Digiwar - the Yeep-blog

In a recent post I explained a simple idea for using RSS as a concert notification system. Someone linked to my article on another blog and a comment posted on that blog pointed to Tupamaros Online, an Italian band that actually have a concert notification through RSS since 2001. It’s not exactly like I meant it, but it is definitly the first band I’ve seen that does this. I just hope more bands get a clue, as this would definitly enhance my concert awareness.

Although I’ve seen it being linked from a zillion news sites and blogs, and although the chances are slim you haven’t seen it already, I’m still going to give you the link to The XML Files: All About Blogs and RSS.

Yesterday I talked about more uses for RSS then just headlines. Well today I found two more, real-life examples of it’s usefulness.
First there is CVS2RSS a Perl script that will take the changelog of a CVS checkin and create an RSS feed out of it.
Secondly there is MailFeed that allows you to log on to an IMAP, POP3 or NNTP server and will then generate an RSS feed based on the new messages.

I think these two projects show that there are more people out there that think RSS can do so much more then just push around headlines.

RSS is mainly used for one of two purposes as far as I know:

1. New entries is a weblog
2. Headlines for a news site

But why stop there? RSS can do so much more. Especially with the extendability of RSS. Granted the tools would need to know how to handle them, but with this you could create specialized RSS feeds with specialized RSS tools. Some examples of what I would find useful.

Concert agenda
I subscribe to an RSS feed that lists concerts when they are announced, then a month before they’re supposed to happen and then a day or 2 before the happening. This would not require additions to the RSS feed, just smart software.

Personal agenda
Make me a website where I can write down my appointments. Then have it create a feed that I retrieve at the start of every day (or perhaps twice, at the end and at the start) and I’ll know exactly what appointments I have that day. It’s not real-time with pop-ups like Exchange/Outlook, but it’s enough for home-use (and a lot cheaper too).
Still no additions, just smart software.

Event notifications
I do work for ISPs mainly and we use a Trouble Ticket System to handle problems on our platform. Why not have that system generate an RSS feed for the different kinds of problems we have. Add some sort of ‘recall’ mechanism in the RSS feed and use a reader that supports it and it could even remove the notifications about problems that have been solved.
This wouldn’t replace the system, but it would be a very useful tool for people like me who don’t need to create or edit the tickets, but just need to keep an eye out for something that concerns me.

I see RSS more as a non-real-time notitication mechanism rather then a headline aggregation mechanism. It can do so much more. I recently heard about someone who thought about combining RSS with BitTorrent so he could receive download instrcutions at night and have his computer download stuff while he was sleeping. Maybe you could combine RSS with Jabber (or XMPP) and have the newssite send a sort of broadcast notification when a feed has been updated. No more polling required.
Ofcourse you could just say: “Why not just send the item itself with Jabber”, but it’s just an idea I’m playing with, not sure it it’s useful. But who knows