My interest in syndicated feeds (RSS and Atom) began when I saw how useful — now indispensable — they could be in my every day life. I started inkBlots as a way to keep tabs on the technologies and promote the best products and ideas.

To my disappointment, the RSS scene of late has been less about technology and more about personalities. I have never seen so many flamewars, resignations, and even lawsuits over something as innocuous as an XML specification. It has all the makings of a B movie, except for suicide and a sex scandal. (So far…)

At the middle of all of this, of course, is Dave Winer.

As one site puts it, Mr. Winer is either Ghandi or The Bugblatter Beast, depending on your point of view. Whether you revere him or revile him, I suspect you will agree that his ego plays a large part in his reputation. Still, I have wondered: Why is the effort to clarify RSS 2.0 so messy? Why are discussions involving Mr. Winer often so contentious? Isn’t RSS 2.0 “for the people” even if it wasn’t exactly “by the people”? Don’t we all just want a usable spec? What don’t I know?

As Deep Throat wisely said: “Just follow the money.” The revelation by Rogers Cadenhead that Mr. Winer is a millionaire snaps it all into focus.

Mr. Cadenhead revealed that Mr. Winer has made millions of dollars on RSS, and that he plans to do the same with OPML. Mr. Winer’s power broker activities aren’t simply about his ego, they’re about his wallet. As Mr. Winer once said, “RSS is a billion-dollar format.” Naturally, he also wants a big piece of that pie.

If we remove the pretense of “RSS for the people” from Mr. Winer’s activities, his behavior suddenly makes a lot more sense: He’s a capitalist trying to protect his assets in a socialist Internet. Adoption of RSS by the masses may benefit the masses, but for Mr. Winer it is also a means of making millions. In that scenario, you give it to the masses, but you don’t let them control it.

OPML 2.0 isn’t just his next big idea, it’s Mr. Winer’s next business opportunity. The letter from his attorney reveals his move to the primary shareholder of OPML, if not the sole proprietor. You may like OPML, you may use OPML, but Dave Winer is going to own OPML. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is an important factor to weigh in an open-source world.

Some people have weighed this factor, and are moving from RSS to Atom in response. I don’t advocate this, nor do I disparage it. But isn’t it interesting that people would choose an XML format purely out of distaste for the politics related to another XML format?

Now all we need is that sex scandal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 21:47 and is filed under syndication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.