Saturday, December 31, 2005
In memoriam: Podcast Specification Working Group
I'm waiting for a response to my e-mail request to join the Web 2.0 Workgroup. I hope it works out, with me having a little experience in special interest communities under my belt. While I ponder topics to blog about relative to creating next-gen user experiences, software development and content distribution on the Web, one bittersweet memory I'll take away from 2005 is having worked with Chaim Krause, a great guy, on his Podcast Specification Working Group.
Chaim initially penned the memorable blog post "An Open Letter to the Podcasting Community", in which he put out a casting call for developers, architects, podcasters and online multimedia experts to join him in his interest in furthering podcasting. I did, becoming involved with a very impressive roster that included on the distribution list platform co-founder Adam Curry. This was my first experience in a formal working group dealing with computer issues and subsequently my first foray with BaseCamp, which rules.
The PSWG's mission was to establish, among other things, a universal recommendation for adopting single-click subscription in podcast aggregation clients. The release of iTunes 4.9 in late June consequently wrecked that notion. A near-instantaneous worldwide embrace of the medium from mainstream audiences, new bandwidth and data transfer challenges for content creators and a suddenly heavily Apple-influenced podcastosphere drew much of the attention away from conversations within the PSWG that were making some decent progress.
I remember the liveliness of the discussions within the group - lots of open source gurus and people from LAMP shops. Lots of things to learn. A few expected attitudes, but no real deliberate flamers. I was the first, and if I recall correctly, only one of a handful of .NET developers to join; I was going to make my main contribution translation of the Java and/or Python code to C# for the world's benefit.
The threads started becoming less lively after the post-iTunes fallout, and eventually died out altogther. A last-ditch effort by Chaim to rally his troops and either continue discussions or voluntarily submit to the tidal surge of corporate marketing and developmental push ultimately proved fruitless. The PSWG had dried up. But maybe that was the point - the platform, at thay point having reached its first growth spurt, wasn't ready for formal ratification at that stage in the game.
Of note: single-click subscription, even in a Web with ever-expanding creative uses of Flash and AJAX, still largely hasn't panned out for podcasts. And sadly, the Blogger-based URL used by the PWSG has evidently been relinquished, now belonging to the band "Porn Stars With Guitars". Any historical documentation of the events and people involved are relegated to Google's cache or blogs like this one.
So tip a 40, take a moment of silence, leave a few extra pennies in the tip jar or do whatever you have to do to remember the tragic end to a really great idea. Chaim did what few do - stick his neck out on behalf of the community in the name of progress. He deserves a tip of the cap for his efforts.
History may not remember his contribution as a major milestone in the evolution of podcasting, but I think it's worth merit here.
Chaim initially penned the memorable blog post "An Open Letter to the Podcasting Community", in which he put out a casting call for developers, architects, podcasters and online multimedia experts to join him in his interest in furthering podcasting. I did, becoming involved with a very impressive roster that included on the distribution list platform co-founder Adam Curry. This was my first experience in a formal working group dealing with computer issues and subsequently my first foray with BaseCamp, which rules.
The PSWG's mission was to establish, among other things, a universal recommendation for adopting single-click subscription in podcast aggregation clients. The release of iTunes 4.9 in late June consequently wrecked that notion. A near-instantaneous worldwide embrace of the medium from mainstream audiences, new bandwidth and data transfer challenges for content creators and a suddenly heavily Apple-influenced podcastosphere drew much of the attention away from conversations within the PSWG that were making some decent progress.
I remember the liveliness of the discussions within the group - lots of open source gurus and people from LAMP shops. Lots of things to learn. A few expected attitudes, but no real deliberate flamers. I was the first, and if I recall correctly, only one of a handful of .NET developers to join; I was going to make my main contribution translation of the Java and/or Python code to C# for the world's benefit.
The threads started becoming less lively after the post-iTunes fallout, and eventually died out altogther. A last-ditch effort by Chaim to rally his troops and either continue discussions or voluntarily submit to the tidal surge of corporate marketing and developmental push ultimately proved fruitless. The PSWG had dried up. But maybe that was the point - the platform, at thay point having reached its first growth spurt, wasn't ready for formal ratification at that stage in the game.
Of note: single-click subscription, even in a Web with ever-expanding creative uses of Flash and AJAX, still largely hasn't panned out for podcasts. And sadly, the Blogger-based URL used by the PWSG has evidently been relinquished, now belonging to the band "Porn Stars With Guitars". Any historical documentation of the events and people involved are relegated to Google's cache or blogs like this one.
So tip a 40, take a moment of silence, leave a few extra pennies in the tip jar or do whatever you have to do to remember the tragic end to a really great idea. Chaim did what few do - stick his neck out on behalf of the community in the name of progress. He deserves a tip of the cap for his efforts.
History may not remember his contribution as a major milestone in the evolution of podcasting, but I think it's worth merit here.
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