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OPML

OPML has been around for a while (Marc Canter was evangelizing OPML 2-3 years ago and you'll run into opml files used for import/export of syndication feed lists etc.), but there was a surge of interest over the last few days after Dave Winer demo'd an OPML editor at the Berkman blog meeting last Thursday. David Weinberger has posted a good summary of that session:

It lets you work in outline form, press the "save" button and the contents get posted to your blog. To update your blogroll, you open it in the editor, type, link and save. It has nested categories which, again, you edit using the editor. Press "Build RSS" and it does.

It's OPML all the way through. E.g., the categories are an OPML file. Want to absorb someone else's taxonomy? Open up her OPML file. Want to merge feed subscription lists? Drag and drop. Reorder the way you want, as if it were an outliner...because it is an outliner. You can link an entry to another OPML file and it links in the appropriate content as if it were actually part of the document. E.g., You might link the "Florida" heading to an URL that has an OPML outline of towns in Florida. When you click on the "Florida" heading, you'll see the content of the outline of towns. [This makes it possible for an outline to contain multiple people's expertise. Very cool.]

jon posted this at 9:15 AM
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