This is a first post on this blog and as such, I want to keep it short. TweepML is an Open Standard Extensible format to share groups of Twitter users. That description makes it sound much more complicated than it is.
Beyond the format itself, which you can find it explained here, we are also announcing TweepML.org, the service, an easy way to create, manage, share and find lists of interesting Twitter users to follow.
Imagine your small business has 3 people on Twitter and a corporate account. What happens if you want to tell people “Hey, you can follow Joe, Anne, Marc and BizToday”? They might decide to follow all those people, but it will be a bit of hassle of click-follow-back-back-click-follow-back-back. With TweepML you can tell people “Hey, follow all of us on Twitter” and with a single-click your visitors can start following 1, 2, 10 or 50 Twitter users at once.
If you are a geek, and you want to add TweepML to your site, go check out the format and how you can implement it (I bet in 1 hour or less you can add to your service). If you just want to create a list and add a button to your site without gobbledygook, go to http://tweepml.org/ and get started.
Acknowledgement
More than a few people contributed to make TweepML a reality. From the initial draft concept back in June, Damon Cortesi (@dacort) and Adam Loving (@AdamLoving) have helped prune it. Adam actually implemented TweepML on Twibes for more than a month, which makes it the first application to support TweepML even before TweepML.org. Damon has also contributed to a Ruby project to TweepML, not complete yet, but halfway there. Also, all the beautiful branding for TweepML, including our signature icon was created by David Conrad (@DavidConrad) and the team at Design Commission, a Seattle-based Web Design and Development firm.
But instead of clicking on each individual Twitter name, why don’t you just try our own TweepML:
http://tweepml.org/TweepML-creators/
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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4 comments:
Great idea! I hope it'll get the traction it deserves.
Is there an API
Question: How is this better than an OPML list of Twitter feeds?
If I have an OPML document that lists a bunch of feeds in this format:
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/7016582.rss
Then that ID number is the only thing I need to follow that user, read his tweets, make any API call I like. I don't need the username or anything else. If I want all the rest of the info about him, a simple call to http://twitter.com/users/show/7016582.xml (note the ID number there is the same) gives me everything I need to know about him.
Furthermore, with the OPML listing, I could also import the exact same document into an RSS Client, like Google Reader, and instantly subscribe to all those Twitter users in one step.
So, what value does having this new spec add, besides incompatibility with all existing OPML applications?
It communicates important entrepreneurial management practices, such as how your venture will mitigate risk, and how your venture will manage uncertainty. Most importantly, new business venturing is now about focusing on creating sustainable value. jimmy
info@ibowtech.com
www.onlineuniversalwork.com
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