Posts tagged as: grazing

Grazr OPML viewer begins public alpha test

I've been hinting about Grazr for a while now, but I didn't post anything explicit because it wasn't open for public testing. Mike Kowalchik, Grazr's author, has now opened up his website to allow anyone to try an Alpha version of the product with any OPML file, and to put a copy on their own web site. Here is an example of Grazr with a sample OPML file:



Grazr uses Javascript, so if you don't see a really cool OPML viewer here, your web browser or aggregator isn't displaying Javascript output. You may have to change your browser preferences. You can also experiment with different OPML files on the Grazr site, as well as create a script to run your own copy of Grazr. If you want to see the raw OPML that is being displayed above, it is here.

The dimensions of Grazr are flexible, and you can shrink the text size, so you can also put one on your side navbar. James Corbett has been using it on his Eirepreneur blog for a while to display his Open Irish Directory. This form factor makes a great reading list widget, because your visitors can actually do feed grazing right on your web page. The term grazing may still be foreign to many people, but basically Grazr is a very capable RSS aggregator. There are still a number of cosmetic issues to improve, but that is why this is still an Alpha version. If you want to make suggestions for improvements, I'm sure Mike will be glad to get the feedback. Here's an example of Grazr with my Tech.Memeorandum dynamic reading list:

I've been helping Mike with the design of Grazr for a while now, but I have no financial relationship with the product or any of Mike's efforts. This is true of all the OPML products I'm working with, and actually all other products and websites. I don't believe in blogging as an independent observer and taking money or equity positions at the same time. There is nothing wrong with writing a company blog, however, such as Mike's own blog, or the blog of any other company employee, as long as that is the clear position of the blogger. For now, I'd rather remain independent, so I'll avoid any financial relationships. When I decide to join a startup or become an investor in one, I'll probably stop this blog and start a new one. At the very least, I'll make my new situation known and change the focus of my writing.

Any product based on the idea of feed grazing owes a debt of gratitude to James Corbett for inventing the term and promoting the concept. James has been a big supporter of Grazr and the rest of the OPML community.

Feed grazing with the Optimal Browser

Feed grazing just got a lot easier, because Dan MacTough has released an open source OPML browser called Optimal. It is still an early version, but it is already good enough to allow people to view OPML reading lists without having to install a desktop aggregator. Optimal is written in PHP, so it shows up right in your browser. I was able to install it by simply copying the files into a new subdirectory on my server. I also made a few simple changes: I modified the title of the page, added a link that will load the dynamic Tech Memeorandum reading list I've been working with for the last few weeks, and added code to refresh the page every hour. Now I can just keep this page open in a browser window and have a true river of interesting feeds.

Optimal doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a full aggregator. Most importantly, it doesn't keep track of the posts you have already read. But it does satisfy the current demand to finally see what an OPML reading list looks like. You can enter the URL of any OPML file and start grazing right away.

(via Eirepreneur)

Feed Grazing Workgroup

I've been using this term as a joke for the last week or so, but today it really seems to be coming true. Things have grown from the "isn't this cool" stage to what does it all mean, how can it work better, and what should it look like.

Reading list podcast

I did a podcast today with Josh Porter, Alex Barnett, and Danny Ayers. It was a lot of fun, especially because of the great mixture of accents. We discussed RSS, OPML, reading lists and feed grazing. We also explored the idea of OPML as a transition to the Semantic Web. It got pretty geeky, but I guess that was to be expected. All of the details are on Alex's blog.

Danny talks quite a bit about the benefits of RDF over OPML, and if you want to know more about this format after listening to the podcast, you should get the book he wrote with Andrew Watt. It's the best explanation available of the history of RSS related formats, and goes into great detail on programming with these formats in several common languages.

Grazing ON feeds versus grazing IN feeds

I can now see where the distinction lies between my original idea of a river of feeds and the notion of feed grazing by James Corbett. The difference is the target of consumption. I saw dynamic reading lists as a way of finding new feeds. Instead of searching them out, I could let a dynamic reading list bring them to me like a river flowing past my house. When a feed looked interesting, I could read the most recent posts without having to subscribe. If I wanted to subscribe to it, I could just drag and drop it into my permament subscription list. My model was using a dynamic reading list as a sampling method.

James was more interested in using reading lists as a way of finding interesting posts. The feeds in the list were branches on the tree that allowed him to reach tasty new acorns. He was thinking of a reading list as a browsing method. Joshua Porter was making the same point as James when he wrote that he was more interested in the post than the actual feed.

I visualize this difference as a matter of topology. I wanted to find new containers (feeds) of information that I could continue to look in for a changing set of information. James and Josh wanted to look inside the containers to find interesting items (posts) without having to worry about the original location (feed) in which they were found.

I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more feeds!

I've been accused of being obsessive, but I can't help it. I gotta have more feeds. This whole subject of real-time feed aggregation, or feed grazing as it's now being called, has really caught my imagination. So I've been looking for something that will cure my fever. I haven't found an aggregator that will satisfy my craving completely, but there are a number of websites that demonstrate the type of interface I need. I'll list them in the hopes that someone will build an OPML capable aggregator with this type of presentation:

• AliveNews has a cool realtime display, but it must be a proof of concept rather than a real site, because it doesn't have any options for expanding the list of pre-defined feeds. Still, the fade-in of feed excerpts is sweet.
• Digg spy is really compelling for the ADD set, but it isn't a true feed aggregator, and it makes me twitch if I watch it for too long.
• LiveMarks by Alex Bosworth applies a different take on this type of presentation to Delicious bookmarks. (via ProgrammableWeb)