Selling RSS
In what I think is his inimitable way,
Mark Nottingham replied to Tim Bray's question "
What's the RSS Soundbite?" Mark's
RSS tutorial is extremely lucid and sufficiently detailed; in short, I read it and see everything someone reasonably technically inclined would need to grok what RSS is, why it has so much inherent potential and how to slide into the shallow end of its pool.
Which is all to say it's a great doc, but it's probably not the right
kind of doc. It's not that it's too technical, it's more that it's too tactical--to sell RSS, the real hurdle is "why?" For purposes of explaining RSS, it's probably sufficient to stand pat with "it's really easy" as a standard answer to "how?" At least until someone believes in the "why?"
Without motivation, a non-technical person's not going to perseverate on implementation details beyond a possible gauging of approximate headache-level. Moreover, the technology side of the equation is primed. There are ample signposts and tools already in place.
I think that's mainly what Tim's talking about early stage evangelism, specifically corporate adoption. And there, I think all that's need is the motivation and tools. The tools exist. As to motivators, any soundbite will probably come not from theory but from practice--not what you could do with RSS, but what someone already did. Soundbites based on simple potential don't ring as true in 2003 as they used to.
Exposure is also a key ingredient. The fact that developers everywhere are starting to get information from Microsoft, SourceForge, third-parties like Slashdot, et al, via RSS is good kindling. I'm too tired to examine recent history, but something tells me a lot of these types of adoptions get evangelized on the cheap, from within. I can't imagine it's going to be much longer before developers in the trenches start advocating RSS as a vehicle for some types of simple internal syndication. When that happens and there's a few successes publicized, those will probably be the soundbites that can work their way up the chain of command.
Which is all my introspective way of saying there might not be a soundbite yet, but in the meantime Mark's tutorial is the right kind of document to get into the hands of the developers who might end up being the catalyst for what Tim's talking about. Beyond that, a marketing focus would be more successful in lieu of an actual soundbite, but what do you sell right now--the fact that nerds everywhere are drilling into more relevant information than they every have before?
The fact that people can bitch about standards, stifle progress and generally get out of line during recess? Heh, that's the soundbite my local news would run at 11, but I agree it's not going to promote RSS very well.