Like RSS and tagging, over the next several years OPML is going to become a core underlying technology for marketers in the conversation economy. Let's de-geek it.
OPML, short for outline processor markup language, is basically an XML file organized in an outline format. One way it is used is for creating portable lists of RSS feeds that they can be easily shared. For example, if you're a Bloglines user and you hit Bloglines.com/export and save the OPML file to your computer you can re-import this file in any other desktop or web-based reader and all your feeds will carry over. There's more though. The real value in OPML is in sharing these files in "reading lists."
That's the big idea behind Dave Winer's new Share Your OPML site. First, you upload your OPML file (the list of RSS feeds to which you subscribe). Then you can see who subscribes to the same feeds that you do. For example, here's who subscribes to my feed. You can also browse lists of the top 100 feeds, the biggest blog junkies and much more.
Today Share Your OPML is primarily for geeks. You can browse the community of largely tech influencers, see what feeds they read and what they have in common. Tomorrow, however, is a different story. I see it becoming a big social network for feeds. As it adds features and becomes more accessible to non-geeks, the community will grow, the network effect will kick in and so its value will increase.
I can see Share Your OPML becoming another key way to measure a feed's influence. It's a natural complement to link-based authority aggregators like Technorati. It's also more democratic because it does not exclude non-bloggers. The site is open to everyone who reads feeds.
Share Your OPML needs the big aggregators to support it. You should have the option in Bloglines, Newsgator, My Yahoo, WIndows Live and the Google Reader to automatically share all or some of your feeds on this site.
If this happens (and I bet it will) Share Your OPML will become an essential tool for marketers. We will use it to understand which feeds have the greatest attention. Further, if it incorporates community tagging, watch out. It might be just the killer app we desperately need to break out influential blogs in different verticals.
Technorati Tags: Bloglines, Dave Winer, Google Reader, My Yahoo, Newsgator, OPML, Share Your OPML, Windows Live
