Lifestream to APML

A few weeks ago, I added a link to my APML (Attention Profiling Markup Language) on the side of my about page thanks to Chris Saad, Co-founder and CEO of Faraday Media, the creators of Particls and co-author of APML. I’m using their product, Engagd, to create my APML file.

While I’m still importing RSS feeds from my web attention and activities into my data stream, the APML file gives users a format to view my attention data in a product like Particls.

I haven’t had time to write anything more in depth about APML so I was delighted to see that Marjolein Hoekstra has written a great introduction to APML at CleverClogs in a deliberately non-technical manner.

I like introducing attention profiles as consolidated, structured descriptions of people’s interests and dislikes. The information about your interests and how much each means to you (ranking) is stored in a way so that computers and web-based services can easily read it, interpret it, process it and pass it on should you request and permit them to do so.”

Sam Sethi also provides a good description: “APML was started about 18 months ago as an idea to standardise the format used to capture and share a persons attention metadata.”

Have a look at Marjolein’s post to understand: “1. What is attention profiling and what are the benefits? 2. What tools and services already support or endorse attention profiling? 3. Where could you go next?” There are also links to news of APML translated to most major languages.

You should also visit the newly redesigned APML.org site, announced by Chris Saad on Oct 9. The site is clean and well presented with separate sections for End Users, Geeks, Developers. There’s also a Wiki page that has a list of services that support APML. On October 16, Chris also announced that Newsgator and Bloglines will support APML as well.

If you want to see the output of an APML, use a product such as Particls, currently available for Windows with a Mac version on the way. Chris Saad describes it: “Particls creates a river of news for you on a docked sidebar on the side of the screen. The news comes for your own RSS feeds and is filtered by your APML file – so only the most Personally Relevant news flows by. It gives you a sort of ambient awareness of the news around you. It can also discover new news for you based on your APML file and include those items in the stream.” Visit the Particls blog for the latest news and a history of what’s occurred with APML thus far.