TrackBack in motion.

Interesting work is afoot in the world of TrackBack and other related concepts.

I received an email from Aaron Straup Cope that he has put my newly released XML::TrackBack module to work. Aaron is developing a OOP-ish interface to the Internet Topic Exchange dubbed Net::ITE.

The Internet Topic Exchange site is an implementation of Ridiculously Easy Group Forming concept. In its current form, ITE is a TrackBack repository with a twist -- participants can create channels that they and others can ping. The integration of a Wiki into the mix, albeit a loose one, is intriguing and one that has yet to be touched upon and explored.

David Raynes has been working on two concepts based on TrackBack infrastructure that he calls ComeBack and Post-It. Post-It allows users to publish whole entries to a MovableType weblog while ComeBack enables distributed comment authoring. I tested both with some basic test scripts using XML::TrackBack. Post-It works without issue. ComeBack uses a slightly different interface that returned an error when pinged. David has now integrated the two in one site achieving a forum-like effect where a user can make a post and others can comment on it.

The notion of a remote commenting interface that ComeBack represents is an intriguing one. This is a topic I will return to in a later post. Too much to write about here. Post-It is not as apparent to me. As a publishing API, Post-It bears a great deal of similarity in principle to the RESTLog API. The value of free-for-all posting that it enables via TrackBack I'm not entirely sure about.

Yesterday, Ben Hammersley was his own guinea pig as he attempted to implement TrackBack threading on his site. Ben had to retreat for the time being and shares his learnings in a later post here.

Sam Ruby recently put a different spin on Mark Pilgrim's automatic linkbacks system by utilizing RSS feeds as its source of excerpts. Sam explains To participate, you don't need to use weblogging software that supports trackback or pingback, you simply have to update your templates to have a link to your RSS feed. In a follow-up post he reasons I actually experimented with mark's code for a bit, but the biggest problem I had was that it looked like it would require continual investment to weed out the ever growing number of portals and personal aggregators. I was also concerned about the feedback loop that could occur given the amount of back traffic I get whenever I mention anything on Mark's page.

Shelley Powers continues to advanced something she calls BackTrack on top of TrackBack information. In this post she explains its purpose In each individual posting page is a section labeled with Sticky Strands and listing all of the TB pings the posting issued. The functionality I added today takes those pings, follows them back to the posted weblog, and then lists all of the trackbacks that weblog posting has received. Sam Ruby has joined in.

Both are excellent ideas that underscores the increasing value (and necessity) of meaningful titles and excerpts.

This experimentation has all been very intriguing and worthwhile in our discovery and understanding of the network and social effects of two-way hyperlinking systems. In reviewing this work I'm beginning to see some emerging issues and topics coming into focus. (In no particular order.)

• Extensibility of TrackBack. How should this is achieved without breaking some semblance of interoperability. For instance, I was unable to make a ComeBack post with XML::TrackBack because email has been added, excerpt renamed comment and blog_name renamed agent. All are required. So a TrackBack enabled tool cannot interoperate with a ComeBack interface, but does it have to be that way? It would seem not if these situations where examined for consideration to developing standard.
• What is the appropriate use and display of these various mechanisms? What improves usability and what degrades it? In commenting on Ben Hammersley's TrackBack threading experiment I wrote it seems the time is near, even here, where we need to begin discussing when is it appropriate/useful to use these different mechanisms and how are they best presented. Another case in point, since implementing a number of these mechanisms, Sam Ruby's comments board have been filling up with various links and excerpts to the point its becoming hard to grok.
• Integration of RSS and a consolidation of efforts. Post-It uses a superset of the TrackBack. Is ComeBack was based on TrackBack's infrastructure and has a very similar interface, but breaks comparability. Post-It is quite similar to RESTLog. All make use of RSS or RSS-like structures including Sam Ruby's automatic linkbacks and let's not forget MLTFO (More Like This From Others) effort that happened over the holiday season. One thing is becoming clear RSS is bloody important and highly useful and far more then just a way to read news outside of the browser so we can stick it to the BigCos.

The subtle and underlying theme I draw from all of this is that RESTful interfaces that inherent in the Web's design work and have yet to be fully explored.

Here is to experimentation, innovation and evolution.