Squeezing the left side of the toothpaste

2003-01-02T17:36:04Z

Mark Baker: Take for example, a blog aggregator. If everybody had their own interface to their blog, aggregation would be an O(N^2) task. But luckily they don't, they all make their RSS available over HTTP GET, a very useful common abstraction. That, plus that RSS (all four versions 8-) is a common format, provides for O(N) integration complexity. Key words in that last sentence are all four versions.

Actually, that isn't so much the problem as all the weblogs out there that provide well formed versions of their content, but no discernable schema. This brings rise to such tools as Cheesegrater and Portalizer

To get a proper handle on this, we need to capture both parts of the interface. And to use applicable standards whenever possible.