[microformats-discuss] Developer Adoption

[Josh Owens]

Josh,

My question would be, will there ever be much of an advantage to the user to 
utilize a scraping tool over .ics files? All the calendar clients inherintly 
support iCal, not to mention the fact that you could use Brian's x2v tool to 
output an iCal file. I don't think it should be up to the user to utilize 
the scraping tool, it should be up to developers to deliver the content to 
them in tools they already have. I recently had a discussion with Brian Deer 
of evdb.com <http://evdb.com> and we discussed this very thing, why force 
the user to switch/add tools? It just doesn't make sense to me.

--Josh

On 7/14/05, Joshua Porter <porter at bokardo.com> wrote:
> 
> To add to Bud's post: I wrote up a short piece for my blog ( http://
> bokardo.com/archives/intro-to-microformats/<http://bokardo.com/archives/intro-to-microformats/>) right after the
> microformats.org <http://microformats.org> site went up. It was my initial 
> impression, and
> contains some wrong impressions...but ones that could be used, if
> combined with other impressions from other designers, to come up with
> a framework for explaining what they are more clearly.
> 
> It doesn't matter if microformats are *right*, it matters if they are
> *supported*. Support comes in part from developers who code for them,
> but without *demand* from users support will die on the vine. Support
> is not just having microformats on a site. It includes the ability of
> users to do something useful with them.
> 
> A "showcase" application is a great way to grow demand. Upcoming.org<http://Upcoming.org>
> is not a showcase application for microformats, because they already
> have .ics and feed files available. There is no incentive for users
> to use a scraping tool over simply grabbing the .ics file.
> 
> As I say in my post, a great example of a showcase application is
> http://housingmaps.com
> 
> After seeing housingmaps, you don't need to know anything else...you
> just want to use the Google Maps API.
> 
> 
> josh
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 14, 2005, at 11:27 AM, Bud Gibson wrote:
> 
> > On Jul 14, 2005, at 8:48, Andy Hume wrote:
> >
> >
> >> I'm more concerned with getting your 'average designer in the
> >> street' to start authoring contact details within an hcard as a
> >> matter of course. Teach them that the cost is negligible, the
> >> benefits are good today, and may be great tomorrow. Without an
> >> uptake of microformat authors they'll be no reason to implement
> >> applications or parsing machines. Correct?
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Chicken and egg. My discussions with authors often suggest that
> > they are looking for the compelling value proposition to make the
> > extra coding worth it. That value proposition will come through
> > applications and services that consume the microformat.
> >
> > I humbly submit hCalendar and hCard as examples to support this claim.
> >
> > Adoption of microformats depends on a clear value proposition to
> > the author and ultimate end-user. This in turn depends partly on
> > the availability of applications and services.
> >
> > Bud
> > _______________________________________________
> > microformats-discuss mailing list
> > microformats-discuss at microformats.org
> > http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> microformats-discuss mailing list
> microformats-discuss at microformats.org
> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/attachments/20050714/86ed50b7/attachment-0001.html