Forget RSS … the hippest thing these days appears to be Attention Management, at least according to the geekgods who are developing the APML (Attention Profiling Mark-up Language). This is a standard that will allow users of super-available, but hard-to-track, information sources like RSS feeds, blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to categorize all their bits of information according to how important they are — to them, not to the publishers of the information. Imagine a virtual newspaper with headlines whose size you can customize depending on your personal interests, and you might get some of the flavour of what appears to be the goal here.
Say you’re interested in libraries, mashups, malamutes, and Britney Spears’ latest antics (okay, maybe not) – but are you equally interested in all of these somewhat random topics?
APML allows developers to create services that recognize the relative importance to you of all the information that can be gathered via the Web — and existing services are hopping on the bandwagon. Stay tuned, things could get even more interesting soon. Want to know more, or get involved? Join the APML Google Group.
