Why, oh why, if you are a blogging expert, can I not find an XML feed for your blog? I would like to learn more about what you have to say, but if I have to visit your site frequently, I'm not interested. That's not how I use the internet anymore.

Here's the kicker: he wrote a book about blogging. The guy's a published author on the very subject in question, and he doesn't have a syndication feed. How do you think the blogosphere has taken off so much? I don't think 100% percent of the blogging and/or blog-consuming public sits around all day clicking through their favorite websites. No, they have their digital news delivered to their digital door using pull-based syndication technology. How could he miss that? If he didn't miss the RSS wave, then how could he underestimate its importance so much as to exclude it from his own blog? I'm not sure, despite the good reviews (and I'll even use his Amazon link so he gets commission), that he carries enough credibility (I'm sure the pundits/A-listers out there will disagree) for me to buy his book. His book is called Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World. But he doesn't understand. Not really.

Sweet! RSS Calendar

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 20:27:25 GMT

Check it out: www.rsscalendar.com Set up your calendar as an RSS feed.

BlogWiki

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 19:13:48 GMT

Richard Hall over at connexions has started BlogWiki, a wiki about, what else, blogging. There are some interesting tidbits in the works, but much more can be done. Let's help out and contribute to the effort. I've already edited a page, DesktopBloggingClients. Here's a thought, how about some external links to the software mentioned on the wiki? I like his comment:

This wiki has been set up to enable bloggers to share information and advice and provide a forum for the discussion of blogging issues. Of course, this already goes on in blogs themselves, but it's in the nature of a blog that discussions quickly "drop out of sight". On a wiki this doesn't happen.

(emphasis mine) On wikis, the discussion is maintained in the "Perpetual Now" where a conversation is fluid, evolving, and represents the current state of affairs.

Fight Spam with a Spider Trap

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:12:59 GMT

Fight Spam! Click Here! Here's more information on Spider Traps.

Cool Upcoming.org features

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:54:44 GMT

Upcoming.org has some interesting features:

US "Metros"--cities with events

Upcoming.org's limiting policy

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:38:04 GMT

Upcoming.org has some interesting features, but by its own words, its use is limited:

Upcoming.org is not for self-promotion, either by a single organization (e.g. a political candidate, artist, or band) or a single venue.

Also, Upcoming.org is not for personal events (e.g. birthday parties, weddings, Little League games). If your event isn't of interest to the public, please don't add it.

I would love to use functionality like that of Upcoming.org for syndication of themed events, but its policy prohibits that. And, as far as I know, its functionality is not available in other forms. Well, its feature set is compelling and worth imitating for a calendar syndication application.

Response to OpenEvents

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:19:52 GMT

I know I'm following an old, cold trail, but here are some comments I found on the OpenEvents [standard?]

I have never heard of it, seen it in action, or seen any kind of spec on what it is or what you think it should be.

[Christopher Schmidt]

Anything to solve the current calendaring hell. I'm all for the "conversations" that blogs are enabling, but at the end of the day, sometimes I just want to meet people face-to-face. It's a higher bandwidth form of communication, plain and simple. We definitely need something akin to web RSS syndication for events (whatever happened to RDF calendaring?) - assembling centralized event sites make no sense.

[Brendon J. Wilson] Hmmm...centralized event sites? Well, they have their place, as long as they are well-themed and focused. But I think Brendan would agree that we should have lots of them--select the ones we want. My goal is to have a centralized event site that offers a standardized client or clients. I want Outlook integration, web accessibility, and extensibility. Is this possible?

ESF - the Nonexistent Format?

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 02:06:06 GMT

ESF seems to have fallen off the radar. Or has it? The real question is, has it been adopted? And the next question is, what ESF clients/tools exist? There was some discussion by Jeff Julian and John Bristowe of a NewsGator extension, but it seems to be MIA. Then there is another XML format of unknown weight--the RDF Schedule format. My goal is to integrate syndicated event information into Microsoft Outlook. Is there an existing way to do this? There is the vCal format for sharing appointments, and its cousin, iCal. But these solutions all involve a multi-step pull operation via email. This is where RSS excels. You don't have to sign up on an email list. No spam! ESF gets a few hits on Google (around 67,000 as of today). I still need to research more to find tools for ESF. But if ESF is as obscure as some reports, maybe ESF is not right for the job. Is anybody still working on it? Here are the sponsors of the standard:

We'll see. I left a comment on John's blog with a question about the status of the briefly-celebrated NewsGator extension. I first got excited about it when I saw Jeff Julian present it in Columbus, Ohio at an INETA user group meeting. It had me drueling! Well, maybe not drueling, but certainly excited. Update: Jeff Julian says this is the "Year of the Event." He points to an updated ESF/ESS spec. The other competitor for event syndication is the OpenEvent specification.

Radio doesn't get it

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:27:07 GMT

Guess what? NewsGator will take Evolution's feed, but Radio UserLand won't. I don't get it. Radio usually supports just about every conceivable format.