Raw

Old habits die hard.

The objective of Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) is to define the minimum extensions necessary to enable loosely-cooperating apps

1. to use RSS as the basis for item sharing – that is, the bi-directional, asynchronous replication of new and changed items amongst two or more cross-subscribed feeds.

2. to use OPML as the basis for outline sharing – that is, the bi-directional, asynchronous replication of outlines, such as RSS aggregators subscription lists

Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML

First impressions - the sync aspect I find very interesting, I've been looking for a good way of supporting sync between data stores for a while. Most everything else I find very disappointing, on many levels. I really don't know where to start.

Ok, start with the use of fairly arbitrary strings as identifiers. The Web has a well-defined system for identifiers, the URI. They've also got dates in RFC 822 format here - when did these folks last check any of the standard specs? They're using RSS 2.0 and OPML as container formats. Marvellous choice, they're inherently unmixable because they don't have their own namespaces. Party like it's 1999.

I suppose what really irritates me most here is that they've also egregiously ignored the recent progress on syndication data modelling/exchange protocol around Atom. I know you shouldn't put down to malice what you can explain with ignorance*, but I can only imagine this is politically motivated. Microsoft are less likely to get community resistance to "embracing and extending" Dave Winer's Own Syndication Stack than something community based. I strongly suspect they're lining themselves up for more serious problems further down the line. Rather than sharing, they're ringfencing their own territory away from everyone else, a strategy likely to end in tears for them cometh Web 2.0.

But standing back a bit, this could potentially be really useful stuff. Swap in decent identifiers and date formats and this could be the basis of a good sync/diff representation system. Overlay it on Atom and the APP, it could be brilliant. It's clear a fair bit of effort's gone into the spec itself, but it's seriously let down by its dependencies. Rather than being essential material, it's a cargo cult job.

See also Ray Ozzie's blog

PS. Mr.Winer, as you might expect, is gushing. I wonder if he's noticed they've again redefined the meaning of core RSS elements - a fact noted by Phil Ringnalda over at Robert Sayre's. Robert himself seems more upbeat, wondering about what protocol they will be pushing this stuff around on, given the Groove connection. I love this:

If they do authentication with WS-Security, it'll be RSS-SSE-WSSE.

Sam Ruby also picks up on Microsoft's unorthodox idea of sharing, including this gem relating to their last share-point:

Now the Simple List Extensions Specification URI redirects to an ad for vaporware.

* by coincidence I just ran into the correct quotation:

Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.

- Napolean

UPDATE