Nick Vidal

Year 2008 has arrived, and I decided to write down my plans for ISS this year:

• Continue working on the ISS standards. Add more examples and illustrations to the documentation.  ISS core formats and services are reaching stability. Time to work more on the extended formats and services.
• Open up the standardization process. ISS should go from a one-man project to a collaborative effort. Bring intelligent people in to work on ISS.
• Bring companies and other organizations to join ISS. Look for sponsors who are willing to contribute to ISS.
• Create opportunities for companies and projects that adopt ISS. ISS is a great technology and being open means that it may be adopted freely.
• Tighten bonds with communities such as SamePlace and Drupal. Offer support to developers of these communities to better exploit ISS.
• Think globally and act locally. Improve ISS adoption at UFRGSWeb and contact local universities to join in.

The Internet has empowered people to share information and ideas in unprecedented ways. It has enabled people to easily and at almost no cost to be both producers and consumers of information world-wide. Nowadays, people are able to have their own channel of information, broadcasting ideas, photos, videos, etc. This is very exciting and brings many opportunities for education, research, business and entertainment. However, it brings many challenges as well.

From the consumer’s point of view, with everyone having its own channel, how are people going to find what they want amidst all this avalanche of information? The Web as it is today, as complicated as it might be to publish something, seems already overcrowded with its billions of interconnected documents. How then are people ever going to find what they want when technology easies the publishing process even further and opens hundreds of millions of hidden worlds all filled with rich personal media?

From the producer’s point of view, how will he or she broadcast his or her channel so that it reaches those to whom it is relevant without interfering with those to whom it is not? How will his or her channel stand apart from the so many others that exist? How will he or she get his or her idea across and be heard in this open and democratic medium, where everyone has gained the right and opportunity to have a voice?

ISS addresses these challenges by unleashing the great deal of untapped potential of the collective intelligence to organize information. It exploits the bottom-up characteristics of successful technologies and finds the perfect balance. The idea is to connect people with news and information that matters to them the most by letting people themselves express what matters to them at an individual level. Each individual connects with their own personal social network to receive and disseminate information. This challenges the top-down model of information-sharing and gives place to a bottom-up model, where each person has a unique voice and equal opportunity to contribute and benefit. In this way, ISS hopes to bring people closer together to discuss common interests and share information in a more open and democratic manner.

I would like to invite everyone to be part of ISS!

What’s ISS?

ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) is a set of open standards that enable people to discover and syndicate information within their social network.

Why ISS?

We all know how RSS has helped transform the Web. Now imagine an “Instant RSS”, combining features from both I.M. (Instant Messaging) and RSS, linking the concepts of social networks and content syndication.

How can I help ISS?

Developers are welcome to make ISS part of their applications. ISS can be used everywhere: web-based applications, IM applications, etc.

Where can I read more about ISS?

Please access the site: http://iss.im/