(2008-02-06) Demonstrating Snap The Syndicated Next Action Pattern

Demonstrating Snap - the Syndicated Next Action pattern - at Web Directions North 2008

We’re demonstrating a concept that’s previously been referred to as RSS-I – “RSS for Interaction“. This is an idea Matt Webb mentioned in his ETech 2007 keynote

in a nutshell: what if RSS feeds could prompt you not only to updated and new content, but also actions that need to be performed?

In the application, a user can add todo-list items to it, set a priority, and “tag” them as belonging to a project

All of this data is also available as Atom feeds. The Atom feeds present the same information as the website, with one neat difference: at the bottom of every item, there’s a form embedded. And in that form, you can do everything you can do to the item on the site: defer it, tag it, complete it, or trash it.

So not only can you read all the data you’d normally see on the site, you can also interact with it, without leaving your feed reader.

What’s the future for this kind of thing? I don’t know. “Enclosures for interactions” was the best way I could describe one future I’d like for it: the idea that endpoints for interactions could be specified just as we currently specify things like referenced media files; then the user interface for Snap is down to the tool, rather than the feed itself.

Because Snap emphasises, rather than obscures, the natural flow state we get into when we’re working our way down a list, it generates a sense of immediacy around the simple action of “doing tasks”.

Snap also demands different kinds of RSS aggregators.

Snap – Blog

Recently at Web Directions North, I introduced Snap, the syndicated next action pattern. It’s a way to get all those little interactions out of websites, and all in the same place: your newsreader.

Taking a new bug in a tracker, and accepting it, allocating it, completing it,

Clicking through and perhaps purchasing a recommended book

we need a kind of RSS for interactions

interaction is a feed entry. The actions are shown as an HTML form, and using the form sends data to the website which updates that object. The feed is then updated, changing the original entry to show the new object state. The original object state is no longer visible

Feed entries can indeed represent interactions, and update to show new states. The user never needs to leave the newsreader.

*Imagine having your todo list manager – whether it’s iCal or TaskPaper – expose a Snap interface, so you can use it entirely from your newsreader.

Tasks could then be mixed with interactions from all your other sources – like email moderation or bug tracking – and even tasks from other people in your company.*

One point to look further at is how to improve newsreader support for this usage. Maybe there could be a Snap profile for Atom, in the same way podcasting is supported by enclosures?

Having several feeds representing different states of a process, for example different Snap feeds for the different states of a bug in a tracker

Snap isn’t a technology. Snap is an interaction pattern which works right now, and I’m convinced makes the experience of using websites better.