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= microformats =
= microformats =


microformats are:
'''What are microformats?'''
 
''microformats are:''
 
* a way of thinking about data
* a way of thinking about data
* design principles for formats
* design principles for formats
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* all the above.
* all the above.


microformats are not:
''microformats are not:''
 
* a new language
* a new language
* infinitely extensible and open-ended
* infinitely extensible and open-ended
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* defining the whole world, or even just boiling the ocean
* defining the whole world, or even just boiling the ocean
* any of the above
* any of the above


== the microformats principles ==
== the microformats principles ==
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** design to be reused and embedded inside existing formats and microformats
** design to be reused and embedded inside existing formats and microformats
* enable and encourage decentralized development, content, services
* enable and encourage decentralized development, content, services
** explicitly encourage "spirit of the Web"  
** explicitly encourage "spirit of the Web"
 
== microformats presentations ==
* See separate microformats [[presentations]] page.
 
== the business case for microformats ==
* [http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/06/microformats_pr.html Microformats provide immediate search visibility]
* [http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/06/_microformats_a.html Microformats and do-it-yourself vertical search aggregation]
 
== microformats specifications ==
 
=== People, Companies, Organizations ===
* [[hcard|hCard]]
 
=== Calendars and Events ===
* [[hcalendar|hCalendar]]
 
=== Opinions, Ratings and Reviews ===
* [[vote-links|VoteLinks]]
* [[hreview|hReview]]
 
=== Social Networks ===
* [http://gmpg.org/xfn XFN - XHTML Friends Network]
 
=== Licenses, open source, content sharing ===
* rel="license" - [[rel-license|RelLicense]] - in use by:
** [http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons]
 
=== Tags, keywords, categories ===
* rel="tag" - [[rel-tag|RelTag]] - in use by:
** [http://technorati.com/ Technorati]
** [http://evdb.com/ EVDB]
** numerous content authoring platforms (blogging tools etc.)
* [http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/05/xfolk_entry_04.html xFolk] with specific application to distributed social bookmarking.  In use by:
** [http://de.lirio.us/ de.lirio.us]
** [http://blogmarks.net blogmarks]
** Other implementations pending for [http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/06/_microformats_a.html Microformats and do-it-yourself vertical search aggregation].
 
=== Lists and Outlines ===
* [[xoxo|XOXO]]
** [[xoxo-sample-code|XOXO code]]
 
=== hyperlink relationships ===
** tracked by [http://technorati.com/live/votes.html Technorati Votes]
** rel="nofollow" - [[rel-nofollow|relNoFollow]] - in use by:
*** [http://google.com/ Google]
*** [http://technorati.com/ Technorati]
*** numerous content authoring platforms (blogging tools etc.)
 
=== Foundation ===
* [http://gmpg.org/xmdp XMDP - XHTML Meta Data Profiles]
 
== microformats based specifications ==
The beauty of small and simple microformats is that they can easily be reused as building blocks to for richer formats and specifications.
 
=== Attention ===
* [http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml Attention.XML]
** is built with the following microformats
*** [[XOXO]]
*** [http://gmpg.org/xfn XFN]
*** [[votelinks]]
** AttentionQuery for applications and services
** Prototype OPML converter at http://www.technorati.com/attention.html
== microformats experiments and first thoughts ==
=== Reviews ===
* [[hreview]]
* [[reviews-formats]] - research into existing review schemas and formats to attempt to understand the common simple subset that makes sense to turn into a microformat, as well as analysis of existing review markup structures used for presentation.
 
=== News Story Relationships ===
* [http://holovaty.com/blog/archive/2005/03/18/0033 Online news relationships]
 
=== Podcasts ===
* [[podcast-metadata]] - A standard for using HTML to markup podcast "show notes" blog posts with machine usable metadata
 
=== Robots Exclusion ===
* [[robots-exclusion]]
* introduction in [http://peterjanes.ca/blog/archives/2004/08/24/xmdp-style-robot-profile XMDP-style Robot Profile]
** [http://peterjanes.ca/blog/archives/2005/04/07/robot-blocking-microformat updated post]
 
=== Exams and certification ===
* [[examl]]
 
=== Job postings ===
* [http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_04_12.html#009446 Jeff Jarvis - The future of classifieds] outlines the coming demand for a distributed job posting microformat.
 
=== Hymns ===
* [http://42.blogs.warnock.me.uk/2005/04/open_formats_fo.html Open Formats for Services: Hymns]
 
=== Comments ===
* [http://an9.org/devdev/mfComment An idea for structuring blog comments]
 
=== WikiFormats ===
* [http://communitywiki.org/WikiFormats WikiFormats] - making formats out of materials common to most all wiki: bold, italic, links, and maybe lists.
 
=== Projects ===
* [http://dannyayers.com/xmlns/hdoap/profile/ hDOAP] - DOAP (Description of a Project) RDF, rev-engineered to microformat
 
== Discussion ==
* See [http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/referer.html blogs discussing this page].
* Interesting [http://microformats.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science parallels between microformats and NKS principles].

Revision as of 18:36, 28 June 2005

microformats

What are microformats?

microformats are:

microformats are not:

  • a new language
  • infinitely extensible and open-ended
  • an attempt to get everyone to change their behavior and rewrite their tools
  • a whole new approach that throws away what already works today
  • a panacea for all taxonomies, ontologies, and other such abstractions
  • defining the whole world, or even just boiling the ocean
  • any of the above

the microformats principles

  • solve a specific problem
  • start as simple as possible
    • solve simpler problems first
    • make evolutionary improvements
  • design for humans first, machines second
    • be presentable and parsable
    • visible data is better than invisible metadata
    • adapt to current behaviors and usage patterns, e.g. (X)HTML, blogging
  • reuse building blocks from widely adopted standards
  • modularity / embeddability
    • design to be reused and embedded inside existing formats and microformats
  • enable and encourage decentralized development, content, services
    • explicitly encourage "spirit of the Web"
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