So, forget what you already know about RSS - that it's for blogs, etc. (Because while it's true that blogging and RSS are almost synonymous these days, RSS doesn't have the word "blog" or "podcast" or any other word typically associated with blogging in it.)
But, as you know, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
In computing you've effectively got two major mindsets for communication (lately): the request-response model (which is really what the web is based on), where users request information when they need (think of a trip to google); and the newer trend towards publication and subscription (or pub-sub). PubSub attempts to give clients/users the ability to 'sign up' to resources they express an interest in, and be updated when new content is delivered.
RSS just happens to be a great way to describe 'published' or syndicated material. But it isn't limited strictly to rants about the government, reminiscences of vacations, recipes, technical blather, or anything else typically associated with blogging.
Enter RSSBus.
I'm still not quite sure what to make of it, but it looks like an RSS-instead-of-UDDI approach to systems integration. I still have a bit of a hard time shaking my pre-conceived notions about RSS (and its relation to blogging/etc.), otherwise, I think there might be some merit in some enterprises. (Though I tend to wonder if it would go over as a HUGE success with pointy-haired bosses ("huh? what? Web services using blogging technology? Wow... yeah, that sounds cutting edge - does it provide support for lego-mind-storms via XML?"), and be sneered at by developers out of a pure sense of NIH (Not Invented Here)?)
First, this is my personal opinion but I do work at nsoftware and am closely associated to RSSBus. So please dont cry wolf at this being biased - maybe it is.
You hit the bull's eye to what the real problem with web services are - "pointy-haired bosses who love their lego-mind storms via XML" - maybe we can do without that.
RSS is just a simpler XML format, XML is still the way to go because of transparency and readability - some of the current WS-* standards completey demolish that notion. As they stand now they might as well have been binary - it would be just as readable.
Web services aside there is another thing that you mention here which is very relavant - means of communication. The *pub-sub* model is not just a replacement to the *request-response* cycle, it is also a replacement to a the *push* model. (a.k.a email - which is annoyingly in your face). It's not a coincidence that we read our feeds, just as we used to read email in its early days - at out convenience.
Posted by: Amit Sharma | May 25, 2006 at 06:46 AM
Amit,
I think pointy-haired-bosses and the 'whole corporate thing' may actually be RSSBus' biggest worry. I know developers are hip to the idea of consuming software as services (with published definitions/interfaces), but in the limited experience I've had at corporations, developers are rarely allowed to interact with software this way. Instead, pointy-hairs from multiple depts with a couple of token/key developers will meet and talk about business needs ad naseum. (My aversion here isn't to business needs/rules - it's to all the wasted time, politics, stupidity, etc.)
And, of course, it's always during these planning/integration meetings that some aspiring pointy-haired boss (who reads CIO magazine or something) 'verifies' that the new solution will use ... AJAX, XML, podcasts, and any other 'cutting edge' tech-term they can come up with (which, might be a benefit to RSSBus - just mention blogging to this dolt and you've got an instant win *grin*).
But, that's not to say that the underlying idea isn't cool. And frankly, I hope that some day we'll get closer to that. (But I think nsoftware possibly has a long road ahead of them - RSSBus makes sense, but so does UDDI. More importantly though, I think we've now hit the point where organizations should all have UDDI server describing their services/endpoints and all that jazz - but I don't think most corporate devs are seeing ANY of that - because any time they need to integrate, the have to do it the old fashioned way: in a meeting, with pointy-hairs, and devs from the other dept...)
Posted by: Michael K. Campbell | May 25, 2006 at 09:00 AM