Podcasting will produce and serve many communities
Scripting News: In Dave's "A long-overdue story about the podcasting community directory" he states "The whole point of RSS, Jim argues (imho correctly) is to make connecting systems together so easy that users can do it themselves, without any help from system managers or vendors. This is a brilliant observation, in all my years thinking about RSS, I had never approached it from this direction.".
If you been observing and watching all the new Podcasting communities popping up of late that use RSS and OPML as a foundation but don't scream RSS and OPML at the surface the observation that Jim made is really an obvious observation on whats going on. OK so RSS and OPML are backend interconnecting achitectures that tie communities together. What so new and hard to understand? Wasn't that the point and the reason for all these XML efforts all along!! Why does this all sound like reflection and not news to me?
The point Dave's still needs to get past and recognize is that there is no one podcasting community anymore. Hasn't been for a while. There is and will be "many communities" that will form around the foundation that XML distribution technologies offer (like RSS and OPML). This will prevent any one directory/community from becoming the top directory. All directories can think they are the top domain and in their domain they might really be. This is a good thing.
Some of the new communities will give back to the communities with XML. But just because they don't make and/or serve XML back to the greater podcasting sphere as their top priority doesn't make them evil or bad or most importantly wrong.
Like with real world communities, podcasting communities will serve many big and small communities with their are own unique attributes. People will migrate to the communities that most meet their needs. The communites that have the content and services that meet their needs and interests.
Right now most podcasters worry about getting their podcasts in every directory that pops up. In the not so distant future that will change as they put their efforts into getting their podcasts into the right community/directory that makes the most sense. When this starts to happen it will stop to look like all the directories/communities are all competing for the same content. This is not to say that we won't go through some podcast directory wars in the mainstream media along the way.
Everyone needs to get over and past the fact that RSS and OPML is starting to slip into the background of the Podcasting conversation as we move into the next generation, the forming of Podcasting communities. Like interstate roads and rails in real world communities, these communities will be tied together with common distribution networks but on the surface and to their community they will look, feel and serve very different.
Now it's time for all of us to recognize and enjoy the the "community developement" phase of podcasting. Thank god!!! It's time to bring on all the Podcast community developers!!!
6:27:47 AM 
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