Structured Blogging: Getting On Board

In a post to the structured blogging listserv, Jon Mandell of PubSub Concepts provided a brief overview of the state of structured blogging including a few hints as to what the future holds for the extremely popular open source weblog movement.

Some of the goals Mandell identified for structured blogging include:

Continue collect feedback (lots of positive feedback since announcement at Syndicate 2005
Develop new schemas as requested (some ideas include structures to support “recipes” and one to support “offers to sell")
Focus on demonstrating compelling end-user benefits
- Aggregated events used in portal-like environment
- Book reviews used for local content site
- Shared restaurant servers used for tourist info site
- Conversion routines between formats

Support more blogging platforms
- Drupal
- Mambo
- Plone
- Xanga
- LiveJournal

Produce code libraries for:
- Python
- Java
- ASP .Net

Those working on the structured blogging initiative may disagree on some things, but one thing they agree on is the need for a non-profit organization with a clear mission.

“We are currently looking for participants in the initiative that would like to assist in establishing this non-profit,” Mandell wrote. The reasons Structured Blogging needs to become a non-profit organization:

To ensure this remains a truly open-source effort
Full transparency in bringing Structured Blogging to the next level
Ensuring it supports all formats
Collect funds to support further developments

What can you do to help?

If you are interested helping with the development of a strucutred blogging non-profit, Mandell says he needs your help. What can you do?