Matthew Chen gets it 

Megite guy understands that OPML files like to be online.

Prediction: by the end of 2007, it won't be possible to offer online apps that only allow users to upload static OPML files. Developer teams will either embrace the OPML URL idea on its merits or cave out of fear of ridicule.

Beware the yellow snow 

In the online world, I think the fundamental process for implementing the "users in charge" credo starts with a small group of bloggers rolling a snowball down the hill (as Doc puts it) with a suggestion about a feature.

Then the process can take one of two paths -- quick and proactive or stubborn and defensive -- but the paths meet in the same place at the bottom of the hill.

If the suggestion makes as much sense as "allow OPML URLs as well as static files," some development teams will embrace the suggestion right off the bat on its merits. Others will wait until the chorus of voices is so loud, the snowball is so big, that they have to offer the feature out of fear of ridicule if they don't.

The process is starting to work outside the tech arena, too, and that's why the PR folks want in the game.

In its purest form, it's an effective self-regulating phenomenon, and inherently honest. Just a bunch of people saying "I want this." I dread the infusion of more and more professional conversation managers into the equation because it introduces yellow snow into the snowball. Once you suspect that a spin campaign is behind some of the voices, you lose trust that you're seeing a genuine mandate, and that makes my heart sink.

Happy Thanksgiving 

Life is good, isn't it -- so much better than the alternative.