On the Inexplicable Success of RSS and OPML

• The success of RSS and OPML have far outstripped the ability of one guy to lobby for their adoption, no matter how strong his personality or how loud his pronouncements. In fact, some grousers might begrudge that RSS and OPML have succeeded despite his strong personality and loud pronouncements.

• This isn't a cult of personality. These technologies have been adopted and further evangelized by people who've won something from their use. Other technologies - with what I've heretofore seen as well-articulated superiorities - have not yet seen such adoption, and require continued effort to grow. To simply assert that RSS and OPML suck or are shitty - as if that's convincingly self-evident - is to miss the lesson embedded in the fact that people go right on using shitty technology anyway.

• One could conclude that all these people are stupid, clueless, and/or just plain misguided. But in reality, odds are that at least a few of them are pretty smart and have good reasons for what they're doing - dismissing them dooms one to miss the plank stuck in the eye of one's own favorite technology. Meanwhile, calling someone stupid and insulting their choices wrecks goodwill for the alternatives.

• This is why I've been trying to take a fresh look and immersing myself in OPML and Winerian technology: This is me, in my Beginner's Mind stance. I honestly want to learn / re-learn the reasons for the apparent lacking success of that which I've perceived as technically superior. If possible, I'd like to build some bridges, both technical and personal. There are no "sides" for me to take, other than striving to be in a position to help encourage progress on all sides of building a more expressive web.

Hey, where'd that surge of brain power come from?

Interesting discussion between Phil Jones and Danny Ayers on their respective blogs, very much along the lines of how I've been lately thinking about tools and formats. There's more I want to say - but due to my current state of low brain power, I'm just asserting the connections for now.

Ever notice that most of the same people who have a grouse with OPML and RSS have a hard time with PHP, too? (This includes me, historically.) All successful technologies, all a bit dirty. I have a hunch about why this is so, but I've not yet had spare brain cycles to articulate it. But, just think: Why don't we have a Xanadu web run on Lisp serving up perfect, crystalline RDF?

I've started the process to sign up for an author profile and blog at Amazon. Awaiting verification from my publisher that I am indeed an author. This should be interesting.

Evening - I'm at home, and have just finished a second burrito. Have I mentioned that I've developed a belief in burritos as the perfect crunch-time food?

Afternoon - I'm at work, and there's no bagels. But, I do have a burrito.