[uf-discuss] like that in xFolk?

[Dr. Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Tantek,

On Oct 26, 2005, at 5:35 PM, Tantek Çelik wrote:
>> My suspicion is that the RSS/Atom community will probably standardize
>> on something first
>
> Really?  Based on what experience?

Because I strongly suspect that existing video content owners (people  
who own movies and TVs) will start using RSS and/or Atom to publish  
their data, and will naturally look for ways to encode that rating  
information (which is a valuable marketing tool).

>> (since they'll mirror the issues that led movies, TV, and records  
>> to get ratings),
>
> Huh?
>
> Why would you choose those heavily regulated parallels as opposed  
> to say
> *internet* parallels like email, netnews, instant messaging, mp3s,  
> etc.,
> none of which have any kind of critical mass of official ratings.

I'm not saying we *have* to use them.   I'm saying that people who  
care will *want* to use something, and these will at least provide a  
specific well-defined standard that gives people some baseline.

Look, I'm not trying to force anybody to do anything.  However, I do  
believe there are content creators -- and aggregators -- who *would*  
like some simple way to tag content to enable and ease *consumer*  
level filtering.  Because of that, I think the first large, credible  
group to come up with a reasonably useful rating scheme will be  
widely imitated.

Given that US TV shows are the first to be sold on the Internet, I'd  
be willing to bet a meal -- well, lunch :-) -- that those ratings  
will become the de facto standard for rating  online content -- for  
those who care:

http://www.mpaa.org/tv/

Perhaps most content creators won't, but I suspect many popular  
aggregators will require some such ratings, and it will be simpler to  
just standardize on something like this.

-- Ernie P.




------------
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. <drernie at opendarwin.org>
Ex-Physicist, Marketing Weenie, and Dilettante Hacker
Probe-Hacker blog: http://www.opendarwin.org/~drernie/