The Atom feed standard now has an extension that lets an item point to what it’s a reply to and what has replied to it. From that metadata an application can reconstruct the thread of a discussion. This is helpful because so far the Internet has not had a good, standard way of capturing its basic molecules of conversation.

This is what ThreadsML tried to do a few years ago when Steve Yost proposed it. ThreadsML wasn’t supposed to be tied to a particular feed format, but ThreadsML wasn’t going anywhere, and the Atom feed standard will. So: Hooray! (Thanks to Jay Fienberg for the link.) [Tags: threadsml conversations standards steve_yost feeds atom]

Categories: Uncategorized dw