RSS isn't magic - its just XML!

We shouldn't be surprised to learn that, according to CFO magazine in the US, most users of RSS are more likely to be accessing traditional news and weather content than blogs - after all RSS is just XML data and while it provides "glue" that helps bind the social software cloud together in itself it isn't restricted to social applications.

Actually in the article, Forrester Research's Charlene Li correctly points out that "Most people today don't know what SMTP is, but it's the protocol used to deliver E-mail... RSS will be like that."

However, the structured format of RSS means that it will likely become more of a workhorse that email is today. The exciting thing about of RSS is that the end-user can choose how they want to access it - via a browser, in a widget or gadget, email, RSS reader and even XML-to-voice via a phone and perhaps through an IM client. And its pretty good for enabling social software too :-)

Just for the record, this "grey area" is something I've been blogging and talking about in my presentations for a while now...

Tags: enterprise social software, rss, social software