Fellow
E-Media Tidbits contributor and
Contentious weblog/webzine editor
Amy Gahran was inspired by
my item here yesterday (which was inspired by a
Scott Rosenberg column on Salon) about the RSS (Rich Site Summary) e-publishing standard needing a more friendly colloquial name in order for it to go mainstream. So she launched into action and started a modest contest to come up with one. Just as the web became mainstream because of the moniker "World Wide Web" and not "HTML" (hypertext mark-up language), RSS needs a "catchier, less geeky name that will help bring RSS to a mass audience" and encourage more people to get interested enough in RSS to want to try it as a means of spam-free online-news delivery, says Gahran, who of late has become somewhat of an RSS evangelist.
If you've got a word or phrase in mind -- a "World Wide Web"-like name for RSS --
enter Gahran's contest, which is open till December 31. Gahran and a small team of other judges, including Internet humorist
Randy Cassingham and me, will select a winner. There's a small cash prize, and the possibility of Internet fame if your name catches on!
