As a developer of RSS tools, RSS aficionado, and man with an opinion or two, I suppose it's appropriate that I should have a blog about RSS. I named this blog "Info Bite" after one of my entries in Amy Gahran's contest to pick a colloquial name for RSS.

So, here's my campaign speech for "Info Bite" and "Info Bite List":

  • RSS feeds are lists--that's the nature of the format.
  • Generally RSS feeds contain bites of data rather than whole gobs. This is more true (or more naturally true) of non-1.0 feeds. (1.0 feeds need their own name that reflects the orientation of the 1.0 spec toward power over simplicity.)
  • The info contained in RSS feeds is not limited to news, blogs, or any of a million other things that people want to put in the name. We can avoid creating misperceptions about what RSS can be used for by not using any such words in the name.
  • "RSS" == "Info Bite". "RSS feed" == "Info Bite List", as in "read my info bite list". The name we choose needs to have natural variants like this for referring to the technology/format versus individual feeds.
  • "Info bite me!"--Sounds potentially exciting!
  • The name isn't flashy, but who needs flashy? What we need is something descriptive that doesn't sound faddish.

Well, there's my opening shot. Stay tuned for my thoughts on how to address some of the issues with the current state of RSS.