[microformats-discuss] Proposing RelSource

[Andy Skelton]

Hi everyone, I'm Andy Skelton, creator of http://blogsoftheday.com.
With this email I hope to spark some discussion on a microformat
proposal.

Keeping an eye on BOTD's HotList, which uses traffic stats to rank
recent posts on participating blogs, I have discovered that most news
bloggers are getting their news from other bloggers or mainstream news
sites and very few are reporting first-hand. Most bloggers are already
posting links to their sources (cowpath) but these links are by no
means standardized (paving).

While this kind of news propagation is good, I believe the source
links should be recognized by machines and considered when listings
are generated by engines such as Technorati. To achieve this, I
propose a new microformat: RelSource. Authors can use it when they
quote, reference or discuss a news article reported by another online
source by adding rel="source" when they link to their sources.

Examples:
<a href="http://blogsoftheday.com/?p=43" rel="source">BOTD
proposes</a> a new microformat.
or
Discussion of new RelSource microformat proposal... Source: <a
href="http://blogsoftheday.com/?p=43" rel="source">Blogs Of The
Day</a>

I await your ideas on this matter.

Andy Skelton
http://www.skeltoac.com