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 RFC: Subscriptions Harmonizer Web Service
started 7/2/2003; 7:33:50 AM - last post 7/3/2003; 10:45:40 AM
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Dave Winer - RFC: Subscriptions Harmonizer Web Service 
7/2/2003; 7:33:50 AM (reads: 479493, responses: 15)
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The problem: I subscribe to a feed at home but my aggregator at work doesn't know about it. And vice versa.
This is an RFC, a first implementation and a bootstrap for an XML-RPC-based network service that synchronizes subscriptions across different aggregators.
I posted it here so people could comment on it and ask questions in the comment section below.
# Posted on 7/2/03; 7:33:57 AM
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Bryant - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 7:38:32 AM (reads: 14030, responses: 14)
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Cool stuff.
I'd suggest defining the behavior of the harmonizer in the event that subsHarmonizer.setup is called for an existing username, as follows:
If subsHarmonizer.setup is called with an existing username but the password does not match the password for that username, the return value is false and no change is made to the list of feeds kept on the server.
If subsHarmonizer.setup is called with an existing username and the password matches the password for that username, the return value is true and the list of feeds kept on the server is replaced by the list of feeds passed to the server with that call.
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Derek Scruggs - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 7:39:20 AM (reads: 14361, responses: 0)
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While you're developing a protocol to do this, why not include the actual RSS feeds in the equation? There currently is no way (short of password protection) for a feed publisher to know how many unique subscribers it has to a feed. See this post
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Dave Winer - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 7:42:16 AM (reads: 14437, responses: 0)
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Thanks for the comments. Derek, I was thinking along the same lines. But you should also know about the Web Bug Simulator we implemented for RSS feeds a long time ago. It does tell feed providers how many users are subscribed to their feeds. Very useful. I wish more aggregators worked with it.
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Ryan Gregg - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 8:22:42 AM (reads: 14529, responses: 0)
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Another problem that I would like to see addressed at the same time here would be what parts of a feed have already been marked as read/unread. It seems that it should be easy enough to maintain a list of GUIDs (or perhaps some other ID field) of entries that have already been read.
This would allow each aggragator to not mark entries I've read at work as unread when I get home, and vice versa, which would ultimately save a lot of time when you have a large number of feeds to read.
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Dave Winer - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 8:26:48 AM (reads: 14932, responses: 0)
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Ryan, I don't want to get into that. Most feeds don't have guids and some feeds are RDF, and no doubt other feeds will be in other formats. I don't think, in other words, the feeds all have enough in common to make soemthing like this in the scope of this project.
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Ken MacLeod - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 9:57:09 AM (reads: 14946, responses: 0)
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If one were to ask the question, "why not just store the subscription list on a web server?" then I've provided a potential answer for that question in Subharmonization.
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Mike Lougee - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 11:25:58 AM (reads: 14716, responses: 0)
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If the "subscription list" were storable on a server (and probably even if it weren't), such a list would be an easy thing to "share" with others, via simply sharing the server locatin of the list, or simply e-mailing the list. Such sharing could make it even easier to develop a "community" around a topic.
It would also be easy for "experts" to share their lists, eg teachers. For healthcare, there could be great sharing of "best treatment practices," best disease-research feeds, etc.
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Dewayne Mikkelson - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 4:16:48 PM (reads: 15866, responses: 0)
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Dave This is GRRRRRREAT!!! I got it to work on the first try. Once I got home of course.
I did not have two radio machines at work.
I hope the other News Aggregators pick this up and implement it.
Radio is wonderful. Thanks for keeping on Keeping on even with all of the name calling and other stuff around "ECHO". I am glad you are still here and providing us with the wonderful tools that you build.
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Dave Winer - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 5:08:06 PM (reads: 15132, responses: 0)
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Thanks Dewayne! These days the compliments are all the more appreciated, since so many people think I'm such a bad guy. It's funny how that works, one day you're okay the next day you're not.
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Jeff Macdonald - Re: Comment on post 358
7/2/2003; 5:20:51 PM (reads: 14485, responses: 0)
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Dave,
I don't understand how the Web Bug Simulator answers Derek's question. How does it report unique subscribers?
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Dewayne Mikkelson - Re: Comment on post 358
7/3/2003; 4:43:56 AM (reads: 14355, responses: 0)
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Dave you are probably already light years ahead on this question but I am still curious.
I went to Phillip Pearson's Clone site and read this "except don't sign up on his (Dave's) Manila site".
Will we be able to sign up at multiple locations sometime in the future?
This is great fun and I can see where this tool will solve some issues for me.
On a side note, I do agree with you that "we're in a depression in our industry",
I am not sure what caused it. I feel it is due to the Dot-Com bust which burst alot of people's bubbles and turned many of us into sour old men before our time. I know I feel very sour about the future that I thought I saw in the IT World and the current reality. I hope we can turn this situation around and come back out into a brighter happier situation.
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Dewayne Mikkelson - Re: Comment on post 358
7/3/2003; 4:44:23 AM (reads: 14375, responses: 0)
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Dave you are probably already light years ahead on this question but I am still curious.
I went to Phillip Pearson's Clone site and read this "except don't sign up on his (Dave's) Manila site".
Will we be able to sign up at multiple locations sometime in the future?
This is great fun and I can see where this tool will solve some issues for me.
On a side note, I do agree with you that "we're in a depression in our industry",
I am not sure what caused it. I feel it is due to the Dot-Com bust which burst alot of people's bubbles and turned many of us into sour old men before our time. I know I feel very sour about the future that I thought I saw in the IT World and the current reality. I hope we can turn this situation around and come back out into a brighter happier situation.
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Dewayne Mikkelson - Re: Comment on post 358
7/3/2003; 4:47:46 AM (reads: 14388, responses: 0)
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Ooopppsss. That double post brings up another question. My wife is getting alot of spam comments on her Salon Weblog Sexy Mothers Do Exist. Is there a way to delete these funky spam Comments and kill double posts like I just created here?
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Alan Kleymeyer - Re: Comment on post 358
7/3/2003; 9:17:29 AM (reads: 14984, responses: 0)
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Is it out of scope for the harmonizer to sync my posts as well? I find not being able to keep my post data in sync between work and home a big bother.
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mal - Re: Comment on post 358
7/3/2003; 10:45:40 AM (reads: 16249, responses: 0)
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When I heard you describing Harmonizer I assumed it would keep track of individual feeds as well as Ryan Gregg posted above - keeping track of which one's have been read. I challenge you to reconsider - just pick a method, make it optional - and I wouldn't be suprised if people started implementing it for Harmonizers sake alone. Hell post the method on Sam's Wiki :PPPP
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