I’m so happy with the new web service implementation I tonight have managed to make on the GOL-IN Web Services and Enterprise Architecture Resource Portal. Not that I’m unhappy with the other web services I use there, but this one has a lot of potential. It’s an eGov news service, providing the latest news from a variety of sources, such as FCW, GCN, KableNet, GovTech, and more.
I have been running a news service for a while, and can see that it is being used by a handful of people. These, and hopefully a few more, can look forward to some great new services.
I’m indebted to Mike Krus and his Newsisfree, which provides all the content in the new service. Mike has magic powers – he can turn any webpage into a news feed. And has done so on my request for a number of sites out there. And he aggregates existing news feeds out there – I’m sure he’ll add your feed, if it’s not already there, if you ask him nicely. If you’re on my blogroll, I have taken the liberty to ask Mike to add some of your blog feeds, so chances are you’re there even if you didn’t know (so blame me, not Mike if you don’t want to be there).
I have used Mike’s RSS-feeds for a while. But Mike doesn’t stop there; he also provides what I have discovered is a great XML-RPC-interface. It allows me to create a “news module” (as used on the portal) , or an expanded blogroll (which right now shows a problem Mike is working on; that all the HTML in descriptions is escaped.)
In technical terms, XML-RPC is yet another way of doing web services – an XML-RPC message is an HTTP-POST request for an XML-based reply. So, it violates Phil Windley‘s Fourth Principle (Data queries on existing resources should be done with a GET), but I still think it’s a “real” web service. Most importantly, it’s a great service … Thanks again, Mike.
Just for fun … I have created a qiuck poll: Would you be willing to pay for an advanced news service? If yes, start by support Mike’s work!
There’s a lot at stake, at the end of the day:
In News feeds to reshape the web Carolyn White writes: Journalists and web experts in the US are predicting that news feeds will re-shape the way online news is published, despite several European court rulings outlawing the practice of deep-linking. and quotes JD Lasica, senior editor of Online Journalism Review for saying that “… perhaps the biggest potential impact of news readers is the prospect that they will further level the playing field between Big Media and individual content creators.”
Living in on of the most extreme countries when it comes to court rulings about deep-linking, I have a good old sense of disobedience as I write the above …
