RSS in 2004

Come December and it is the season for predictions for the next year. Steve Gillmor on RSS:

RSS information routers will emerge in 2004 with the following characteristics:

  • Persistent storage of XHTML full-text/graphics/audio/video of RSS feeds
  • XPATH search across local and Net stores
  • Self-forming and reordering subscriptions lists based on the aggregated priorities of user-chosen domain experts
  • Use of IM notification for post notification to aggregate affinity groups and active conversations
  • Integration of Hydra-like collaborative tools for multi-author conference transcripts
  • Videoconferencing routing and broadcast/recording tools
  • Integration of speech recognition and real-time indexing to allow quoting of linear audio and video streams
  • Mesh networked peer-to-peer synchronization engine for item propagation across shared spaces on multiple clients, including phones; iPods; and eventually Longhorn PDAs (circa 2006).

    Armed with these tools, new industries will emerge in rapid succession:

  • Metadata-driven directories that dynamically create RSS feeds based on affinity
  • Virtual conferences
  • IM/RSS presence networks for rich collaboration and e-mail replacement
  • Content-generation tools based on small, routable XHTML objects
  • A DRM network with enough creative and hardware support to blunt the Microsoft/RIAA DRM threat to peer-to-peer port hijacking.


  • RSS+T

    Published by

    Rajesh Jain

    An Entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India.