This dude - David Czarnecki - sent me a post he did on Digital Shopping Aggrergators. Pretty coolio. In thsi post - he shows what an ‘OpenItem’ schema might look like.

Exactly….

Here’s David’s post…..

Dear Retailers,

I hate receiving color glossy catalogs in the mail. It’s a waste of paper. And quite frankly, it’s out of control now with pre-fall, fall, post-fall, winter, post-winter sale catalogs, and so on.

I want syndication feeds from your sites. I want to know what new products you have to sell me.

I know you’ve got the back-end infrastructure to support output in a format other than HTML. The syndication feed formats are simpler. You won’t have to worry about spacing and using invisible 1 pixel images to get the pooka shell necklace situated just so against the pair of distressed jeans.

I do not care if you offer your feeds in Atom or RSS or both. The news aggregator I use can support either format.

I want you to turn this page into something resembling the following:

<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Banana Republic</title>
    <link>http://www.bananarepublic.com/</link>
    <description>Banana Republic</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs>
    <generator>something or the other</generator>
    <webMaster>webmaster@bananarepublic.com</webMaster>
    <managingEditor>webmaster@bananarepublic.com</managingEditor>
    <pubDate>Wed, 1 Dec 2004 09:50:09 -0500</pubDate>
    <item>
      <title>Wool herringbone three-button suit blazer</title>
      <link>http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/product/253/product_253248.htm?
cs_catalog=BR%5FHoliday2%5F2004&cs_category=1007&Display=2</link>
      <description>
	Set the tone for fall in timeless herringbone with a subtle grey and brown stripe.
 A slightly more tailored fit and modern three-button closure give this impeccable wool
blazer true contemporary style. Pair with the herringbone suit pant for a handsome suiting
combination.
      </description>
      <guid>http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/product/253/product_253248.htm?cs_catalog=
BR%5FHoliday2%5F2004&cs_category=1007&Display=2</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 1 Dec 2004 09:50:09 -0500</pubDate>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

I can help if you want, send me an e-mail, but I’m sure you’ve got some IT smarties walking the corporate hallways of your respective offices who can read a simple specification and develop a back-end component to output a syndication feed. Hell, there’s a validator online that’ll check how well your IT smarties read the respective specifications.

I am pretty certain you’d unload your sale items quicker after the holidays are over and especially after the respective spring/summer/fall/winter season has past.

I am more likely to buy from you if you offer this convenience.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

David Czarnecki

[bedeviled mojo slop]

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2004 at 1:23 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.