I have not written much about APML for a while, partly because I've been focused on Data Portability. But I saw this a while ago and forgot to blog it over December.
Attention data is an emerging concept in web circles that focusses on making people the owners of the data about the websites they visit, or pay attention to. Currently, this kind of information builds up in the individual websites that we visit, but in most cases that information is never shared us. The Attention movement seeks to remedy that by making data about what we pay attention to available in a portable format.
That format is known as APML, or Attention Profile Markup Language. And, with some simple integration with APML providers, Engagd, we’ve now made it possible for Ma.gnolia members to build an attention profile from their bookmarks.
A new setting in your profile controls, found on the newly-renamed Bookmarks tab, allows you to turn on the generation of APML from your bookmarks feed. After the profile has had some time to build up, you can grab a copy of your profile data.
When I first read this, my finger hovered the sign up button. Yes I was that close to converting from delicious to magnolia. And lets be honest Magnolia's openID signup would have made things so simple. I bet it would have taken all of about 5mins to signup and to be using it like how I use delicious right now. Its not too late either… If anything will make me move or join a new service its going to be APML support and OpenID. OAuth support is a nice touch but not essential. RSS/ATOM, a API and Microformats should now be a given. If there not, obvioulsy the service isn't serious about its dataportability policy or you could say really care about the advanced participations.
Great news about Yahoo and OpenID by the way, I look forward to seeing OpenID support on Flickr, Delicious, etc very soon.
Technorati Tags: apml, openid, profile, yahoo, oauth, magnolia, delicious