The birth of a software ecosystem

To mashup Hannibal Smith's great catchphrase - I just love it when a standard comes together. In the same way that we've seen an enormous ecosystem coagulate around the RSS standard we are now seeing the same thing happening with OPML.

All it needed was a bootstrapping kick-start from Dave Winer, in the form of the OPML Editor and all of a sudden we're seeing such things as Taskable, KBCafe OPML surfer, OPML Search, Koz OPML browser and the brand new OPML Manager.

OPML Manager is simply brilliant. As in simple and brilliant. The simplicity is deceptive because its a very powerful enabler. Not only is it a web-based, AJAX enabled OPML editor but, crucially, it's an OPML host. That means that anyone can now contribute a node to an open directory project like indiePodder or the Open Irish Directory.

For instance, under the new top level node Local -> Munster -> Limerick, I transcluded an OPML Manager built and hosted node called Newcastlewest. If you drill down to the GAA node within, with an OPML/RSS viewer such as Taskable the RSS feed is automatically displayed.

So why not spend two minutes registering a free OPML Manager account and building a simple node for your local community today. Just email me at the address above and I'll transclude your node in the Open Irish Director :-)