[microformats-discuss] Re: Educationg Others

[Mark Pilgrim]

On 10/3/05, Kevin Lawver <kevin at lawver.net> wrote:
> I think the original question is a good one, and one that maybe is
> lacking in examples on the wiki: Are there "successful" examples of
> machines parsing, and getting something meaningful, out of the existing
> microformats?

I'm writing Greasemonkey scripts to parse all the known microformats. 
I have two done already:

http://diveintomark.org/projects/greasemonkey/hcard/
http://diveintomark.org/projects/greasemonkey/rellicense/

hCalendar is next.  I've already done XFN parsing too, which is part
of Magic Line:

http://diveintomark.org/projects/greasemonkey/magicline.user.js

Eventually all of these will come together in a super-script that
parses all available data in every page you ever browse, and publishes
it to your own private Atom Store via the Atom API.  (This part is
already written as well, though unreleased.)

Imagine having your own private database of every person you've ever
stumbled across online, and being able to download their vCards into
your address book.  And every event, which you can download into
iCal/Sunbird/Outlook.  Plus a list of all the Creative
Commons-licensed content you've ever read, which you can repurpose --
legally, according to the terms of the license.

Now imagine searching such a database.  And subscribing to your search
results as a syndicated feed.

It's coming.  Within weeks, not years.  All the data is out there;
people are publishing this stuff anyway.  If they publish it just 1%
better (with appropriate microformatting), I can get 1000% more out of
it.

Or do you just use your browser to browse?  That's so 20th century.

--
Cheers,
-Mark