Instant Syndicating
Abstract
The main idea behind Instant Syndicating is displaying tag clouds for each buddy in a user's contact list. Once aware of a common interest, a user may subscribe to the tag and receive all entries associated with the tag. This way, Instant Syndicating hopes to bring people closer together to discuss common interests and share information.
Introduction
Instant Syndicating will mostly be based on XMPP's XEP-0060 and XEP-0163 draft standards for syndicating information using Instant Messaging. To keep it brief, this is how Instant Syndicating will work:
- Creating an Entry: Much like blogging on the Web, a user will create an entry using a chat window, tagging the entry appropriately. This information will be syndicated to the subscribers of the tag;
- Visualizing a Tag Cloud: Upon request, a tag cloud will be sent for each buddy in a user's contact list. The user can subscribe to any tag and receive all entries associated with that tag;
- Reading the Entries: The Inbox view will show all the entries received (i.e. from all buddies and identified by any tag). The Outbox view, on the other hand, will show all the entries sent.
Instant Syndicating
Creating an Entry
Visualizing a Tag Cloud
Reading the Entries
Conclusion
The main goal of Instant Syndicating is to enable each person to easily create his or her own personal 'channel' of information and to broadcast it to their social network in a very intuitive and non-obtrusive way.
With Instant Syndicating, people will be able to broadcast ideas, bookmarks, photos, video, etc. All with a very low entry point, both in terms of knowledge required as well as in terms of effort.
In a near future, with the advance of digital capture of audio, image and video, production of personal media will become mainstream. There is an increasing demand for the sharing of this personal media among family, friends and colleagues. This is where Instant Syndicating will have its biggest impact: in opening up rich collections of personal media that are stored on personal computers everywhere.