Displaying subscriptions
The widget below my calendar displays the RSS feeds to which I'm subscribed in Radio. It's a Web service, although at the moment (since I'm blocking inbound access) it can only be used locally, like so:
<%params = {}; xml.rpc ("127.0.0.1", 5335, "radio.subs", @params)%>
or, equivalently,
<% ["xmlrpc://127.0.0.1:5335/"].radio.subs () %>
or, in fact:
<% ["soap://127.0.0.1:5335/"].radio.subs () %>
The script is here. It's an experiment in transparency. I'm revealing not just what I might say that I read, for example in a static blogroll, but what my aggregator database shows that I actually do read (or at least scan).
This might be a little too intimate for most people to want to do. It might even be too intimate for me to want to do, at least for a global audience. I'll see how that feels.
In any case this is clearly something that smaller teams of people might want to do in order to pool knowledge resources. And that's the beauty of having the implementation be a Web service. The same code that's used to render the global homepage can be used in a point-to-point kind of way.
Part of this experiment is about getting RSS URLs to be more visible, and more easily transferable. Note that some of these feeds are courtesy of NewsIsFree. I think this is an acceptable non-commercial use. If I hear otherwise, I'll desist.
Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2002/02/24.html#a88