RSS (file format)

RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by (amongst other things) news websites and weblogs. The abbreviation is used to refer to the following standards:

History

Before RSS, several similar formats already existed for syndication, but none achieved widespread popularity or are still in common use today, as most were envisioned to work only with a single service. For example, in 1997 Microsoft created Channel Definition Format for the Active Channel feature of Internet Explorer 4.0. Another was created by Dave Winer of UserLand Software. He had designed his own XML syndication format for use on his Scripting News weblog, which was also introduced in 1997 http://davenet.scripting.com/1997/12/15/scriptingNewsInXML.

Related Topics:
1997 - Microsoft - Channel Definition Format - Internet Explorer - Dave Winer - UserLand Software - Scripting News

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RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by Dan Libby of Netscape in March 1999 for use on the My Netscape portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999 Libby produced a prototype tentatively named RSS 0.91 http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-spec-0.91.html (RSS standing for Rich Site Summary), that simplified the format and incorporated parts of Winer's scriptingNews format. This they considered a interim measure, with Libby suggesting an RSS 1.0-like format through the so-called Futures Document http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syndication/message/586.

Related Topics:
RDF - Dan Libby - Netscape - My Netscape

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Soon afterwards, Netscape lost interest in RSS/XML, leaving the format without an owner, just as it was becoming widely used. A working group and mailing list, RSS-DEV, was set up by various users and XML world notables to continue its development. At the same time, Winer unilaterally posted a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification to the Userland website, since it was already in use in their products. Since neither side had any official claim on the name or the format, arguments raged whenever either side claimed RSS as its own, creating what became known as the RSS fork.

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The RSS-DEV group went on to produce RSS 1.0 in December 2000. Like RSS 0.9 (but not 0.91) this was based on the RDF specifications, but was more modular, with many of the terms coming from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core.

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Nineteen days later, Winer released RSS 0.92, a minor and supposedly compatible set of changes to RSS 0.91. In April 2002, he published a draft of RSS 0.93 which was almost identical to 0.92. A draft RSS 0.94 surfaced in August, reverting the changes made in 0.93, and adding a type attribute to the description element.

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In September 2002, Winer released a final successor to RSS 0.92, known as RSS 2.0 and emphasizing "Really Simple Syndication" as the meaning of the three-letter abbreviation. The RSS 2.0 spec allowed people to add extension elements using XML namespaces. In 2003, Winer and Userland Software assigned ownership of the RSS 2.0 specification to his then workplace, Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet & Society.

Related Topics:
September 2002 - XML namespaces - 2003 - Berkman Center for the Internet & Society

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Winer was criticized for unilaterally creating a new format and raising the version number. In response, RSS 1.0 coauthor Aaron Swartz published RSS 3.0, a non-XML textual format. The format was possibly intended as a parody and only a few implementations were ever made.

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In January 2005, Sean B. Palmer and Christopher Schmidt produced a preliminary draft of RSS 1.1. http://inamidst.com/rss1.1/ It was intended as a bugfix for 1.0, removing little-used features, simplifying the syntax and improving the specification based on the more recent RDF specifications. As of July 2005, RSS 1.1 had amounted to little more than an academic exercise.

Related Topics:
Sean B. Palmer - Christopher Schmidt

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In August 2005, Jonathan Avidan launched his own project http://www.rss3.org/ to create an "RSS 3", though apparently without backing from anyone in the RSS industry, and the project failed to take off. Sean B. Palmer and Morbus Iff, claiming to be acting on behalf of Aaron Swartz, sent a cease-and-desist notice for abuse of the RSS 3 name. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2005Aug/0018.html

Related Topics:
Sean B. Palmer - Morbus Iff - Aaron Swartz

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