Dave Winer’s latest application, Share your OPML, creates an aggregated pool of RSS subscription lists, in OPML (Outline Processing Markup Language) format. As a pool of user data, it’s similar in concept to Steve Gillmor’s GestureBank clickstream commons and Root’s data vault. Share your OPML can surface feed lists from users (who can choose to make their list and not just data public) who have similar lists, and, like Amazon’s recommendation engine, it can discover specific feeds that others with similar feed lists have but you don’t.
In this podcast, Dave explains what’s going on with Share your OPML and where this technology and application are heading. "I am sure there will be competitive services, sparking a lot of creativity," Dave said. He also outlines plans to make Share your OPML easier to use and more capable, helping to get RSS out of a "rut" and coaxing more metadata out of the applications. In the present tense, the server for Share your OPML has been up and down–growing pains.
Dave Winer at the microphone in CNET’s podcast studio
Later in our conversation, we chat about his penchant for outlines, the state of RSS, blogging and the tools of his trade (including EV-DO). In the last part of our conversation (about 22 minutes into the 34 minute podcast) we revisit our meet-up with former CBS news anchor Dan Rather and I ask Dave what he meant when he said he was going to stop blogging.
The interview is available as an MP3 that can be downloaded or, if you’re already subscribed to ZDNet’s IT Matters series of audio podcasts, it will show up on your system or MP3 player automatically (see ZDNet’s podcasts: How to tune in).
