Great to see some of the Melbourne bloggers engaging with the huge potential of opml, rss and all in education, in particular Cam quotes Michael:
“First day in the class students are provided an OPML file that provides the details for the lecturers for the semester, they will blog and provide course notes, presentations, thoughts and opinions via their blog, the students will receive content automatically via their RSS reader. At the end of each lecture the podcast is also sent out using the same process. [Michael Specht]“
…and asks: “Is anyone aware of this application of OPML already happening?”
Um, yes, try searching for ‘edublog’ :o) Seriously though there’s a huge amount about the use of OPML, blogs in teaching and learning and more, it’s moreorless what I’ve been writing about for the last three years.
For the uninitiated a quick stroll through the OLDaily archive, a peek at some of the Blogtalk Downunder papers to do with education and blogging and maybe a coffee with me in Fairfield and you’ll be straight :D
What’s most interesting though is the question ‘Why the bloody hell isn’t this being done left, right centre and obviously in our Universities already?’… ahem.
Hi James,
I’m going to post something on this soon myself, but basically, IMHO, OPML is just not a sustainable approach.
Its wholly proprietary, its full of legacy cruft, its inconsistent with web specifications more generally (X/HTML, Atom), and its vague in all the wrong places.
For a requirement this simple (basically, a nested table of typed links and labels), we really don’t need to be praying at the Temple of Dave. Its about time we did this properly, with an open community process and some clear requirements.
I have a simpler answer about OPML. It’s just not widely supported enough. Last year, when I first developed the learning blogosphere, described here:
http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/03/a_learning_blog.html
I had the fantasy of just providing courses through an OPML file. Well, when you consider the extent to which I control client choice (not at all and always have to use the lowest common denominator across a variety), you can see why OPML is not really an option. I sort of wonder now if I should not just use one remixed RSS feed organized chronologically with an underlying blog to support search and archive access. Think of it as “river of news” meets snapshots.
On that note, James, let me say that I am finding it hard to distinguish between blogsavvy and incsub, not because you have not done a good job separating the web sites. Rather, they are in the same folder in my newsreader. They are just part of the “James Farmer” stream. I think this is IncSub.
James just so you know I wasn’t claiming that it wasn’t happening it was more an example of what can be done with OPML. Although the tools we have in place today just don’t do the job. Cam is right in calling for tools as they just do not exist in a form that are usable to the average joe. BTW did I miss something at BlogTalk I don’t remember any papers that touched on OPML.
No worries, I was in a kind of ‘funny’ mood yesterday… the interesting thing for me is the intersection between the technology in the way Scott and Bud are considering it and the actuality where people (especially Scott here) are looking for powerful aggregation tools & processes.
For me several of the blogtalk papers described doing or wanting to do what OPML does (or pertains / aims to do) without mentioning OPML. This kind of layer on RSS answers a lot of questions.
Good questions and good discussions. Is winer’s new outliner going to help?
Oh and Bud, thankyou sooooooo much for that link, I’v ebeen searching for it for ages in my archives and never finding it!
Ahh we all get in funny moods. Yes I agree several of the papers described what OPML does but the dots did not seem to be connected. Not sure how Winer’s new tool will help but anything that will make the creation of content easier is a good thing.
Bud’s link is fantastic, I remember reading about this and like you lost the link.