More Bridges, Fewer Roads

Today, Fred Wilson brought up the Email vs. RSS discussion again.  Fred's perspective is different than that of most technologists.  He sees the wider potential.  The problem is that most people building the technologies get far too caught up in building a newer, more powerful version of some advanced concept, and not so interested in all the people who are left behind.

The key to successful RSS take-up by the masses involves something I call building a technology bridge. What's needed is a way that people already comfortable with a concept (such as email) can become RSS users without any awareness of how or why it's happened, then gradually migrate their thinking into the new world based upon positive motivations. I'm not talking about email gateways such as those feedburner provides. Rather, I am talking about concepts such as an email identity bridge. A way to caplitalize on a broadly known concept (your email identity) to cross the bridge into better subscription content with a new reader interface other than the outdated and unmanagable inbox technology. The new reader interface can be something so simple as a consumer-oriented web service, or can attempt careful integration with email. The details aren't as important as the concept and the low viscosity of the solution.

As an example, Grace's company, Spider Eye, manages highly successful mailing lists for entertainment companies like Warner. One thing that is obvious to me is that people understand "their email address". Spider Eye goes to great trouble to protect their addresses, and keep the lists clean and perfect. That's why people use their service. If there were a way to link people's email identity (not their inboxes) to RSS feeds, that would be an adoption bridge. Let's say one of her clients sent out a regular mail to their consumer mailing list saying "Get more news about your favorite artists using our new blah-blah-blah feed". We know from experience that about 20-30% of the people on these types of lists would try it. Further, assume that the "bridge technology" were a bit smarter than email, not so vulnerable to spam, and provided obviously increased utility.  Adoption would begin.

This is just an example. Trying to "create new RSS tools" to make things easier will only go so far. RSS is an abstract concept which does not reveal its benefits easily to consumers. Without a bridge technology, it increases the time to adoption immeasurably. Consider how powerful CDs were as a bridge technology for taking consumers into the digital music world. Was it planned that way? Probably not. So, look at an RSS-to-email-identity bridge in a similar fashion.

Building such bridge technologies is hard, and the hardest part is that software builders (more than other engineering disciplines) have a very difficult time relating to the masses, and understanding that sometimes "less is more". Too many RSS tools are evolving upward rather than downward. So, doing something like this requires mass-market vision. Hard to come by in the online world.  Scott Karp's reaction to Dave Winer and Robert Scoble is a good example.  To Scott, it's obvious that the technical vision and the consumer vision are miles apart.

But, somebody will do it.  And, the company that not only understands RSS, but also understands the consumer and the need for bridge technologies will be the first to do it successfully.

This is a chronic problem with software technologists.  Too many roads.  Not enough bridges.