From the Just When You Thought You’d Found A Corner Of The Net That Was Touchy Feely Dept comes a story of egos, politics and money. Paul Festa of CNET News.com writes a great piece about an increasingly acrimonius dispute about blogging, or more accurately Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a technology widely used to syndicate blogs and other Web content.
The dispute, Paul writes, “pits Harvard Law School fellow Dave Winer, the blogging pioneer who is the key gatekeeper of RSS, against advocates of a different format. The most notable of these advocates are Blogger owner Google and Sam Ruby, an influential IBM developer who is now shepherding an RSS alternative through its early stages of development.
“The dispute offers a glimpse into the byzantine and highly politicized world of industry standards, where individuals without legal authority over a protocol may nonetheless exercise control over it and where, consequently, personal attacks can become the norm. Despite the apparent pettiness of developers’ sniping, their arguments over digital minutia may carry enormous consequences, and corporate interests remain poised to capitalize on the conflicts if they are not resolved. ” Yikes. Get it sorted out, guys, I kinda like RSS.