I recently created a web app to use the opmlPackage NPM module from Dave Winer to display the contents of four OPML files at one time. The app uses the includes feature, which can read other OPML files from a single OPML file and save the content locally for processing. I created four OPML files myself for this test app, but the four files could have been created by anyone.
So the main benefit of the OPML Includes site is that it can display multiple outlines (which can be edited by multiple people, not just one person) and have the content refreshed whenever someone goes to the site. If the content is changing on a frequent basis, this could be an easy way to see the updates. If the content is fairly static, it may not be significant. In that case, single page apps could be used to view the outlines separately, so perhaps there is not much benefit in using the includes feature in opmlPackage.
Ken Smith has had some thoughts about potential uses:
“And I’m still musing about uses. About the slide down into the archive problem of blogging and social media, and maybe using the app as a partial remedy. Keeping the good stuff in view, and adding to the good stuff over time and linking the good stuff to a wider circle of relevant content. Taking the web part of the web seriously rather than letting the slide down into the archive turn it all into ghostly memories.”
Again, an OPML outline, rendered using existing tools, could provide a way to collect that information in a single document. In 2010, Jay Rosen’s Studio 20 journalism program at New York University partnered with ProPublica to research the area of “explainers”, or explanatory journalism at a site called explainer.net. The site is still available on the Internet Archive. I think that this is a method of addressing the “slide down into the archive” problem, but it does take effort. Someone has to create such an explainer, and then monitor the Web for items related to that topic, read and curate them, and add them to the explainer as needed. The main problem is someone has to have the desire and interest to collect information on a topic and share that information. If there is no one with that interest, no tool for collecting and displaying that information is going to be of much use.
This post inspired the following: http://oldschool.scripting.com/frankm/2022/07/28/150724.html?title=theValueOfIndexes
Frank, thank you for that post, I will be creating a reply!
I have an idea, I want to flesh out. Do you mind doing the following. Create a new OPML file in Drummer. Create a top level node using the title of this blog post as the title. Copy the content of this blog post as the child nodes to that parent. Finally, make the OPML file public and then send me the think. I will include the OPML file you created to this one: http://drummer.scripting.com/frankm/wrtingsOnOrganizingInformation.opml that is rendered here: http://drummer.this.how/frankm/wrtingsOnOrganizingInformation.opml