RSS, steak and misono tables

It is said that the our world is divided into two when we talk about information. It is not like who likes or who dislikes information but rather – it is how information is served up on a plate.

Think of data, information and knowledge as food a steak perhaps. And nearly everyone loves a good piece of steak. There is no question about it. Aside from being tasty we need to eat that in order to survive.

Some people like to watch how the steak is cut and cooked. Such a service seen in a number of Japanese restaurant’s with Misono tables or grills. And then there are those who would rather see their steak served immediately no fanfare or frills cooked rare, medium rare and well-done.

This seems to be the similar case as regards RSS feeds. A number of readers like the process as much as the information. We revel in terms like rss,opml and even apml. For us the Atom is much more than a comic book hero or e particle in space. We love the process as well.

Then there are those who would like to use RSS feed and other web feeds but would rather do it without going to the process:

1. Selecting an RSS reader
2. Getting the url of feed.
3. Subscribing to it on a feed reader
4. Tagging and categorizing the feed
5. Possibly mashing or filtering the feed
6 Evaluating the feed
7. Selecting and de-selecting your feed reader often

Instead they would rather get the feed in one step like in AllTop:

Go to the site and that is it.

Hence, the need to have services like AllTop and at the same time retain the geekiness of RSS. Oh well, To each his own.