GeoRSS: Worse is Better

Sam Ruby is using GeoRSS, and the emergence of new feed based applications from Google and Microsoft, as an example of what non-elite web programmers can accomplish without XML schemas (or SOAP). The uptake of GeoRSS (and RSS more generally) demonstrates once again how worse is often better. People are typically generating GeoRSS feeds using tools that are completely ignorant of XML Schema, validating them via web sites, and processing fetched feeds using the DOM or XPath capabilities of their browser's JavaScript engine (GeoRSS.js). That the Geo-Web is forming out of GeoRSS and KML -- initially released without a schema -- rather than GML is yet another indictment against XSD.

The James Clark post to which Ruby replies is also a good read. Something like TEDI would come in handy at times, maybe even for the Python feature protocol I'm working on.