[uf-discuss] Format-of-Formats?

[Dr. Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Joe,

> Gotcha... sorry for the intrusion... didn't want to stir things up..

No worries.  After all, most of are here *in order* to stir things  
up. :-)

> it certainly is a big challenge.  A gentleman on SB recommended
> Microcontent Description (MCD) as a starting point.  Ernie, if you're
> up for it, I'd be interested in getting something going.  I think this
> list is the place to do it but I certainly respect Tantak's desire to
> avoid the quagmire!

Understood.

> Maybe a sub-list of some sort that Ernie and I moderate?  Best,  Joe

Not a bad idea at all.

Tantek, I realize you may think this a complete waste of time, but  
would you be willing to at least quarantine us lunatics in our own  
"microformats-schema" mailing list?  If nothing else, it provides a  
safety valve to prevent the issue from cropping up here  
periodically.  And who knows? Every 65 million years or so, something  
*does* manage to boil the ocean. :-)

-- Ernie P.

On Mar 30, 2006, at 9:28 AM, Joe Reger, Jr. wrote:

>
> On 3/30/06, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar <drernie at opendarwin.org> wrote:
>> Hi Joe,
>>
>>> Is this format-of-formats already done?  If so, I apologize, can you
>>> point me to it?  If not, what has been done and would it be  
>>> premature
>>> for me to start work on such a draft specification (after much
>>> feedback from everybody here, of course)?
>>
>> This is actually an FAQ, and a fairly tricky one at that, since it is
>> isomorphic to the problem of a "general purpose parser."  I believe
>> Tantek has declared that discussion off-topic for this list, since it
>> has the potential to be a never-ending rathole.  However, I can't
>> find such a statement on the FAQ:
>>
>> http://microformats.org/wiki/faq#Basic_Microformat_Questions
>>
>> Tantek, is that in fact the policy, and is it documented somewhere?
>>
>> That said, there are a few of us crazy enough to want to try, which
>> I'm open to doing off-list if you're interested...
>>
>> -- Ernie P.
>>
>>
>> On Mar 30, 2006, at 8:45 AM, Joe Reger, Jr. wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All!
>>>
>>> I've been lurking for a while and truly appreciate all of the great
>>> work going into microformats right now!
>>>
>>> I saw a message on the Structured Blogging mailing list that got me
>>> thinking about a format-of-formats... a standard way to describe a
>>> format.  My thoughts are here:
>>>
>>> http://www.joereger.com/entry-logid7-eventid5003-Structured-
>>> Blogging-FormatofFormats.log
>>>
>>> As I posted, I realized that I haven't checked in with Tantek and
>>> others regarding the concept of a format-of-formats.  I've seen a  
>>> lot
>>> of Atom/RDF used.  I was a proponent of XML Schema a while back.   
>>> I've
>>> been dabbling with Xforms.  XUL is out there.
>>>
>>> My basic position is that we should be able to provide a common  
>>> format
>>> for the description of a microformat.  By creating a standard to
>>> describe the formats we free toolmakers to create an implementation
>>> and then be done with it.  Once we have support from WordPress, MT,
>>> Drupal, LJ, etc then we can spawn microformats more quickly,  
>>> requiring
>>> little or no development on the toolmaker part.  Toolmakers will
>>> compete by providing advanced features in their implementation (like
>>> CSS override hooks, see blog post).  Aggregators like
>>> Technorati/PubSub will be able to build advanced functionality on  
>>> top
>>> of specific formats and will compete at that level.  For example,
>>> Technorati may create Technorati Music while PubSub may create  
>>> PubSub
>>> Movies... their investment differentiates and end-users win.
>>>
>>> Is this format-of-formats already done?  If so, I apologize, can you
>>> point me to it?  If not, what has been done and would it be  
>>> premature
>>> for me to start work on such a draft specification (after much
>>> feedback from everybody here, of course)?
>>>
>>> Thanks for getting me up to speed!  Keep up the great work!
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Joe Reger
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> microformats-discuss mailing list
>>> microformats-discuss at microformats.org
>>> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
>>
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