A billion-dollar format
Wed, Aug 6, 2003; by Dave Winer.
In response to a weblog post by Diego Doval.
Statements of support are fairly meaningless, actions of support mean something. Help write some specs, help someone bring an application online, those all mean something.
Anyway, I don't think inventing a new format can make the world simpler, in fact it can't help but make it more complex, unless RSS were to somehow disappear because of PEW, a concept which all my years in the software business have beaten out of me. One of my investors, in 1983, asked me if I thought Apple would die soon. I said it sure looks that way. Everyone was saying it would. All the dealers, all the developers, certainly all the press people. He said billion-dollar companies don't disappear. He had much more experience than I did. He was right too.
RSS is a billion-dollar format. If you objectively look at all the content that flows through it you'll see that, like Apple in 1983, it can't be stopped. It doesn't matter who wants to stop it.
So your position is hardly news. Even the most vociferous PEW advocate will have to adopt your position whether they know it or not.
It's funny how Bill Gates never wanted to make Apple disappear, btw. And I note that Novell is still around. And I read the News.Com article on Netscape.Com. This shit never dies.
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