Event Syndication

[Aerik Sylvan]

I wrote awhile back looking for advice on finding RDF markup
appropriate for extending RSS and Atom feeds for events, and I found
several. I also found that Google syndicates their calendar with
extended markup (start date, end date, and location). So now I am
working on promoting event syndication by contacting event publishers,
continuing development on a proof-of-concept event search engine, and
getting influential individuals to back it.

Why do all this? I think that events are very clearly a kind of data
that wants to be free from silos - events do not exist to draw hits to
websites, unlike many other kinds of contents; events exist to draw
physical human presence. A particular application of event feeds I
have in mind is improving how charities can connect to volunteers.
Suppose someone has some free time and some interest - they are a
candidate to volunteer. But currently a person would have to check
many, many websites to find the events for every interesting
organization and all the major event aggregators to find matches - a
very time consuming process. So, many volunteers don't find
appropriate opportunities, and those volunteers are lost.

By syndicating events with appropriate markup, search engines can
intelligently parse them and then make the data searchable. Doing
this is quite easy, actually, once the data is available in a feed
with appropriate markup.

So I'm writing once again to the data portability group because I
think this effort (event feeds) shares some spirit with data
portability. I'm not promoting a new standard, just widespread
adoption of existing ones. So I'm writing to the group looking for
supporters (and maybe even some more influential people to feeds built
at their business, or get event feeds into the media).

I've registered a .org domain and set up a facebook group, and will
continue to do everything I can think of to promote this. If anyone
else thinks this is worthwhile and would like to work on it, or can
pursue building a feed with event markup at their business, I'd love
to hear about it.

Thank You,
Aerik Sylvan

--
http://eventfeed.org - An Initiative Promoting Syndication of Events

[Elias Bizannes]

Hi Aerik,

I think what you are doing is great.

What I propose you do is form an official DataPortability taskforce (ie, make the request to steering group once you work out some details). This means we will officially track your status on our weekly calls, give you access to resources as you identify them, and try to help you resource your efforts where need be (and of course, give it full DataPortability support and exposure once done).

Next steps is that you chair this new task force (as an unofficial one for now), and try to muster up a few other individuals to be part of the task force. We are here to help you structure your workflow and progress efficiently, with whatever support you need. Once you have a few people interested, ping me and I can help you continue if you want.

Personally, the best thing you can do is get a few individuals replying to you now - orgnise a teleconference and start talking. If you can't organise a call, do it via e-mail. Once you get people talking, ideas fall out.

Elias Bizannes
Mobile: +61 412 338 508
E-mail: elias.b...@gmail.com
DataPortability.Org - SiliconBeachAustralia.Org

Chat: Skype: elias.bizannes

--
Elias Bizannes
http://liako.biz

[EricNeumann]

Aerik,

This thread may be of use to you... http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2008Jul/0103.html

cheers,
Eric

On Jan 2, 12:23 am, "Aerik Sylvan" <asyl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wrote awhile back looking for advice on finding RDF markup
> appropriate for extending RSS and Atom feeds for events, and I found
> several.  I also found that Google syndicates their calendar with
> extended markup (start date, end date, and location).  So now I am
> working on promoting event syndication by contacting event publishers,
> continuing development on a proof-of-concept event search engine, and
> getting influential individuals to back it.
>

> ...
>
> Thank You,
> Aerik Sylvan
>
> --http://eventfeed.org- An Initiative Promoting Syndication of Events

[jaymyers]

Hi Aerik,

This concept is great! I have been thinking of ways to extend RSS/
Atom to enhance product lists (wish lists, etc.) by utilizing the
concepts in the hproduct microformat draft. My idea was to use
established microformat class names and extend them using namespaces
to enhance feeds (in this case, Atom). Since microformats are
specifically written to describe things like events, etc., this may be
a good way to extend feeds without having to re-invent the wheel with
RDF.

I'd love any additional feedback, to validate or invalidate. More
details can be found at my blog post: http://tinyurl.com/69xld6 . I
also work at a large retailer with 1000+ stores and happen to be
pitching a local store project where GMs and other store employees
would enter in announcement and event data on local store web pages,
so any headway you make with your event syndication would would
definitely be of interest to me.

Thanks,

Jay

[Aerik Sylvan]

Elias,

Thank you very much. I'm going to continue to polish and promote the
idea, and I will also go do some research and look into requesting a
taskforce, as you suggested. Can you point me to any specific links,
etc?

I'm still working on promoting the idea, so if anyone has any
suggestions on how to get it out there, I'd love to hear them...

Thanks!
Aerik

On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 9:43 PM, Elias Bizannes <elias.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Aerik,
>
> I think what you are doing is great.
>
> What I propose you do is form an official DataPortability taskforce (ie,
> make the request to steering group once you work out some details). This
> means we will officially track your status on our weekly calls, give you
> access to resources as you identify them, and try to help you resource your
> efforts where need be (and of course, give it full DataPortability support
> and exposure once done).
>
> Next steps is that you chair this new task force (as an unofficial one for
> now), and try to muster up a few other individuals to be part of the task
> force. We are here to help you structure your workflow and progress
> efficiently, with whatever support you need. Once you have a few people
> interested, ping me and I can help you continue if you want.
>
> Personally, the best thing you can do is get a few individuals replying to
> you now - orgnise a teleconference and start talking. If you can't organise
> a call, do it via e-mail. Once you get people talking, ideas fall out.
>
>
> Elias Bizannes
> Mobile: +61 412 338 508
> E-mail: elias.b...@gmail.com
> DataPortability.Org - SiliconBeachAustralia.Org

> Chat: Skype: elias.bizannes

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[Elias Bizannes]

Hi Aerik,

The documentation of the DataPortability Project has become a weed, so best to just talk to someone in Steering and we can guide you through the process. 

In my eyes, the public mailing list is where people in the community suggest ideas, and if they have merit, we help guide it to the next step.

Happy to have a chat with you offline and I can help you with next steps.

Elias Bizannes
http://liako.biz