Structured Blogging relaunch

Structured Blogging has relaunched their website with a few new things. The main thing seems to be a new plugin for Wordpress and Movable Type. A few more MicroContent types seem to be supported. And hidden beneath everything seems to be some schema definition file.

As you see, I find it difficult to understand what they actually did (apart from the plugins) and how it translate to my situation as non-Wordpress, non-Movable Type user. Is there anything in it for me? Do I need to update my review blog output? Has anything changed there? I will dig somewhat deeper, but I miss an update page on their site.

Anyway I am positive about this development, as it makes it more easy for a lot of people to publish MicroContent, and that is what we want after-all.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • format
PermaLink • (4) Comments • (1) TrackBacks • Trackback URL

Trackbacks

本来早就策划要写一些对Microcontent/Microformat的文章，没想到sanyonly已经下手了！ -- 以非技术的眼光看microformats我这里也不想多说技术了，简单来说Microcontent/microformat就是一种“标准”的，大家公认的数据交换格式。RSS就是一种类型的microcontent/format.关于microformat, microcontent, 我看得最多的是这个blog, 阅读下来守业匪浅。我个人觉得microcontent是所谓web 2.0中真正最有价值的东西，Microcontent让Open…

Comments

There isn’t really an actual schema definition per se, it’s more of a bunch of micro-content descriptions in a rough XML dialect, transformed by a very simplified XSLT/XPath engine. The main thing to take away right now is that this is a starting point - a line in the sand, a period for interested parties to get involved and discuss the direction. I believe Marc used the phrase ‘peer review’.

I think what needs to be created next (and probably what I’ll try and focus on) is some documentation about how the current structured blogging/content iteration works in a generic sense using the beta plug-ins as reference implementations. I’m very eager to see some specs published which will enable others to start implementing support for structured blogging/content in other tools - such as Drupal, Typo, Plone - and even ExpressionEngine.

On issue that I have has more to do with the current method of storage for micro-content, as we’re basically throwing really useful, structured data into the same big blob in the database - which makes it still somewhat difficult to do anything with it beyond publish it as structured posts and feeds.

There’s a long way to go, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The MicroContent Descriptions are definitely not schemas. MCD is just a very simple user interface description language. It describes multiple views across the same set of microcontent. Currently one editor and any number of presentation views can be contained in the same MCD file. There could even be multiple MCD files for the same microcontent type if for some reason you wanted a different editor interface.

Also, Bryan, you might want to take a look at Syncato for some ideas on the storage front. It’s does blogging based entirely around the concept of microcontent sitting on top of a native XML database.

Kimbro, thanks for the additional info. I’ve been meaning to looking at Syncato as I keep hearing about the XML db ideas it contains. However, getting my head around the Python way of doing things will be the first hurdle for me to overcome.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I have to wait a while and see what the impact is for my setup.

Please enter Your Comments