RSS is to Media as TCP/IP was for Computing

TCP/IP Changed Computing and RSS will Change Media.  Everyone asks me about Podcasting and as you know I have an opinion on podcasting.   However to me podcasting is just a media application in this massive disruptive shift called RSS – it will cut across all media from personal to corporate.   IMO RSS will drive a massive change on media consumption just as TCP/IP had on computing. 

Both TCP/IP and RSS started out as nascent defacto technologies.  RSS is growing along the same lines as TCP/IP.  When we look back TCP/IP displaced large existing players (SNA, DecNET,..etc) and RSS is doing the same today.  

Update: Dave Winer writes some good point on Yahoo and Google and talks about the RSS impact with Yahoo. 

Here is my response to Dave Winer’s email:  I responded to Dave with more thoughts and comments:  …  “Yahoo is taking RSS and making it from defacto to “the standardâ€? through innovation.  I posted on my blog today a comparison to the early movements of TCP/IP.  TCP/IP was out there as a open model and grew to change the networking thus computing landscape (good by SNA, DECNET,..etc).  Now RSS IMO drive that same dynamic except it will be changing media and consumption (look for the existing SNA equivalents to fall too – that is existing media models).  RSS will enable a new sets of benefits of which aren’t even developed yet.  I’m optimistic on this point. Comparison to the early movements of TCP/IP.  TCP/IP was out there as a open model and grew to change the networking thus computing landscape (good by SNA, DECNET,..etc).  Now RSS IMO drive that same dynamic except it will be changing media and consumption (look for the existing SNA equivalents to fall too – that is existing media models).  RSS will enable a new sets of benefits of which aren’t even developed yet.  I’m optimistic on this point. ”

Comparison to the early movements of TCP/IP.  TCP/IP was out there as a open model and grew to change the networking thus computing landscape (good by SNA, DECNET,..etc).  Now RSS IMO drive that same dynamic except it will be changing media and consumption (look for the existing SNA equivalents to fall too – that is existing media models).  RSS will enable a new sets of benefits of which aren’t even developed yet.  I’m optimistic on this point. Also Yahoo is doing things very ‘developer oriented’ meaning that they identify stakeholders who can win with them – like software developers except the world is now both software developers and media developers.  Very inclusive the Yahoo approach.  I feel motivated by Yahoo not by Google.  I think that is a point Dave made. 

Also Richard MacManus has a nice post and also writes me via email …I’m quite pleased with this line: “Watching Google and RSS is like watching a high school student experiment with a chemistry set.  Meanwhile Yahoo and Microsoft are busy inserting RSS into their DNA.”