Re: [syndication] An idea for RSS distribution - push it through Jabber!

["Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>]

Right on!!

We were talking about this stuff on Tuesday -- inverting the flow, so that
notification could be sent through Jabber.

I think you should do it this way, for sure, but be aware that something
even cooler is coming. Jabber-RPC, which will allow content systems to talk
to software on your desktop (ie Radio, Headline Viewer, AmphetaDesk, etc)
via XML-RPC.

We even have a protocol ready to go, supported in 0.92, that's designed to
run at both ends, and is very lightweight and fun. We have it implemented in
Radio 7.0, but would love to see the other desktop aggregators wire up.

Basic advice, if you do a desktop aggregator, please look at supporting
XML-RPC, both server-side and as a client; if you're not already doing so.

Dave


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dion Loy" <dion-yhoo@loy-fu.com>
To: "Jeff Barr" <syndication@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 7:44 AM
Subject: Re: [syndication] An idea for RSS distribution - push it through
Jabber!


> Hi Jeff,
>
> I was actually thinking through the same things yesterday. I was about
> to start the design and class structure today.
>
> My take was slightly different though, perhaps we can merge the two
> efforts somehow, or bounce some ideas off each other ...
>
> I was about to code up a Jabber agent, that would register at a
> specific address, ie headlines@jabber.com.
>
> Users logged into Jabber that wished to receive headline updates,
> would send instant messages to this address to register, ie:
>
> 1. 'subscribe Userland'
> 2. 'subscribe http://www.cnn.com/cnn.rss'
>
> Now these would be 'fed' into the headline agent through another
> publically available server (probably in XML-RPC/SOAP format, maybe
> with the Blogger API ??).
>
> You would register your RSS file under a 'keyword' (in example (1)
> above, it would have been 'Userland').  The server will store your RSS
> file and disseminate updates to all those subscribed to that
> 'keyword'.
>
> If the RSS is not registered, then the user would have to use method
> (2), which would poll and aggregate RSS files for distribution.
>
> We can scale this up by putting multiple datastores / request handlers
> on separate machines even on different networks:
>
>                      [jabber client]
>                              |
>                              |
>                      [Jabber.com server]
>                              |
>                              |
>                      [headline agent]
>                             /|\
>                            / | \
>                           /  |  \
>                          /   |   \
>                        [1]  [2]  [3]
>
> Where [1], [2], [3] are the aggregator and data store servers that
> hold the RSS.
>
> In fact, the 'return' message, might not even have to go back through
> the headline agent to reduce the bottleneck, we could just IM the
> results directly from [1], [2], [3] to the [jabber client] (it would
> come from a different address).
>
> News publishers would send their updates to one [1], [2], [3] which
> would communicate between themselves to keep their data stores up to
> date.  These data stores would also be responsible for polling for
> updates for specific RSS files requested by users that are not sent in
> by the news providers themselves.
>
> Are we thinking along the same lines?  I was about to set up a domain
> name today and start writing some documentation for this idea. Or were
> you thinking of using Headline Viewer as the Jabber client?  I suppose
> with the backend in place, it really wouldn't matter or care what
> client it was talking to as long as it's Jabberese =).
>
> Thursday, August 23, 2001, 7:07:45 AM, you wrote:
>
> JB> I have been thinking about the problem of RSS clients overloading
> JB> news sites such as newsisfree.com.
>
> JB> Then I read all about Dave Winer's work with XML-RPC and Jabber:
>
>
> JB>
http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/08/22#tunnelingXmlrpcW
> JB> ithJabber
>
> JB> And then I read the following message:
>
> JB>         http://wmf.editthispage.com/discuss/msgReader$5270?mode=day
>
> JB> And when I woke up this morning I realized that we may have an
> JB> interesting solution. To wit:
>
> JB>         What if we use Jabber as our distribution vehicle?
>
> JB> It is based on XML, it is widely available, and the processing
> JB> overhead seems to be pretty low.
>
> JB> Basically we would create a single "Newsfeeds" conference.
>
> JB> Providers of syndicated material (or third-party re-posters) would
> JB> then post new messages into the conference. Each message would be a
> JB> complete RSS file. We could create multiple conferences to reduce
> JB> the load on the client, but this is a decision we can make later.
>
> JB> Clients would subscribe to the conference, and would be notified
> JB> when new news is available.
>
> JB> I have not thought this through all the way, but I think it could
> JB> actually work. One interesting aspect of this is that it would
> JB> force the use of valid XML (you can stop cheering now, Morbus :-).
> JB> It would obviate the need for clients to poll for updates. And it
> JB> would give us something akin to a real-time news feed, which would
> JB> be very, very cool.
>
> JB> We do gain a new single point of failure. If it turns out that
> JB> the servers at jabber.com are not reliable enough, we could consider
> JB> running our own server(s).
>
> JB> How does this sound? Is it crazy enough to work? Again I will
> JB> repeat my usual offer -- if someone wants to do the server side
> JB> stuff I will add experimental support for this to Headline Viewer.
> JB> Do we have a news provider ready to step forward and start posting
> JB> RSS to Jabber?
>
> JB> Ideas, feedback, etc?
>
> JB> Jeff;
>
>
>
>
> JB> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>
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