Dave Winer is often accused of overhyping his projects. I understand evangelizing. I would probably be that way too.

It's strange therefore that I find him underhyping what is probably the most significant recent development in the Userland platform, namely the adoption of the Blogger API.

Yes, you've seen a lot about it, but given the magnitude of this development, it has actually been underplayed, in my opinion.

Why is this so significant? Because it established the Blogger API as the de facto standard for blogging web services.

For the first year or two after XML 1.0 was finalized, there was tons of criticism about how "no one really uses it." With the development of RSS 0.92, a "real XML application" was developed, one not handed down from on high, like RDF, but one homegrown, with the potential for changing the way the Internet is used.

Don't you find yourself rooting for these homegrown XML applications? Isn't it somehow a triumph of the spirit of the Internet when they become widespread standards without having been previously certified by some governing standards body?

You can perhaps track the rise of the "real Internet", this "Homebrew XML suite", by the emergence of these new XML applications. Some are document formats like RSS 0.92, OPML, and the Weblogs.com changes.xml format. Others like Blogger API and the Weblogs.com pinging API are message protocols.

The exciting part is that there will be more and more, filling in gaps and extending functionality. It's going to be fun to follow.

My obvious point is that the real platform that is emerging in content management is not any particular software application, but these expanding "Homebrew Suite" of XML protocols.

This begs the question: when Mircosoft finally barges into this game, what will they do about living with all these pre-existing APIs that have sprung like weeds in their backyard?

  6:03:37 PM    

The change in the name of my weblog indicates that I have decided to purchase Radio. The debate is over. The stated propositon that "Radio really sucks" is false.

That doesn't mean I'm completely happy with it as software. It still runs really slowly on my Mac, and I shut it down unless I'm explicitly updating this weblog. I will continue to update my Blogger weblogs using the web interface for now.

So why did I decide to buy Radio? Three major reasons:

1. I like being part of the Radio community. 2. I can imagine using Radio more frequently with a faster machine. 3. I think no matter how I use it now or in the future, Radio is too significant of a platform not to keep abreast of.

Like I said, this doesn't mean I'm completely happy with Radio. It just means that I've wrapped my head around it's functionality enough to shell out the money for it.

  5:28:08 PM