Some emails I got in reaction to Monday's post amounted to.... "WTF??". So let me explain futher...
First, in order to paint my view of the OPML-everywhere future allow me the indulgence of a neologism. I need it because the term "Reading List" limits our vision. I can understand why that's a useful term right now to communicate the idea of subscribable lists of text based RSS feeds but we need to quickly jump beyond the notion of text based subscriptions to see the extraordinary possibilities.
So, here it is..... a "Beed" is a "Bundle of Feeds".
A Beed is a dynamic OPML file, the same as a "Reading List", except in addition to text feeds it includes audio and video podcast feeds and any other file format supported by the RSS enclosure tag. In other words, a Beed is a Reading List, a Listening List, a Watching List, and all-in-all a sensory subscriptions list.
Second, as Russ Beattie is blue in the face from telling us - the mobile (cell) phone is the interconnected computer of the future. We're not yet there universally but'll we'll soon be at a stage where most mobiles come with all-you-can-eat 3G (or better) data plans.... and Bluetooth. Remember Bluetooth funtionality is popping up everywhere, including automobile dashboards. And next generation Bluetooth (or whatever it becomes) will of course support much higher bandwidths.
Third, there are now at least 4 different RSS aggregators that work on my aging Nokia 6630. Very soon we'll see the addition of enclosure reading (podcatching) and OPML browsing to give us a next generation Mobile Multimedia Aggregator. Or you might call it a Beed Reader.
Now, let me finally give you a solid example of how we'll use Beeds in the near future....
My Morning Commute Beed.
It's the morning of January 24th 2008 and nearly time to head to work. While I'm finishing off my bowl of cornflakes my mobile phone is busily polling my RSS feeds, giving priority to the feeds in the Morning Commute Beed I setup recently, because it knows I'll be needing it in a few minutes.
Ok, I'm off... lock the door behind me and sit into my car. Right away my mobile pairs with the dashboard console over Bluetooth and the digital display shows all new item titles in my Morning Commute Beed. Because it's January the Beed currently includes a local weather reports feed. Once March arrives my Beed Reader will automatically remove that feed but right now its the first thing I check every morning before turning the ignition key. The dash LCD rolls a 10 second weather conditions movie. No ice.... nice!
Next I hit play on the radio console and instantly my audio podcasts start playing back over the car speakers. My phone is my media center. I'm half way through An tImeall when a new RSS item from my Traffic Alerts feed comes in and pops up on the LCD. It's a map indicating trouble ahead.... I'd better re-route. My Traffic Alerts feed changes according to my situation. If I stayed the night in the city it would know I have a different route to work. That's the beauty of Beeds (remember... Reading Lists on steroids) - the list of feeds automatically changes according to my preferences. Dynamic OPML.
I arrive outside the office, park my car and enter the building. The second I get within range of my office PC my mobile pairs with it over bluetooth and switches my Beed Reader to my Work Beed. Right away new items from that Beed start filling the PC screen. Agenda items, new rssmail, missed calls, canteen menu, company announcements, etc, etc.
The possibilities are truly endless. Information feeds are all around us and will go everywhere with us on our mobile Beed Readers. The business opportunities are equally numerous. Just use your imagination!
This was the first in an ongoing series on the future of OPML. To be continued....
January 25, 2006
mmm Opml-everywhere, just had a thought, could we use opml/rss to replace e-mail and as a final solution for spam? Instead of sending messages to an emailaddress one would add messages to a secured feed that the receiver is subscribed to. The receiver is in control now, he can choose to subscribe to the feed or not. Enclosures could replace atachments.
Just a thought.
About 'beed', bundle of feeds sounds like bundle of passion, a term Dave Slusher came up with before the term podcast was arround. It sounds like a vegetable in dutch so i'm against ;)
Posted by: Pieter Overbeeke | January 26, 2006 at 07:42 AM
Darn! I looked up the word in Wikipedia and the only result was - "Beed is a town in Maharashtra state of India." Its so darned difficult to come up with anything orginal nowadays ;-)
Posted by: James Corbett | January 26, 2006 at 11:33 AM
All I can say is... I look forward to be able to tell you all about the work I'm doing at the moment :))
Have you been jacking into my brain too? ;)
my initials are JACK ;) heh
Posted by: kosso | January 26, 2006 at 12:55 PM
And I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what you've got cooking up Kosso. Your suite of apps looks like the most promising I've seen in this exciting new area. Keep up the great work.
Posted by: James Corbett | January 26, 2006 at 04:12 PM