---
title: "Govt takes up publishing standard"
date: 2004-06-01
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2004"
    url: "/tag/2004.md"
---

# Govt takes up publishing standard

That’s the title of my second [NZ Computerworld](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.computerworld.co.nz/) article, which is in this week’s edition (pg 16). [Here’s a PDF copy of it](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.readwriteweb.com/gems/computerworld_31may04.pdf). It’s also available [in HTML format](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001866.html) on Read/Write Web.

Since it is an article that attempts to bring [RSS](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss) into a mainstream light, some people who arrive here may not know how to “subscribe” to an RSS feed. My advice is to select a browser-based RSS Aggregator – I recommend [Bloglines](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.bloglines.com/) – and then copy-and-paste the RSS feed URL into it. For example, my RSS feed URL is:[http://www.readwriteweb.com/rss.xml](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.readwriteweb.com/rss.xml)

I’ve noticed recently that [Atom](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://www.atomenabled.org/) (a new RSS format) is making it easier for normal users to subscribe to a feed, by providing a graphical HTML version of the feed. So instead of the user clicking on the Atom URL and being greeting with a screenful of XML code (as is the case with RSS), the user gets a nicely formatted HTML page – which usually has instructions on how to subscribe to the feed. This IMHO could be Atom’s **killer app**, so I’m following the progress of this feature with interest.

Today I saw for the first time an HTML-styled Atom feed that works in Internet Explorer – a big deal considering 90-95% of people use the Microsoft browser. For an example see [this Atom feed](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://creativegeneralist.blogspot.com/atom.xml) by the Creative Generalist blog. A few weeks ago Mark Pilgrim showed off [his HTML-styled Atom feed](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/02/user-friendly-feeds), but at that point it only worked in Mozilla browsers. However I see that [it too](https://web.archive.org/web/20050210171731/http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml) now works in Internet Explorer. Keep an eye on this new development, because it may be the breakthrough feature Atom needs to gain some ground on the popular RSS 2.0.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001916.php))*