MSDN just published my article, Fun with IXMLHttpRequest and RSS. The article attempts to illuminate two growing trends; using DHTML & IXMLHttpRequest to build dynamic web applications and the building of interesting applications layered on top of RSS.

In my recent post Ideas for my next Extreme XML column on MSDN, I asked what people would like to see me write about next. Although this topic came second, I felt that it highlighted some interesting disruptive trends that warranted writing about sooner rather than later.

Coincidentally, I checked my favorite RSS reader this morning and find out that our CEO decided to downplay the importance of RSS this morning in favor of XML Web Services in a Q&A on the RSS weblog. I find it interesting that his core argument against RSS is that it is not as complex as XML Web Service technologies. On the flip side, we have Mark Lucovsky who in his post Don Box and Hailstorm argues that the simple technologies and techniques of RSS may succeed in building an ecosystem of applications built on open data access where his attempt with Hailstorm at Microsoft failed. Combining this with the thinking in Adam Bosworth's Web of Data, it seems clear that key people at Google are beginning to understand the power of REST in combination with the flexible nature of RSS.

This all seems like classic Innovator's Dilemma stuff. Thankfully, in this case even though there are lots of people who want us [Microsoft] to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to recognizing these emerging trends, there are also annoying people like me at work who keep preaching this stuff to anybody who is willing to listen.

Will RSS change the world? That's a silly question, it already has.


 

Friday, 20 May 2005 18:54:21 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Just a comment... your site doesn't work at all in Safari on OS X. I know you're a Windows person and probably don't really care about the Mac but the only way I can read your posts is in my news reader. And I do thank you for putting your entire post in the RSS feed. But sometimes I want to actually visit the site generating a feed and alas yours looks like a hurricane struck it in my browser.

Gary

Friday, 20 May 2005 19:01:32 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
RSS is still limited to the delivery of static content for most applications.

Isn't there something to be said for dynamic, interactive content which harnesses the power of the client?

ASP.NET 2.0 provides an elegant pattern, using ICallbackEventHandler and GetCallbackEventReference to expose server logic to the client UI.

I had a bit of joy in implementing a procedural web animation. I think it's a do-able, non-Flash way to create dynamic UI elements which mesh with server side components.

If RSS is flexible enough to emit binary data it would serve just as nicely as WS for generative content.

Web Animation Using Client-Side Callbacks
http://spaces.msn.com/members/okaq/Blog/cns!1po3aQ5IMCI8PfcPIEIDmbkQ!934.entry

Friday, 20 May 2005 21:20:12 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Ajax should be renamed "Aja" and XMLHttpRequest should be renamed "HttpRequest". That the data is *sometimes* formatted as XML is not important.
pb
Saturday, 21 May 2005 02:27:36 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
you should just come join us... we "get it"
markl
Saturday, 21 May 2005 03:35:52 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Any CEO who doesn't use RSS should be fired.
Monday, 23 May 2005 07:36:17 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
keep on truckin' Dare, google will eventually hire you!
Larry Page
Monday, 23 May 2005 19:56:29 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Haha, I must agree, Bill G's comments were pretty funny. "XML Web Services are so much better because they're complicated! RSS is, by definition, -simple-" (yes, I'm paraphrasing for humor).

Of course, why would you want to use something quick, simple, and easy, when you have the tough to install, hard to manage, and difficult to understand option at your fingertips?

I mean, that kind of choice is no choice at all. Right Bill?
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