A VC - Latest Comments in RSS Is Alive And Well

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

fredwilson — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:39:02 -0000

Protocols are disruptive. Very nice. I like that a lot

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

John Furrier — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:01:11 -0000

Hey Fred: I have to say that I really have been enjoying this thread. That being said time is a wonderful thing. In this age of attention verses substance (tech blogophere) here is a post I wrote three years ago.
http://podtech.wordpress.co...

There were actual conversations of substance in the tech blogosphere then and still now.

Back in Sept 2006 the debate was is web 2.0 hype or real?: In which I wrote the post RSS is Web 2.0

Here is some excerpts from 9/1 2006:
"Web 2.0 is hyped and it is just as real as Web 1.0 but now it’s more than the Web now – it’s the Internet 2.0. Web 2.0 is similar to Web 1.0 with bubble tendencies and all. The key is the longevity that we will see with RSS. RSS is Web 2.0. "

My final point aligns with most of the sentiment in this post here in 2009.

I went on to say that "Disrputive enabler in any revolution is always rooted in a protocol. TCP/IP, HTTP, and RSS. TCP/IP gave us computing, networking, and Moores Law; HTTP gave us unlimited information access and browsing, and RSS is giving us access to all kinds of new benefits most of which will be born in the next 24 months – new media, personalization, access to new relationships, knowledge, inspiration, user choice, attention models, virtual spaces – second lives , virtual conferences ..etc

RSS is Web 2.0 just like HTTP was Web 1.0. "

Ok I'm done patting myself on the back. Fact is there are conversations like this happening all the time from people on the web, but most of the time quality people and content are washed out by the noise of the current attention network (blogosphere and twittershere).

This post got my attention and the experience was valuable.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

timraleigh — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:20:12 -0000

or as Woody Allen says "80% of success is showing up" Thanks for posting (the RSS blog) Fred.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

sull — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:51:26 -0000

So you clearly say that conversations focused on companies that are trying to control mass content sharing/distribution is more interesting to you.... are you also saying that it takes precedence over underlying tech and de-centralization efforts that balance the internet?
They are both interesting discussions. But here is the advice I think you guys at TC are getting, whether you realize it or not..... Freely discuss how RSS alone was not and is not a business product. Point how where the disconnect happened between consumers and RSS consumption software/service. Talk about the good/bad influence that Feedburner had on RSS and publishers. Etc etc etc. Their are many intelligent and interesting angles and many do not hoist RSS up as some shiny persevering king. It's cold tech. It's extremely useful and pervasive. It doesnt want fame.

Let's face it. Gillmor was pushing buttons. You allow it because, well, TC is as much glossy gossip tech tabloidism as it is a serious publication. Actually, their is an obvious leaning to one side and I think every day more people realize which side that is. But hey, you're having fun with it and you do inject value into the techosphere. the TC personality is what it is. And it aint for everyone. Maybe some feel let down. But nothing to lose sleep over.

@sull

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

fredwilson — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:40:23 -0000

yup. that's my point. that is an interesting story. but that's not what you talked about.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

JB Holston — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:08:16 -0000

tweets are even shorter (and almost always more cryptic) than headlines/excerpts in readers -- people are happy with comprehensible summaries and pointers almost always

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

fredwilson — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:55:47 -0000

i didn't say you had nothing interesting to say ever mike

you have interesting things to say all the time

but that post was silly and ridiculous

the story was Dick Costolo was joining Twitter

that's interesting on many levels

but it has nothing to do with whether RSS is alive or dead

and of course, RSS is alive and well and will be for a long long time

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

kidmercury — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:34:47 -0000

hahhahaa, i love it when this guy tries to roll up and act like he's the honest journalist here. for the record, let us recall that fred wilson has boldly gone where no venture capitalist -- and for that matter very few "journalists" like mikey -- by linking to 9/11 truth/new world order sites (ironically in this very post)! meanwhile, mikey is a "journalist" who refuses to talk about how major web services censor 9/11 truth. moreover, his irresponsible and uninformed team refuses to give serious coverage to the proposed cybsercurity act, choosing to mock concerns about it instead. furthermore, remember that mikey also endorsed obama and mccain while calling himself a "hardcore libertarian" yet ignoring ron paul, a libertarian, in spite of the fact that 73% of his audience supported paul in the TC poll.

of course, justice is always served. there is a reason why mikey's gossip rag gets spam comments while fred's revolutionary blog has engendered a real community. fred is the top dog up in this piece, mikey has to jump just to reach his knees.

and of course needless to say most of us in the internet community are singing along to "jason calacanis and michael arrington, stop hating on howard lindzon and the truth" -- the hot new track from kid mercury soaring to the top of the charts. remember the song is available for purchase in itunes and many other online retailers. 100% of proceeds from sales will be donated to wearechange.org.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

William Mougayar — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:08:28 -0000

Hi Mark,
Actually, we're already doing most of that with Eqentia. We're due for a catch-up. How can i reach you? I'm at wmougayar AT gmail. thanks.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Shyam Somanadh — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:08:10 -0000

By the 'RSS-is-dead' logic, email had killed it even before RSS was born.

