What is an OPML file

This morning I questioned the guys at Recruiting.com, was their Big Bad Blogroll in OPML this was in response to a post from a couple of days ago. Within minutes I got an email asking me to explain myself here we go.

OPML is basically a text file in an XML structure that is designed to provide structure to an outline. Wikipedia has a great page on the whole topic. But to save you a click here is their summary:-

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines. Originally developed by Radio UserLand as a native file format for an outliner application it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange list of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators.

The OPML specification defines an outline as a hierarchical, ordered list of arbritrary elements. The specification is fairly open which makes it suitable for many types of list data.

There are other places to go for information on OPML, Scripting News, developer resources, OPML.org (aka Scripting News), and the OPML 1.0 Specification.

From a blogging point of view an OPML file is a preferred method of transferring a collection of RSS feeds from one feed reader to another. Most RSS readers allow you to import and export your feeds into an OPML format, which facilitates the migration of tools for users but it also provides far more power.

Let’s say you have a list of bloggers who you want to share with another person, create an OPML file ask the recipient to import and now you both are subscribed to the same list. This would mean that the HR blogging community could create a complete listing of blogger and provide it to others to facilitate bulk subscriptions. I have started to prepare such a file, hence my question, that would classify all of the different HR blogs a bit like a directory, which is the other use of OPML. I have even started to hack together an online registration tool in PHP and MySQL that would allow you to subscribe to the OPML file, it is a long way from release as I am using it as a learning exercise. If you look at iPodder.org it is essentially a whole lots of OPML files. But once again this is only the beginning.

I wrote earlier in the year about the ability to deliver complete learning programs via OPML. This original post pointed to a post by Cameron Reilly on a similar but commercial idea. Essentially something that seems to have been forgotten in the whole podcasting hype is that Podcasting uses the enclosure tag in an RSS feed to point to other content, the podcatcher software then automatically downloads the file. But most RSS readers now understand the enclosure tag, some even automatically down load the file and with the addition of MIME types could run the required programs in the same manner as clicking on a link in a browser. Suddenly your eLearning environment can change radically, and not due to student blogging which seems to be the push.

First day in the class students are provided an OPML file that provides the details for the lecturers for the semester, they will blog and provide course notes, presentations, thoughts and opinions via their blog, the students will receive content automatically via their RSS reader. At the end of each lecture the podcast is also sent out using the same process. If the lecturer needs to communicate about something out side of the normal course then the blog provides this mechanism. Let’s take this a step further, it does not need to be a blog in the tradition sense that we are using now, it could just be a portion of a LMS, but that is a topic for another discussion. Even internally corporate type courses can be delivered using a similar method, and here the process can go over a much longer time frame.

Privacy and the government

There seems to be a growing concern within Australian around privacy and technology. Yesterday the Australian IT had a couple of articles quoting Gartner research fellow Richard Hunter and Special Minister of State Eric Abetz both calling for greater oversight and review on storage and usage of personal data.

In the first article Richard Hunter quotes the ChoicePoint issues earlier in the year as an example of a growing list of privacy invasions taking place all over the globe. Richard claims “… privacy is about your ability to control how you are perceived by people who make decisions about you, based on information they hold” and that until our laws catch up with the technological advances we are going to have a very uncomfortable time.

The second article discusses calls by Eric Abetz for a review of our current privacy laws some of which date from 1988, is required to ensure coverage due to new technology allow interactions with government departments. Eric is calling for the review on the back of additional data matching programs currently being rolled out by the government.

Both of these articles, along with the others that have come before, have a profound impact on HR professionals and the associated technology providers. The EU has had data privacy legislation for many years now, with Australia just introducing our privacy legislation in the last couple.

Complete HRIS or ERP packages that allow very sophisticated data matching and mining abilities and these tools are being used to make generic decisions about people within an organisation. For example identification of employees who might be at risk of leaving and then creating retention strategies around the specific attributions of the employees fails into the category discussed by Richard of making decisions based on the information you hold on that person. Is this an invasion of privacy? Any data that is stored needs to be properly protected, an internal security breech is bad enough let alone an external one. This brings into question the security around the different ASP HRMS vendors in the marketplace today. Given that many of the largest technology providers have all been hit by hackers, are the vendors who store your employee data secure, did you even ask before you signed the contract? Or what about your backup tapes go missing, like what has recently happened to Citigroup, who is liable you the courier?

All of these examples have an impact on people’s privacy, however caution is needed not the “throw the baby out with the bath water” and overreact we just need to take the time too work through the different scenarios to ensure that our employees privacy is kept secure.

Email registrations

It seems James Farmer has the same issues as I have around having to register to get access to information on a web site.

Ok for a commercial entity I understand registering the first time but everytime is a bit much, and a not for profit the question is just why? Are they all wanting to control who has access to their content from a copyright point of view, or are they building a mailing list, or a combination? I don’t know but it can get frustrating. Is this something we just have to put up with due to the commercial nature of the world.

On a similar topic bloggers are starting to question the value of full feeds vs excerpts (even James) and the concept of “fair use” around RSS feeds. Personally I think it comes down to Allan Jenkin’s categories of bloggers “Blogging-for-Benjamins & Blogging-for-the-Sheer Hell of It“, currently if you want to make money you have excerpts to drive traffic to your site although this will change with the introduction of ads in RSS feeds.

Corporate culture and your blog

Regina Miller provides a nice and simply framework for understanding how your blogging fits into your corporate culture.

Basically if you look at your corporate culture’s norms and taboos as a 4-sided box (with you in the middle of it) imagine one side made of glass; one side made of steel; one side as a locked door for which a key is required; and one side made of the stretchy membrane.

Corporate culture is defined as “the way we do things around here” and you need to beware of the culture of the organisation and the impact that will have on your blogging. As a great example in practice have a look at the Yahoo policy and then compare it to IBM, Plaxo, Thomas Nelson Publishing, or Sun. Each policy and the approach taken to develop the policy provides insight into the corporate culture.

Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines

This has been around a bit in the last few days, oh well I am just behind, Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines (Via Jeremy Zawodny).

While it has the usually boiler-plate type info, admittedly in a Yahoo type format I wanted to summarise their best practice guidelines (in a similar way as I did with IBMs):-

  1. Be Respectful of Your Colleagues
  2. Get Your Facts Straight
  3. Provide Context to Your Argument
  4. Engage in Private Feedback

Very simply easy to understand and to adhere to, of interest they asked notable Yahoo bloggers Jeremy, Jeff Boulter, JR Conlin and Russell Beattie to provide their own personal advice, some of the advice is on their blogs while some has been kept internal.

I’m back

Back from my week on training, I need to sleep for the weekend to recover. Our sessions started at 8am, morning tea 11am (15 min), lunch 1pm (30 min), afternoon tea 4pm (15 min), personal time 7pm (30 min), dinner 7:30pm (1 hour), case study work till 9:30pm, then additional (optional but recommended) activities until 10 or 11pm. Lots and lots of really good information, however because if it was work based there will be no posts about it.