Re: [syndication] Re: State of unique IDs on newsfeed items?

[Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>]

I don't mean adding a unique ID in the form of another piece of
metadata; I mean using the rdf:about="..." URI *as* the unique ID. 

The core idea behind RDF is that you're making statements (assigning
metadata to) about particular resources; in RSS1.0, those statements
are made about whatever the link URI is. In the scope of that
channel, they should be unique. I use the link URI in combination
with the channel URI as a unique identifier in my aggregator, with
very few problems (e.g., feeds that link every article back to a
single URI, like Memepool does, are pretty useless).

This relates somewhat to a question [1] I asked a while back regarding
using RDF for syndication feeds.

Cheers,


[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syndication/message/2064


On Sat, Sep 29, 2001 at 07:34:57AM -0000, Bill Kearney wrote:
> > I think this was the motivation (in part) for using RDF for RSS 1.0.
> > Or am I misreading your goals?
> 
> Well, without reopening THAT can of worms, yes.  
> 
> I'm no RDF module expert so correct me when I'm wrong.  The modules 
> involved in that format support an item having a link.  
> 
> I'm asking as to whether the various tools out there used to create 
> and deliver newsfeeds are supporting unique IDs for their items.  As 
> links back to both the HTML presentation and to an XML structure.
> 
> This a chicken and the egg situation.  Some formats do not currently 
> support a unique ID on their items.  So if one was delivering 
> material based on such a format it would, perhaps, be pointless to 
> make any effort to handle unique IDs.  This is also affected by the 
> clients not expecting to handle anything new.  So we're at a 
> stalemate.  
> 
> How many of the clients out there that aren't using RDF would break 
> if other elements started appearing in the XML?
> 
> Is it now, or will it be anytime soon, the time to consider 
> implementing this for existing tools and feeds?  
> 
> -Bill Kearney
> 
> 
>  
> 
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> 
> 

-- 
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/