[Playlist] Someone write up the reasons why XSPF is better than RSS for content distribution

[Chris Anderson]

On 7/19/07, Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves <justivo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Would someone here write up the reasons on why XSPF is better than RSS
> for content distribution, and by that I mean podcasts and video and
> shi--stuff?

RSS is designed to act as a dynamic resource that makes keeping up
with changing content easy. It is poorly suited to describing
media-files, about the best it can offer is that such and such media
file is associated with some particular entry.

XSPF is better suited to making collections of media available with
decent metadata. Maybe the best argument for XSPF are the large (and
growing) collections of media available at places like Ross' Digital
Archive Streamer (American folk music) http://waxandwane.org/das/ and
Archive.org.

In creating Grabb.it I am especially sensitive to differences in
metadata quality. RSS-enclosure feeds have been the biggest headache
(treating the item title and description as metadata for the enclosure
is almost always a mistake), whereas most XSPF is about the best
source you can hope for.

Especially in the context of the OLPC, which is designed for
mesh-networks and republishing, a little metadata fidelity goes a long
way.

-- 
Chris Anderson
http://jchris.mfdz.com