The Silk Purse of Web 2.0

Danny Ayers says -

"Although OPML is a sow’s ear, such is the capability of the web (and XML) that folks have been able to use it for things quite silk pursey. The built-in demo for OPod is the Open Ireland Directory OPML, and as the demo shows, that’s pretty sweet."

Not to take away from Rowan's programming but I wouldn't agree that OPML is a sow's ear. Nevertheless its good to see someone groks the ideas of Feed Grazing (others think I'm nuts ;-) -

"Ubiquitous computing is on its way, and interaction paradigms that reflect those of the real world certainly stand a much better chance of working."

Danny's right about 'static OPML directories' missing the mark. I don't know why I said that really - it's on-the-fly dynamic directories that I've had in mind as the fodder for feed grazers. But yes, OPML ones. Because, unlike Danny, I think the world is a hierarchy. Or at least we naturally think of it that way. Afterall time is a hierarchy (Centuries->Years->Months->Weeks->Days->Minutes->Hours->Seconds) and so is space (Kilometres->Metres->Centimetres-Millimetres). Maybe I'm not thinking about it academically enough but if the space-time continuum can be warped into a hierarchy that's good enough for me. ;-)

PS. I'll have to let Rowan answer the more technical areas of Danny's arguments.