Reading lists with OPML

Do you, or your colleagues, need to share up-to-date reading lists with others? And are those lists a mix of online and offline resources? If you do, then you might want to investigate the Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) as your means of sharing.

Mark Chillingworth blogged a bit about it from the Online Information conference session, "Strategies for using rss to deliver content". Here are some more details.

As the name suggests, OPML content can be arranged as an outline. Each entry can be text, an HTML link, an RSS feed or another OPML file. This last function has real power - include links to the reading lists of all the people you respect. Aggregators, such as NewsGator, give the option of publishing RSS subscription lists as an OPML file. Then you can see, in real time, what a person's interests are.

Of course, you'll never have time to do your job if you spend your life browsing this stuff, but it's great to have it on tap.

Because it's XML, an OPML file can be read and edited. It's best to build it with other programs though - several offer OPML output. And there's always the free OPML Editor which works on both Macs and PCs. This can also be used to read the resulting files, but my favourite is Grazr, which is also free.

Here's a snap of a Grazr three-pane view. On the left you can see an HTML link, folders revealing the outline structure, text only entries, some RSS feeds and an OPML include (the blue icon). On the right, one of Andrew McAfee's RSS feed items is selected and its content displayed.

If you want more, search for tebbutt opml screencast in Google.