Re: Syndicating other kinds of content with RSS

[Aaron Swartz <aswartz@swartzfam.com>]

Bill Dennen <billdennen@hotmail.com> wrote:

> For example, we'd like to set up thing so that dining menus and events
> calendars can be "syndicated." We could do something like this:

I think this is a great use of RSS! In fact, I'm working on a task force to
try and find a way to syndicate calendars using RSS 1.0.

> <item>
>   <title>Lunch - March 14, 2001</title>
>   <link></link>
>   <description>Hot dog, French fries, Pizza strips</description>
> </item>

If this were 1.0, it'd probably be best to stick the date in dc:date, like
this:

    <dc:date>2001-3-14</dc:date>

> Note, there wouldn't be a need for a <link> in this, however, the RSS spec
> seems to require it.

There's never a _need_ for a link, but is there really no web page that
would be appropriate? Don't you provide the calendar on the Web in HTML?

> Is anyone using RSS to syndicate this type of content. Does anyone have any
> tips or pointers? Am I crazy to think that  we can do things this way?

No, it's the next step for RSS. We're working on doing all sorts of things
like this, job openings, calendars, bulletin board postings, etc. This makes
total sense, and I wish you the best of luck.

-- 
[ Aaron Swartz | me@aaronsw.com | http://www.aaronsw.com ]