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Monday, January 02, 2006

Microformat => Microprotocol?

I just did a search for "microprotocol" and was surprised I did not find what I expected. Well, I found a couple of citations related to Atom from Bill de hÓra's site.

Shouldn't there be as much attention paid to microprotocols as to microformats? Or nearly so. I understand HTTP GET can be used to provide an XHTML document with multiple embedded instances of microformats. I understand Atom Publishing Protocol can be used to provide even more functionality with other HTTP verbs.

But what about WebDAV and CalDAV? These are fairly complex application protocols with out a clear purpose from what I can tell. Shouldn't this functionality be provided by more conventions on HTTP and APP? Right? The nice thing about microformats is they do not extend XHTML, just tell you ways to use it. The nice thing about APP is it does not extend HTTP, just tell you a way to use it.

To get beyond mere APP, would you want to extend HTTP like WebDAV and CalDAV? Why?

Am I missing where people are discussing ways to *use* HTTP (as opposed to extend it) for calendaring and other microprotocols? Otherwise how many protocols do we think we need? Is 2006 the year for microprotocols?

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Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm usually writing from my favorite location on the planet, the pacific northwest of the u.s. I write for myself only and unless otherwise specified my posts here should not be taken as representing an official position of my employer. Contact me at my gee mail account, username patrickdlogan.