Learning from the Future at the Next Web with Chris Saad from Maarten on Vimeo.

You can also watch the DataPortability keynote on Christian’s blog.

We are very happy to announce the following new developments for APML.

NewsGator Announcement
NewsGator has just announced on their developer blogs that NewsGator Technologies Inc to support APML across its product range starting with FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and NewsGator Inbox

Further, The APML Workgroup is announcing:

• With NewsGator Technologies APML implementation, they now join:
  • Cluztr.com (Clickstream Sharing),
  • Dandelife.com (The Social Biography Network) and
  • Particls.com (Attention Management Engine)

  These are three companies that already support APML using Engagd.com APIs.
  Engagd.com makes APML implementation quick and easy using a simple API— great for mash-ups all the way through to large-scale apps.

• There has been a new APML.org site launched - It’s designed to make APML a little easier to understand.
• There is now a new APML public discussion group for the community.
• There have been a number of new additions to the APML Workgroup:
• NewsGator (family of cross-platform and mobile feed aggregators)
• Bloglines (web-based and mobile feed aggregator)
• Me.dium (social browsing)
• Ma.gnolia (social Bookmarking)
• Talis (semantic platform)
• Peepel (multi-window AJAX environment and office suite)

This follows previous successes of the APML Workgroup such as:

• Existing members of the Workgroup, including those from Faraday Media, Citizen Agency, Digg, Dow Jones and Compete.

• Bloglines (Owned by Ask.com/IAC) has previously announced that they are investigating APML support in their product.
• Open-source APML libraries available for all to use on Google Code.
• Great explanations of APML usage by Marjolein Hoekstra (Basics of Attention Profiling), Ben Metcalfe (Thoughts on Tom Morris on APML) and Elias Bizannes (What is APML and why would you want it). Follow the rest of the APML blog discussion on the CleverClogs Attention Profiling news radar.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

As usual, I would like to thank everyone involved in and around the APML Workgroup.

Particular thanks to the latest round of announcements must go to Chris Pirillo, Ben Metcalfe, Elias Bizannes, Daniela Barbosa, Ross Dawson and Marshall Kirkpatrick.

Also my personal thanks must go to Marjolein Hoekstra who has been instrumental in pushing things forward.

Coverage

• Read/Write web have picked up the story
• Read the NewsGator/FeedDemon announcement on Nick Bradbury’s blog
• IMified have announced support for APML in their FeedCrier product
• Cluztr is providing an APML TagCloud widget
• Daniela Barbosa from Dow Jones has written a great post about APML in the Enterprise
• Ross Dawson writes about the value of a standards based Attention world

The long awaited update to the APML site is here. We have tried to make it a little less geeky and a little more user-friendly. But we have also expanded the Geek/Developer sections to help you get started quickly!

Check it out at www.apml.org

In his latest post about Google Reader on Read/Write Web, Marshall asks about the lack of APML support:

“I also wonder what the Google Reader team says behind closed doors about the proposed Attention Data standard, APML. It’s great that Google Reader gives me access to data about my reading habits, but I’d like to take my data to other apps for personalization, thank you very much.”

He rightly suggests that the new Bloglines push might very well outpace Google by choosing to support more innovative and open standards in their reader.

Steven Ashley suggests that APML support is already on the roadmap:

“Hopefully just because they are no longer in Beta, Google Reader will still continue its fast pace of new feature implementation. Still expected support for 40 different languages and feed recommendation system. In the future support for the proposed Attention Data standard, APML is also expected.”

Does he have inside information?

Ian Forrester from BBC describes his perfect RSS reader.

At the top of his list? APML support.

Any takers?

Cross Post from the Engagd Blog:

The recent leak of Google’s plans for its Google Reader product are interesting. Particularly the following point:

Very soon, Google Reader will recommend feeds to the user, based on previous subscriptions and other Google activity.

Every day, more and more applications - particularly Google Apps - are starting to use and abuse your Attention Data.

This is a growing concern that I have been tracking for some time.

From that previous post:

Are you so willing to give up your rights so easily? You are, in effect, saying that you are happy for Google to absorb all your personal data - your digital identity (incidentally your digital identity is quickly becoming a large proportion of your overall identity) - and you’re going to TRUST them to be completely benevolent about it? Forever?

You want no leverage? None? You don’t want any accountability? Ownership? Mobility? Economy? Transparency? Because while I love Google as much as the next person - they are not transparent. And they do not respect your Attention rights.

This brings me to my next point. Economy implies that something (property) has value (in this case your Attention Data and Attention Profile). It also implies that you can transfer your property (and its value). You can sell it and leveraged and do all sorts of fancy things. It also requires multiple participants in an ecosystem.

So to dig deeper into Sam’s original question “Is Google Building the Attention Economy?” the answer is no.

Google is not building the Attention Economy. They are using their huge surface area to try to grab as much of your Attention Data as possible to target and sell ads on TV, Radio, Web and Print. They are increasingly becoming an ‘Attention Aware Advertising Company’.

Another key question now is, if you have an application that displays RSS/ATOM, do you have a Personal Relevancy/Attention Data strategy? If not, your software will quickly become obsolete.

Join the APML workgroup and add Engagd functionality to your feed reader today (as others are) to make sure your feed reading efforts remain relevant (pun intended).