OPML 2.0 Announcement
March 1, 2006Late last year I wrote a series of RFCs and guidelines on the main OPML website, ideas for improvement of the format and the documentation for OPML. They were extensively discussed and refined. In February all this work was rolled into a new format and spec, called OPML 2.0.
Announcement
Today the public review of OPML 2.0 begins, with the publication of the DRAFT spec and the opening of a mail list for the purpose of reviewing the spec. A very small group has been reviewing the spec privately for about 24 hours prior to the public review, to be sure that there weren’t any easy to correct mistakes or omissions. There were, and they were corrected, thanks to the group for their expert advice. The full record of the review is available in the (public) archive of the mail list.
Perspective
OPML 2.0 is a milestone, much like RSS 2.0 was in the summer of 2002. We now know how OPML is being used, and where the problems are, and I think are ready to produce a frozen and extensible format and spec.
With the OPML Editor approaching version 1.0, it’s now time to get the ball rolling on the format that comes after. The editor will likely not ship with full support for 2.0, it should be able to read 2.0 files, but it will not write them. There’s too much of a bootstrap in front of that happening.
OPML 2.0 adds some important features, notably the include type, ownerId, support for namespaces, several common nodetypes are documented, and a host of niceties, and it finally has a unified spec. I’m confident that this is the OPML we’ll all want to build on later through 2007 and beyond.
About the public review period
I believe the format is largely finished, subject to review, but the spec certainly is not. I’m sure there are mistakes, oversights, missed opportunities, things that require clarification. All the caveats apply, esp Murphy’s Law.
This review period will be leisurely, possibly as long as 60 days. I look forward to lots of interesting and collegial discussions, and lots of new applications for users.
Pointers
Here’s a pointer to the DRAFT Specification:
And the review mail list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opml2-review/
Here’s best wishes to all of us that OPML 2.0 will be a great engine for growth in our industry and the art!
Dave Winer
Scripting News
PS: OPML 2.0 is easy to understand if you’re intelligent, have common sense and are patient. It’s really simple. I explain, in this podcast, why the improvements in OPML 2.0 will help users.
March 1, 2006 at 7:51 am
[...] Announcement: “Today the public review period for OPML 2.0 begins.” [...]
March 1, 2006 at 8:07 am
[...] OPML 2.0 has just been announced, so this is an obvious topic for a session at the camp. [...]
March 1, 2006 at 8:36 am
[...] Here, by Dave. [...]
March 1, 2006 at 9:22 am
[...] Dave Winer released a new format and specification document today for public comment called OPML 2.0. [...]
March 1, 2006 at 9:24 am
[...] Dave Winer moves to California and has been an innovation machine. He’s been on a mission as he said to me one night at a geek dinner..”I have a lot of irons in the fire”. One of them OPML has been released for public review. Here is a pointer to the draft. Alex Barnett links to it as well. [...]
March 1, 2006 at 10:39 am
On OPML 2.0
OPML 2.0 is out.
“We now know how OPML is being used, and where the problems are, and I think are ready to produce a frozen and extensible format and spec.”
Yep, we do know how OPML is being used. Information grazing is a big part of it…
March 1, 2006 at 11:26 am
Good luck with this! I am especially interested in OPML files for nonprofit organizations. I think it’s pretty exciting stuff.
March 1, 2006 at 12:11 pm
[...] Dave Winer announces OPML 2.0 and a public review period. I’m glad to see he has a community review process in place. It will be interesting to watch the results, and see if the widely-discussed problems of OPML are addressed. Posted in Technical | | Trackback URI [...]
March 1, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Oops escape this!
Is <cloud> deprecated?
March 1, 2006 at 12:45 pm
[...] Dave Winer has released an OPML 2.0 spec for public comment, if you’re interested. I have to admit, I am perplexed by his statement “We now know how OPML is being used, and where the problems are, and I think are ready to produce a frozen and extensible format and spec.” Isn’t adoption just starting and likely to take off in all kinds of unexpected directions? [...]
March 1, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Cool! Congratulations on a new spec.
I’ve been working with reading lists lately, and there’s two HEAD elements I’d really love to see (presumably in a namespace):
DESCRIPTION: A human-readable description of the OPML reading list.
LINK: A link to a site associated with the reading list.
These elements would allow aggregator authors to send flow to people who make reading lists, which seems like a friendly thing to do. (These elements would work like the corresponding RSS channel elements.)
Would these be good elements to put in a namespace?
March 1, 2006 at 3:03 pm
[...] Dave Winer has revealed the draft of the OPML 2.0 specification. Woo! [...]
March 1, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Joining the review list!
March 1, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Would the OPML Editor be able to parse the namespaces if linked accordingly in the header?
I’d rather have the textual content stored in an outline format than an attribute format. So having <mynamespace:OPML> would enable me to have that, right?
March 1, 2006 at 7:09 pm
[...] know I’m late in linking this. I was in a plane today and then doing a ton of other things. But, Davereleased OPML 2.0 and that’s worth a mention here. Why? Cause of his track record of doing specs worthy of mentioning.SOAP, XML-RPC, RSS, and now OPML. Congrats Dave! Filed under: OPML, Blog Stuff @ 7:09 pm # [...]
