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Still Looking for that Aha! Moment on OPML

Jan 5th, 2006
by Dan Gillmor.

John Palfrey, my new colleague, says he gets it now about OPML. I confess that I still don’t quite grasp its importance. I am, I further confess, dense about some things. Still working to understand it better…

Update: I’m starting to get it now…

Posted in: Tools.

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2 Comments on “Still Looking for that Aha! Moment on OPML”

  1. #1 remove
    on Jan 5th, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    Obviously you have to understand what RSS is to understand what an OPML file is for. But since it’s obvious that you do have a grasp on RSS (as evidenced by the comprehensive “Subscribe” panel on the site, it’s pretty easy to explain. The idea is essentially like exporting your bookmarks from your web browser (for backup purposes, or to share with a friend)– except instead of bookmarks, you’ve got RSS feeds, and instead of your web browser, you’ve got your RSS feed reader (or online RSS subscription service, like My Yahoo or instance). So, if person A uses RSS, and has a bunch of feeds that they’d like to share with person B, who is new to RSS, person A might export his OPML file from his RSS feed reader, to share with his friend person B, who can then import the OPML file into their reader, and pick and choose which RSS feeds he or she is interested in keeping. It’s quite a neat idea actually, but one that hasn’t been really used much yet by users of RSS, as you don’t see many people offering to share their OPML files. In some ways, OPMLs function as a blogroll file. Hope that clears things up, cool site. I’ve got you subscribed to your RSS feed in _my_ OPML 😉

  2. #2 Jim Moore's Journal: Reporting on systems evolving
    on Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    Horse and carriage, RSS and OPML, subscribing and categorization, universalized….

    Hey Dan Gillmor, I enjoyed your post, as displayed in the mini-aggregator at the bottom of this page….