HISTORY OF RSS AND PODCASTING
Winer's Involvement
Winer developed the first of RSS feed in 1997 when he launched his Website, Scripting News. The site used an XML format that allowed public viewers to see updated information as soon as it is published. Scripting News is widely considered to be one of the first blogs on the internet. Netscape built on Winer’s format and launched RSS .90 which allowed users to automatically add news from other sites to the Netscape homepage. At this point, RSS stood for RDF Site Summary.
The next step was to add more features and make RSS simpler for users. In 1999, Winer and UserLand developed a newer version of RSS using a straight XML format. The name changed to Rich Site Summary.
In 2002, Winer left UserLand, but kept working with RSS. He continued work on his Scripting News site, and came out with RSS 2.0. The version was called Really Simple Syndication. It was innovative in RSS because it allowed for a tag for publication dates and other unique features. RSS became even more influencial when major news publications began using the RSS feeds on their websites.
Winer’s contribution to podcasting
Before the year 2000, RSS was only applicable to text. That changed in 2000 when Winer developed “enclosures� which were tags that would pass the address of a media file to an RSS reader. These files included audio files. Winer enclosed the first non text file by putting a Greatful Dead song on his Scripting News site. Now the entire world of blogging and news had changed. People could now subscribe to a website’s RSS feed and receive audio stories or even TV shows.
RSS in plain English
Podcasting in plain English
Netscape built on Winer’s format and launched RSS .90 which allowed users to automatically add news from other sites to the Netscape homepage. At this point, RSS stood for RDF Site Summary.
The next step was to add more features and make RSS simpler for users. In 1999, Winer and UserLand developed a newer version of RSS using a straight XML format. The name changed to Rich Site Summary.
In 2002, Winer left UserLand, but kept working with RSS. He continued work on his Scripting News site, and came out with RSS 2.0. The version was called Really Simple Syndication. It was innovative in RSS because it allowed for a tag for publication dates and other unique features. RSS became even more influencial when major news publications began using the RSS feeds on their websites.
Winer’s contribution to podcasting
Before the year 2000, RSS was only applicable to text. That changed in 2000 when Winer developed “enclosures� which were tags that would pass the address of a media file to an RSS reader. These files included audio files. Winer enclosed the first non text file by putting a Greatful Dead song on his Scripting News site. Now the entire world of blogging and news had changed. People could now subscribe to a website’s RSS feed and receive audio stories or even TV shows.