Dave Winer has unleashed a new project called, Share Your OPML, that makes commons for sharing OPML outlines, feeds, and taxonomy. This is something that many of us have been wanting, and I know many of my readers will find it a great resource. Simply put, Share Your OPML will allow anyone to upload their OPML file, which is basically a list of feeds you subscribe to, and will display them online for anyone to view. Further more, it will use the community of subscriptions to produce interesting data, such as Top 100 feeds, subscribers similar to yourself, and more.

Before I get into any more detail, some of you may not know what OPML is. OPML, which stands for Outline Processor Markup Language, is an XML format for outlines. This OPML format is commonly used with feed readers and aggregation services, such as Bloglines and Rojo, so that one can easily export an outline of all feeds that they are subscribed to. For example, if I were to go into Bloglines and select the export option, I could then save it and send you the OPML file. You would then be able to view all of the feeds I am subscribed to and easily import them into your feed reader of choice (if it supports importing of OPML files). So, essentially, what Share Your OPML will do is create a community of users that share their OPML files for everyone to view and generate interesting statistics and data to help others find feeds that they may want to subscribe to.

I have uploaded my OPML and now anyone can easily see what feeds I am subscribed to. Once submitted, I was then able to access other sections of the site that contain some interesting data. I can view other subscribers that have OPML subscriptions that relate to my own, which in turn allows me to easily find feeds that I may be interested in subscribing to. I also can see that I am, as of now, the 29th most prolific subscriber, which I am don’t know if I should be proud about that or not :-). Also, if you own a blog and you are interested in seeing how many users are subscribed to your feed, you can make a search and it will pull up a list of all your subscribers (that enabled sharing and are users of SYO). Lastly, the feature that everyone wants to see, Top 100 Feeds. As you have probably guessed, this page generates a list of the top 100 feeds with the most subscribers. Looks like Solution Watch made the list! For now, at least. Hope it lasts and thanks to my subscribers!

Share Your OPML is looking great and I for one am very excited about it. It is great seeing so many people share their subscriptions helping others find feeds. As Steve Rubel has said, I too hope that the major aggregators will pick up on Share Your OPML and append it to their services offerings so a user can easily contribute their OPML subscriptions. At this point, Share Your OPML is too feature packed, but it sure is powerful. I hope to see more functionality in the future with possibly subscription management, tagging, or even providing the ability to download an OPML file from users or even the Top 100 list.

View Share Your OPML.