As Pegleg would have said "O tempora o mores"

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Mark Essel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:13:50 -0000

William I like this idea.
There's an opportunity to capitalize on the information present within the entire pipeline by filtering it in real time through the best semantic technology available (today Zemanta's doing a good job). By clustering real time information by tags we can begin to see trends by category, and quickly recognize original content (don't get me wrong I love reposts with personalized context).

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Mark Essel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:09:09 -0000

Dave I think there are other network distribution methods for rss sharing that have pretty low latency. As I understand it, pubsubhubbub can "in theory" have almost instant response.

What we really need is a ubiquitous information replication backbone that instantly updates information in real time globally. We shouldn't settle for anything less.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

RichardF — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:19:10 -0000

I'd say it continues to provoke reaction (with the vast majority of comments ranging against your point of view) rather than generate discussion.

If RSS is dead then why do you continue to use RSS on your website?

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Warren Whitlock — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:02:36 -0000

"XXX is killing YYY" is usually a grab for attention. Discount them all, and learn to ignore those that make it a practice.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

JB Holston — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:01:49 -0000

RSS is irrelevant ... and thriving. It's become the primary protocol for distributing not just news and info but ... twitter! Also, our SocialSites business is booming -- enterprise social computing on SharePoint. The EAI for Enterprise 2.0 is ... RSS!

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Vaibhav Domkundwar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:12:54 -0000

True, but I admire your ability to come up with as many interesting topics on a daily basis. Its one thing to think about them and another to get a thoughtful articulation of it written up EVERYday. Very cool.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Vaibhav Domkundwar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:10:09 -0000

I believe Readers may still be too techie for most users of the web on this planet. Most users use email comfortably and what is needed is something as simple as email to help identify and consumer content you like.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Vaibhav Domkundwar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:06:14 -0000

Exactly.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Otus — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:05:40 -0000

Man, this is one of the most generally on-point bits I've read this week:
"So when you read a post that says 'XYZ is killing ABC', I suggest you see it for what it is, a lame attempt to get pageviews because the author had nothing interesting to contribute on the topic."

If you continue to post such insightful stuff, your blog is TOTALLY going to kill TechCrunch. Er, wait... :P
(seriously, though, thank you for reminding people just how lame the "OMG, SHINY THING IZ KILLING [something else]" meme is.)

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Vaibhav Domkundwar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:03:05 -0000

I am so late on this thread but nevertheless just wanted to say I agree whole heartedly with both the points. One that RSS is not dead, will not die and is/will be a big part of the way data is accessed/pushed around for building valuable consumer services of the future. As a matter of fact, I am part of a stealth startup that is doing one such service. Second, that the tech blogosphere really should not make such bold statements without research/facts/supporting arguments. The analysis is flawed is one thing, but the fact that its read by million of users and then also found by others over a period of time is a huge problem associated with the way data is published without rating/policing over the web (thats a problem/opportunity in itself). A little bit of responsible writing will help all of us.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Aaron Klein — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:41:10 -0000

Yep good points.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

ShanaC — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:38:17 -0000

Correct. RSS feed in its current incarnation is not enough. It's how do you connect everything in the best forms so that people get what they need. One of the reasons i am liking sematic technogy so much, and hopping it will be emedded in the piping

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Mark Carlson — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:40:48 -0000

Fred, thank you so much for the post. Wonderful to have someone with a platform and the facts speaking the truth.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

Aaron Klein — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:39:59 -0000

I'm not sure I totally understand your question, but maybe I do. Feel free to expound if I missed it. :)

I have a blog (www.aaronklein.com) and post on Twitter with a respectable but not huge number of uniques and followers.

I do tweet my blog posts, but I don't connect my RSS feed to Twitter. It's too automated for me, and the blog headlines I like to write don't work well as descriptive tweets.

So to me, Twitter, RSS and e-mail subscription (I offer all three) are just different distribution channels for content. Just like how you can get Gap clothes at the mall, the outlet store, online or over the phone.

Re: RSS Is Alive And Well

ShanaC — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:32:30 -0000

The party is just starting for these things. I'm closer to your average user for a lot of these technologies. I feel overwhlemed by my RSS reader. I susbscribe to too much, and need help fouldering and cutting down.

A lot of this is due to the imperfection of the tools available to use these things are still terrible, and they aren't clear on giving me what I want. I come here reguarly for example. I want to go to simimilar places of similar quanity with high levels of community- and I want to see, high levels of comments. That's the ideal of an RSS feed. It should have an aggregator like quality to them with your regulars plus whatever else is related (and don't tell me feedly, I have that, and I need to tag it, which I haven't)

As Mentioned above, twitter does have a feedback problem, you see it when you run searches for something specific (such as slab-serif fonts, you won't get anything useful)

A lot of this could be solved if we were further along the party. And knew how to place tags, and knew how to transmit it along things like feeds, and twitter, ect. it would be a lot easier to say something is replaced, when really we are dealing with first generation firehoses that we are all dipping our ceramic internet pots out of.