The RSS Paradox (
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RSS and PVRs are two acronyms on a collision course, and the resulting service fabric may have a revolutionary impact that recalls the '60s, says eWEEK's Steve Gillmor.A few weeks ago, the SciFi Channel broadcast a four-part miniseries involving time travel. I am a sucker for time-travel stories, to a certain point.
That point is where the designated deliverer of exposition calls up the Great Guiding Principle of time-travel projects, wherein the immutable laws of screwing around with time dictate that nothing can be changed in the past, lest the universe be rented because the characters dog would therefore never be born, leading to cascading series of unintended consequences such as incomprehensible run-on sentences like this one.
In this case, the Great Guiding Principle was served up midway through the series, long after my family and I had invested too much time and caring to give up, and long before the incredible finale where the Great Guiding Principle was ignored.
A mysterious briefcase from the future containing pictures of our hero with a bullet in the head magically redistributed its electrons to document subsequent changed events. Somehow, the universe did not collapse, though my respect for the producers did.
Ironically, a time-travel technology called RSS got me into this in the first place. It all began when Dave Winer negotiated a deal with The New York Times to provide permalink access to Times stories. Links to Times stories in Weblog posts had started to break, renting the blog space-time continuum by erasing the past.
With permalinks assured for Times stories, the journal of record regained its standing as the most-linked-to mainstream media outlet in a recent Technorati developer presentation.
Even though I receive the print edition of the Times every day, I still use the Times RSS feeds to monitor for interesting stories at a glance. One such item led me to a glowing review (registration required) of the SciFi show.
The same day, another Times story got my attention (registration required) with this suddenly relevant headline: "To Watch These Programs on Cable, You Have to Find Them First."
The gist of the article was that content producers are looking to video-on-demand channels to place their material in lieu of a full digital channel position on cable and satellite networks.
But how do you find these programs? If it hadnt been for the Times review in my RSS feed, I would never have found the time-travel movie. I would have finally gotten around to the print version later in the week, kicked myself for not keeping up with the paper and then frantically searched for a repeat of the show to record on my PVR (personal video recorder).
Of course, a better solution would be to integrate RSS and my PVR. Although the second Times article didnt close the loop on this, TiVo took a big step toward that future two days later, as foreshadowed (registration required) by John Markoff in, yes, The New York Times.
Bypassing the current gatekeepers, PVRs would now be able to download content directly over the Internet. Heres my favorite quote from the story: "In the new world of Internet-connected television, viewers will not have to worry about when a show is scheduled or from where it comes."
Next page: The Roaring Sixties.
Messaging & Collaboration 
