Tag-cloud my OPML

Both tagging and RSS aim to help us cope with the information overload.

Tagging means that we no longer have to decide for each and every bookmark in which folder it should be filed.

RSS means that we don't have to go our favorite information source to check what's new; instead the information is aggregated and delivered as a notification to us.

Unfortunately, most RSS readers file the RSS feeds in... guess what. Yup, folders :)

Back to square one, only now instead of having to file hundreds of bookmarks, we're filing hundreds of RSS feeds.

Can we please have tagging in OPML? I'd really like to be able to specify the tags for the feed I am subscribing to, and have the RSS reader allow me to navigate my OPML using a tag cloud.

Mashing up the OPML tag cloud and the RSS items tags, together with an indication of the number of new posts, into a single visual display, would be even more powerful, as it'd allow me to quickly identify the hot topics in the feeds I am subscribed to.

BTW, RSS supports tagging directly (through the category element), but it doesn't seem to be widely supported.

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Openomy.com - online tagged file system

Ian Sefferman introduced Openomy. It's a brave attempt to start from the bottom up - a web file system based on tagging (no folders. nada. nothing. just tags.), RSS (notes on implementation), completely open APIs, and infrastructure for building applications on top of this.

Everything is still rudimentary - basic functionality, minimal user interface.

Pretty exciting, but the real test of course would be existence of applications leveraging it.

(From Tagrio)

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Chicklets

Check out the sidebar. I've added the obligatory "chicklets" thingie [ ]. What a waste of screen-estate.

I wonder what will the "standard" for this end to be, 2 years from now, when RSS is finally mainstream. Which will happen of course only when smooth, integrated support for this will be incorporated into Windows (reading this blog: 78% Windows, 5% Linux / UNIX, 17% Mac OS X).

Yeah, I know that Firefox has an extension. Yes, there are wonderful readers out there. Right, we've got feed:// and feed: and rss:// and auto-discovery and USM. They're all great. But it ain't over until the Lady from Redmond sings, and we all know it.

I'd be happy with:

• feed: being supported and configurable directly by the OS (a-la mailto:)
• Integrated browser-support for auto-discovery, redirected to the OS feed: support
• "Standard" alternate subscription user interface (inside an orange rectangle of course, for legacy reasons :) ), for browser-only no-desktop-of-my-own users, leading to a Microsoft/Google/Yahoo-provided universal subscription mechanism, similiar to MultiRSS.

Technorati : USM, chicklet, feed, rss
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