What is the format of the output from this group?
cqr opened this issue · comments
Reading through https://github.com/syndicated-media/sn-spec, it seems to be implied that the intended output is a loosely collected set of recommendations for programs and clients based on a coalition of interested parties coming to some sort of agreement. These recommendations necessarily span existing specs, and entirely new output in some form. I know that we have some connections to the current stewards of the RSS specification as well as some potential to connect with the W3C, but it isn't clear to me to what extent we intend to leverage those.
Because the way we conceive of the output of this group may impact the decisions we are willing to make (see #37), I think it's worth raising part of this question short term. Specifically, the urgent question can be phrased as:
For new recommendations, is the intention to make a single specification to which one can be compliant or non-compliant, or is the intention to make a series of independent recommendations under a broad, potentially loose umbrella?
There are examples of both in the wild, though given the apparent scope of Syndicated.Media's ambitions, I think there is more precedent for the latter. That said, there are trade-offs. While it's unlikely that clients and providers will implement parts of a spec that are not beneficial to them, by explicitly breaking up the recommendations into individual specs we certainly reduce the already slim chance. That said, most of the recommendations under discussion today provide broad benefit to clients and publishers, where the bulk of implementation costs lie.
On a longer term basis, there is additionally the question of how formally to publish the specifications. Things like Podlove and iTunes exist with relatively informal (though well specified) documents. To my knowledge, most of the work in this space (including the RSS spec) was largely published and disseminated through informal channels, with MediaRSS being the most apparently formal work in this space lacking an official RFC with either the IETF or W3C. We do know that both organizations have taken some interest in RSS in the past, though, and it may be worth pursuing that approach.
FWIW, I don't think I want to learn how to draft an RFC, but I suspect we could find someone who is already versed 😄
I personally believe a set of small namespaces and a document overview covering them all with recomandations and requirements, that then could be a way to get "Syndicated Media Compliant" or something. I think it's a pretty common, USB is an example. Although you might need trademarks and I don't know if that's something people want to do.
I'll also note that IETF went with Atom after looking at RSS. I too don't know much about IETF but would they go with SM when they didn't go with RSS?
I want to start drafting some stuff up in the next few days, unless anyone wants to postpone. I'll start with plain text, if markdown is wanted it's easy enough to switch. Layout wise /Overview.txt and /schemas/reruns.txt for individual specs.
I think everything by everyone should go through pull requests, that way there can be in depth discussions an any details.
I suggest going ahead with Markdown, to make the document more readable.