As a demonstration of early support for SDF, we've deployed a model that transforms a channel into an SDF business feed. This is as much a demonstration of SDF as it is for MyST's platform agility. Indeed, for those of you that are interested in SDF (or any XML document formats) consider MyST and MySmartChannels as the perfect sandbox to create, host, and manage XML content formats of any type. It took just a few minutes to create support for this prototype SDF format and you can use it today to experiment.

For example, this channel (Into the Myst) is transformed as SDF by simply appending the ?model=sdf-businessnews to the end of the discrete address for this content:

http://myst-technology.com/mysmartchannels/public/channel/214?model=sdf-businessnews

This also works seamlessly with our secure services, so if you need secure SDF documents, just create an account in MySmartChannels, then create a channel, and add items. Use your own channel ID in the URL provided above, and you have the SDF equivalent.

Give us a shout if you have questions about this or you need other SDF formats.

The options for seamless access and utilization of RSS content by non-technical information workers is almost non-existent.

To combat this, we've experimented with using Microsoft Office Research Services for delivering a rich search experience based on RSS content sources. We do this by creating virtual RSS respositories (SmartSpaces which are really domains of interest) that also provide transformations to MOSTL (Smart Tags) and ORS (Office Research Services). Users simply subscribe to a research service through any Microsoft Office 2003 application and then begin to "discover" information that flows through the RSS collection for which the service is based.

This approach is delivered in two general solutions - a SmartSpace that is cumulative (all feed items are persisted even if they drop from the current feed list), and a moving window on the feed content. There are reasons for both behaviors but I'll delve into that another time.

"I believe that subscription and aggregation are features that appeal to the mainstream, and the number of users who use RSS without having any clue about the underlying technologies could easily dwarf the number of “power” users.  There are certainly people who feel differently -- people who think that aggregator usage is low because most users don't want or need the functionality.  But I'm pretty sure that uptake is low because of poor user experience at this point." -- Joshua Allen

Joshua is right - eventually, the number of people benefiting from RSS will far outweigh the technical audience just as the number of people benefiting from all XML use cases does so today. RSS is an implementation detail that will fade into the backdrop just as ODBC and SQL did (ergo, users aren't aware that they use SQL when making an airline reservation).

"To be honest, the non-technical end-to-end user experience for discovering and using subscription/aggregation is pretty crappy today." -- Joshua Allen

Joshua hasn't seen a SmartSpace. ;-)

Nautical Solutions Marketing Inc. of St. Petersburg runs a Web site called YachtBroker.com which uses a software program to harvest yacht sale information from other Web sites, including one owned by Boats.com of Lake Forest, Ill., and then compiles it for its subscribers.

Nautical's practice of collecting yacht listings, photos and product descriptions from various Web sites represented lawful use of facts that weren't protected by copyright law, Judge Steven D. Merryday ruled April 1.