The big news while OLDaily was shut down: Dave Winer and Userland have turned over ownership of the RSS 2.0 specification to Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The move was greeted with wide acclaim, as the specification was immediately licensed under Creative Commons, which ensures that developers can build on it without fear of someone (SCO, say) coming along and claiming royalties. That Winer is also at Harvard is not overlooked by anyone; nor is his membership as part of a three person RSS advisory board. And it's not everything I argued for in RSS-Dev, where I urged that the use of a syndication standard ought to imply a license to use the content. But it is a case of Winer 'letting go' which, I guess, is quite sufficient for one day. Coincidentally (and on the same day, I think) Harvard Weblogs revised its terms of use policy, addressing concerns raised in earlier discussion. All in all, a very good day for Harvard, and one that gladdens my heart.
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