Library clips

Continuing from an earlier post.

I want every tag in del.icio.us to have an OPML URL, and I want the whole account to have an OPML URL (this would be the root OPML URL, and the tags would be the inclusion OPML URL’s).

Then I could put the root OPML into Bitty Browser or OPod on the sidebar of my blog….this would show a menu of all my OPML URL inclusions, these represent each del.icio.us tag…by clicking on an OPML inclusion (a del.icio.us tag) I will see every entry.

So here’s an example in Bitty Browser of a root OPML called PubSub Community List (this could be our whole del.icio.us account), then there are the OPML inclusions which are the PubSub Librarian List, etc…(these could be each del.icio.us tag).

NOTE: in this example the items in the OPML are feeds, whereas in our example the items in the OPML are just HTML links….this doesn’t make a difference.

So if I start this new del.icio.us account with the intention to only list web2.0 services, each tag can be a topic eg.blog…then each bookmark would be - wordpress, typepad, blogger, etc…

This way I will have a list of services (bookmarks) by topic (tag)…and since each tag has an OPML URL, you can view an archive of all the bookmarks.
If I can represent this data in OPML, then I can browse my whole del.icio.us account on my sidebar, and the latest entries will dynamically appear.

Only problem is that del.icio.us doesn’t use OPML

NOTE: the root OPML doesn’t have to be the whole account, maybe it could be for the tag bundle.

The great thing is as I add bookmarks with my bookmarklet, they will dynamically appear on my blog sidebar…this is slightly different to re-syndicating a feed to see the latest bookmarks…instead this will not only have the latest bookmarks, but it will have all the bookmarks listed in every tag…a directory right there in my sidebar.

Instead of making this a link list directory I could make it a Reading List directory, so instead of saving the homepage URL’s of services, I would save the RSS feed URL of the blog/homepage of each service…then I can click once more and read the feeds contents within OPod or Bitty Browser.
But I feel a Reading List is much more convenient to be created in your RSS Reader, because this is where you read your feeds…otherwise every time I add/delete a feed in my RSS Reader I would have to do the same in del.icio.us.

Also see how BlogBridge itself enables you to list a Reading List in your blog sidebar, what about a menu of Reading Lists…this is exactly what I want from del.icio.us, but for links not feeds.

So Reading Lists are better off being created in an RSS Reader (because this is where you subscribe/read your feeds), and Link Lists are better off being created in a bookmark managers (because this is where you add/read your links)…this way you don’t have to duplicate your efforts.

In saying this all applications could do us a favour and OPMLify…(some might not even know what RSS is…it’s such a waiting game for some, I wish I was a programmer)

…actually Danny Ayers has hacked an OPML into his del.icio.us tags, and it seems to be hosted by w3. He is using del.icio.us as a reading list (the items in the OPML are feeds, ie. his bookmarks are not blog homepages, but the feed URL’s). Now what about doing this for tag bundles, probably not because they haven’t got a URL, but if they did (like Raw Sugar) you could make a Reading List (tag bundle), where all the items are also Reading Lists (tags)…kind of like a mother Reading List or a Reading List menu…this is called OPML inclusion…see more.

So I wonder if Danny can do a similar thing, but where the del.icio.us bookmarks are just normal HTML pages…ie. a Link List in OPML.

Another bonus of this, is that having your data in OPML makes it easy to export/import anywhere you like…portable data.

Anyway, this is something I want to do, and the bookmark managers are really behind with OPML.

H2O Playlist has an OPML URL, but each section heading doesn’t have one, (as each section heading doesn’t have it’s own URL).

The plus of OPML for your data is that you can export it into other services…even better if it has a URL of it’s own so you can also choose to subscribe to it.

Just had a thought…I noticed that netvibes now has a del.icio.us module…so if I don’t acheive it with OPML and present it in Bitty Browser or OPod…I can somehow maybe place a widget on my blog.

Is there such a thing as widgets for blogs…imagine that, sections of your blog made up of widgets, these widgets could also be used elsewhere…so the del.icio.us widget, or weather widget in my netvibes account could also be used in my blog

…the interchangable or interoperable web.