XML Syndication: Content Feeds vs. Application Remoting

Just more of a quick "thinking out loud" comment as food-for-thought.

The more feeds I see that actually include forms and other attributes that we associate with "applications", the more we need to think about issues related to application remoting rather than content deliver through a feed channel. The recommended best practice is to always include the full item in a feed. I agree with that when the content of the feed is content-centric. But I can see reasons why organizations would prefer to send a summary to alert/notify a user and perhaps render some light application functionality but in other cases, to bring the user back to the site for reasons of access controls, confidentiality, prevent data from seeping into the XML syndication system, etc.

So as we "operationalize" back-end systems (CRM, ERP), we might need to think about the feed channel and items more as remote delivery of an application than as people might have traditionally thought of when the words "RSS" or "Atom" come to mind. In some cases, the scripting capability needed to deliver that lightweight application might be prevented by settings to prevent malicious content. In other cases, the data cache issues as information from a CRM or ERP system is transferred through a feed might need to be reviewed in a different manner re: security and compliance.

This transition from content to application delivery via XML feeds will also place a different level of assessment criteria on vendors in this space as well.

Comments

[Sean Burgess]

I can definitely see where the feeds will morph into a more easily defined and managed version of EDI. I would love to see the government move to pushing out public data, like postal code lists and tax rules, via XML feeds.

[Sandy Kemsley]

There were some really interesting presentations at the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference (e.g., http://www.column2.com/2007/06/enterprise-20-sam-weber) about some of the new uses of RSS; I think that RSS is going to make some significant inroads into businesses with some new applications of the technology.