smorg

At 2:45am, tired and not sure if I took my ambien yet, I hereby propose a new internet protocol to be called ‘BlogIt’. BlogIt will be used to send page content, complete with meta tags, images and media to a users predefined blog.

A page with an article and a picture that is tagged could then be extrapolated and syndicated to another site, complete with citation and appropriate licensing restrictions*.

An example would be visiting youtube and clicking a ‘BlogIt’ link that would automatically embed the video in the post, name the post topic, cite the source and url and add the youtube tags as tags on the blog. Theoretically, it could retain formatting.

Further to that, a search engine could allow a user to search for tags and return content that bears similar interest.

*Depending on the bent of the page author, the licensing could be as limited as text only with a specific citation, or full content with no attribution at all. The browser could read the license via the pages meta license=”" tag to determine how to process the BlogIt command.

Trackbacks could come back to life even…the original site could be notified and if it determines that the referrer is not suitable to their nature, they could negate the trackback and perhaps even revoke the licensing and implore the offending site to remove that content.

Sites could also ‘loan’ content out - a video could be shared via BlogIt for an extended period of say 60 days, whereafter the post content would be redirected to the original site, leaving the commentary of the second site alone. Both have content but the original author recovers lost traffic and interest.

The BlogIt API would allow site developers to embed their specific tags within their site, setting the ground rules for how their content can be shared. The aforementioned licensing, trackbacks and usage quotas are in place and the end users browser simply reads them and performs the appropriate actions when the user clicks ‘BlogIt’.

Additionally, site owners can license their content for syndication to other sites, either for free or via a predetermined cost. Remember the way magazines used to sell issues of interest to customers? Think of it that way - a site owner writes a great article, someone wants to blog about it while remaining credible. They agree to a $5 micropayment (amount arranged through the API) and they now have higher quality content on their own site, while the original author retains his rights and attribution.

From the technical perspective, end user wise:
The user has a web browser that is BlogIt capable (whether internally (Flock) or via an extension or plugin (Firefox/Safari) or perhaps even a javascript (Ecto)).

Example: The user is reading an article about politics and wants to clip and blog a paragraph about Jon Stewart. He clicks his BlogIt button and a page selector appears…he highlights the paragraph he wants (the software is looking for h1 and P tags or even a div) and within a moment his blog applet or program opens with the entire post ready to go.
The subject is filled out using the H1 content, the paragraph is in a blockquote and and the sidebar picture of Jon is in a float:right div…all is nicely formatted.

The post tags are prefilled with suggestions from the original page ‘funny, humor, politics, stewart’, while the trackback is pre-filled with that of the sending page.

All that’s left is to drop the cursor at the top of the page for the blogger to intone a snarky comment or drop a line of wisdom. Or make a fart joke.

But how would anyone make money from this? Browsers obviously could by increasing their market share with advanced features like this. Content publishers could make money by syndicating their content at a premium price or by embedding contextual ads into their post as part of their agreement.
Bloggers would make money by bringing in traffic to read better content and having their own advertisers noticed.

The original content provider (OCP) can predefine his preferences for nay of his settings inside his own editor - but each post could have changes to each variable (tags, pricing, etc) just as easily as changing the category is now.

Some of the tags that could be embedded than retrieved by reader browsers:
license: (gpl, gnu, text, disallowed, attribute only, none, trackback)
tags: (humor, politics, vomit, german shepard, ball bearings)
cost: (free , $1, $5, lifetime, 90 days, full attribution with image and link in the top fold, etc.)
description: Could be the posts summary, which could then be used as the intro on the second posts entry…)

There are some obvious reasons this would be useful, but the most obvious to me is that we could get past the current situation wherein sites are plagiarized and mutilated for posting the same old crap from a press release and trying to ‘lighten it up a bit’ or put a sinister spin on the story.

By giving content providers the power, we give the content aggregator the freedom to enhance their own sites while allowing them to sell the authors work for them - getting eyeballs on original, quality work without having to beg borrow or steal.

Additionally it is a community building exercise. As authors find their selves being published in places they have never been before (Mac users on a cooking site) we start to see how disparate groups of people have similar interests and in the end, everyone wins.

The blog (god help the word itself is already outdated) is going to be the primary method of communications for years to come. Yes, sites such as Twitter and other micro-blogs will continue, but only to supplement the users ‘main site’. You can say a lot in 140 characters, but you cant emphasize it.

By creating a standard by which blogs can co-exist without turning into even more of a quagmire than it currently is might take some time, but could well be worth it.