Today is "get caught up day". One of the things on my to-do list is to get a better sense of where the PIE/Atom/Echo/Necho effort is at.

As I mulch through the project wiki and mailing list archive, I'm drawn to the larger question of why syndication formats are so entirely web-centric? (Noting strongly for the record that I am thinking about all of the syndication formats equally in regard - this isn't directed in any particular direction.) Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for this stuff to start getting more agnostic about transport? Or at the very least, start becoming more concerned about mappings to other transports? HTTP isn't the only logical way to move bits back and forth on the network...

It might just be too psychotic to be practical...nonetheless...

Another question pops into my head.

Why haven't any of the syndication format efforts made the investment into a formal standards process? (or have they, history is as clear as mud on this point...) I mean, it seems to me that a lot of the kerfluffle about which effort had the most merit is one of the reasons that these formal organizations exist - to ensure that a set of processes are followed that discourages forking and the resultant competitive efforts and encourages cooperation and singularity. We don't need sixteen different syndication formats, twelve different publishing APIs and so one - we need one well-formed one. Until and unless one of these efforts actually raises the bar and commits to structured, formal standards development, I'm willing to bet (despite my hopes to the contrary) that we will see more, not fewer, derivative efforts and forked projects.

Which is definitely too psychotic to be practical...