March 1, 2006 at 8:29 pm
[...] OPML 2.0 was announced today. A lot of the cool hip bloggers are talking about it. [...]
March 2, 2006 at 3:39 am
[...] Dave’s WordPress Blog » OPML 2.0 Announcement » Late last year I wrote a series of RFCs and guidelines on the main OPML website, ideas for improvement of the format and the documentation for OPML. They were extensively discussed and refined. In February all this work was rolled into a new format and sp [...]
March 2, 2006 at 8:21 am
[...] (via readwriteweb.com) Dave Winer has announced OPML 2.0 (in public review status currently). OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. In semi-laymens terms, OMPL is a common XML data format for outlines and subscription lists - just as RSS is a common data format for content syndication. [...]
March 2, 2006 at 12:40 pm
[...] Dave Winer has announced a draft spec on OPML 2.0 for review. Only had time to briefly run through the spec, however there’s some good additions in there including namespaces. [...]
March 2, 2006 at 1:21 pm
[...] OPML 2.0 Released by Dave Winer. [...]
March 2, 2006 at 3:09 pm
[...] http://scripting.wordpress.com/2006/03/01/opml-20/ [...]
March 2, 2006 at 11:16 pm
[...] Dave Winer hat einen Entwurf von OPML 2.0 vorgelegt. Die “Outline Processor Markup Language” erlaubt die standardisierte Beschreibung von Outlines in XML 1.0 - Baumstrukturen, bei denen jeder Knoten eine Reihe von benannten Attributen mit Zeichenwert besitzt, ähnlich der Gliederung in einem Inhaltsverzeichnis. [...]
March 3, 2006 at 2:20 am
Thanks Dave (no subtext).
March 3, 2006 at 7:21 am
[...] Dave’s WordPress Blog » OPML 2.0 Announcement Late last year I wrote a series of RFCs and guidelines on the main OPML website, ideas for improvement of the format and the documentation for OPML. They were extensively discussed and refined. In February all this work was rolled into a new format and sp (tags: opml rfc opml2.0 standards blogs) [...]
March 6, 2006 at 3:06 pm
[...] Il tutto mi ha riportato in mente il progetto italiano che, in tempi non sospetti, fu chiamato Unconf: ho trovato l’idea di una wiki per organizzare il progetto iniziale non funzionale per quello che riguardava l’organizzazione e la tracciabilità temporale dei commenti sulla Unconf. Spero che qualcosa si muova qui in Italia, visto che ci sono tante persone con capacità e conoscenza che non hanno niente da invidiare ai colleghi d’oltreoceano.. a parte, forse, l’intraprendenza. In questo periodo, se avessi più tempo lo dedicherei sicuramente all’approfondimento dell’OPML, di cui Winer sta tracciando le linee della versione 2.0. [...]
March 9, 2006 at 5:10 am
[...] - OPML 2.0 [...]
March 9, 2006 at 10:35 pm
[...] ‘the OPML sketch of who I am and how I got here’ As I’ve already mentioned, I had the pleasure of meeting a certain gentleman by the name of Dennis E. Hamilton earlier this week. He’s a fascinating chap. As we were talking it became apparent to me he was a true hacker - one of the originals. Dennis started programming in 1958 while working at Boeing as an engineer, spent some time admin’ing the UW computer systems and a bunch more. What I loved is not only his in depth knowledge of programming languages (including some I’ve never even heard of), but also how he’s kept totally up to date with the latest stuff. He’s still a ‘hacker’ in the original sense of the word. As a continuation of the meetup, he’s just written a cool post on the ‘Aha’ moments of programming and provides some advice for some wannabie coders. Worth checking out if you’re looking for some pointers. Anyway, what made me laugh is this opening line to that post: “At Tuesday’s East Side Meetup, Alex Barnett asked me to give the OPML sketch of who I am and how I got here. After a 20-minute ramble (at least), I managed to spill out some version of my 47-year career in computing and my love for software development.” I don’t remember phrasing it that way. Maybe I did - we had just been discussing OPML before I asked. I think what I actually asked was - ‘can you give me the outline of your professional career’. But think - an actual OPML file describing of who I am and how I got here. What a cool idea. I think I’ll try that. - Tags: OPML Filed Under: Web, Tech, OPML [...]
March 13, 2006 at 5:48 pm
[...] I guess this is what the OPML2.0 spec is all about, defining the fundamentals but allow it to be openly used…similar to Dublin Core, I imagine this means this set of attributes is extensible, all you have to do is make up your own attributes. But then these may clash with someone else who is using the same made-up attribute as you, but to them it is meant to mean something else…this is why we create namespaces. The namespace will have a URL which will define the meaning of the attributes you have created. [...]
April 8, 2006 at 7:26 am
[...] OPML gained some attention from Dave Winer, Richard MacManus, and others last month with the release of the 2.0 spec. But, it’s the Reading List idea that will give it legs. [...]