06 Jun 2004

Sun, 06 Jun 2004

It's not about the protocol. It's all about the protocol.

Dave Winer says:

First, we're waiting for a breakthrough idea.

and points to a commentary where Susan Mernit quotes Amy Campbell:

RSS needs a PR campaign. It's not going to be mainstream, until it's simply a button that people can push.

While I agree with the latter part of this statement (and Amy's commentary in general), I strongly disagree with the former.

RSS does not need a PR campaign. It's not about the protocol. Outside of the technorati, how may people say, "I'm going to SMTP my friend in Chicago?" Nope. More like, "I'm going to email my friend in Chicago."

When blogging crosses the chasm, the protocols are going to sink into the background.

I do agree that Yahoo's move is a step in the right direction. It's one that really needs to be taken to the level of a blogto anchor along the lines of mailto, but invoking subscription. And that has to be supported ubiquitously. Speaking of ubiquity...

Protocols are not going to define the mainstream, unless said protocols enable network effects for the client.

Rich client aggregators such as my personal favorite, pulp fiction would get there a lot faster if they approached the problem with a simple question: "How do I build network effects (DSIR) into my client?"

I'll put money on Microsoft already asking this question in it's design forays into blogging clients, protocols, and aggregators. The answer? Add search to the client ala Gnutella network and clients like Limewire.

So, I design an aggregator that participates in a Gnutella type network transparently in which searching is distributed to all similar clients around the internet and searches have access to feeds, and items just as the client does. In this way, discovery of semantically relevant posts is automatic and context-specific to the blog protocols.

In the end, the paradox remains: it's not about the protocols, it's all about the protocols. The trick is that it's indeed about the protocols, but the winner in the blogging chasm crossing will be the one who realizes that each user participating in such a network does not need to be aware of the protocol.

Posted at: 13:28 | permalink