I am but a geek who’s web surfing now revolves around RSS. I have only been producing this site a couple of years using RSS technology and it has profoundly changed me.
First I have influenced a person I have worked with for years to invest a significant amount of time/money integrating RSS into a mainstream application that has been on the market for a long time. My vision will have a significant impact on his company. When your influence and indirectly driven by Dave’s perseverance to develop RSS into a mainstream standard helps change a companies vision that is a powerful thing. (more on that later but for know you will have to ponder what we are up to).
Second I started this website because RSS agreation of data, made me envision something that we have not yet fully implemented. It will be accomplished with RSS,
Look at the number of cottage industries that have sprung up and revolve around RSS. Not very many people can say my vision resulted in the creation of multiple companies doing breakthrough work, Dave Winer can! He is on a very short list of techies that can make such a claim.
Dave Winer was instrumental in making RSS what is today. The Atom folks would not be doing what they are doing if Dave had not done the legwork and revived RSS from the death grip surrounding the demise of Netscape and they should not forget who forged the path.
RSS has given me hope that innovation is still alive and well, it is now being driven mainstream through the voices of 100’s of thousands of webloggers and companies are incorporating the technology every day fearing they are going to be left behind. It’s like a tidal wave it starts as a ripple and ends with overwhelming power.
I am confident though, that with Dave’s leaving the RSS advisory board that he has left it in good hands and the vision will carry on. Will there be changes sure but I also foresee universal incorporation at all levels of the IT infrastructure and into personal media.
Thanks Dave I only wish I had been there from the beginning. [Scripting News]