Microformats

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Microformats

• Scraping by design

A session at NTC07, Washington DC Facilitated by
(the east coast) Michael Stein michael_at_membersonly
software.com http//michaelatmo.blogspot.com
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3 principal takeaways

• What are microformats?
• How are they in use today?
• How can microformats can be valuable to
  non-profit orgs?

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INTRODUCTIONS
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Official Definition -

• Designed for humans first and machines second,
  microformats are a set of simple, open data
  formats built upon existing and widely adopted
  standards.

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My definition

• Microformats are transformations of prior widely
  used standards.
• Using pure xhtml as a data transfer mechanism,
  microformats provide a way for both humans and
  programs to read the same screen displays.

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Screen-scraping 20 years ago

• In 1987, we were hired by a small investment firm
  to download stock data from Compuserve displays.
• We had to trust the data would be displayed in
  the same format from day to day.

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Screen-scraping conundrum

• Even today, most web displays are designed for
  humans only. Only with careful programming can
  data be extracted from them for computer use.

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Screen-scraping 2007 style

• Scraping by design What if we introduce elements
  into the web page that identify the semantics of
  individual text strings?

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Screen-scraping by design

• Whats so clever about microformats is that use
  the same tags to add this semantic information as
  to provide the visual formatting!

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The idea
INSTEAD OF CLASSIC XML ltNAMEgt
ltFIRSTNAMEgtCharleslt/FIRSTNAMEgt
ltLASTNAMEgtWindsorltLASTNAMEgt lt/NAMEgt
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The idea
USE xHTML with semantics specified as
CLASS ltdiv classNAMEgt ltspan
classFIRSTNAMEgtCharleslt/spangt ltspan
classLASTNAMEgtWindsorlt/spangt lt/divgt And let
CSS handle the visuals.
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An example

• hCard

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an example - source
ltdiv class"vcard"gt ltp class"fn" gtStein,
Michaellt/pgt ltdiv class"photo" style"floatleft"gt
ltimg src"images\00003971.jpg"
alt"Michael" /gtlt/divgt ltp class"org"gtMembers
Only Software, Inc lt/pgt ltdiv class"adr"gt ltp
class"street-address"gt 1806 T St NWlt/pgt ltpgtltspan
class"locality"gtWashingtonlt/spangt ltspan
class"region" gtDClt/spangt ltspan
class"postal-code"gt20009lt/spangt lt/pgt ltp
class"country-name"gtlt/pgt lt/divgt ltdiv
class"telecommunications"gt ltp class"tel"gtltspan
class"tel"gtltspan class"type"gtOffice
Phonelt/spangt ltspan class"value"gt(202)
328-1785lt/spangtlt/pgt ltp class"email"gtEmail lta
class"value" href"mailtomichaelatmo_at_gmail.com"gt
michaelatmo_at_gmail.comlt/agtlt/pgt lt/divgtlt/divgt
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an example visual styling

• hCard- phyisical appearance is controlled by the
  style sheet used.

http//ian.mckellar.org/
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Existing Microformats

• hCard
• hCalendar
• votelinks
• hreview
• XFN
• rel-license
• rel-tag

The official microformats site Microformats.org Is
a repository of information on these And
emerging microformat standards
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Micro-micro formats

• Its all done with the rel attribute
• Used for tag, licence, xfn, etc

lta hrefhttp//michaelatmo.blogspot.com
relfriendgtMichael Stein lt/agt
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Microformats in Action

• Technorati builds its tagged blog index by
  looking for the reltag microformat on claimed
  blogs. A major use of a micro-micro-format.

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Microformat in Action

• OPERATOR is a FIREFOX extension that detects
  microformats in each page you veiw and enables
  actions on them.
• Developed by Michael Kaply at IBM
• http//labs.mozilla.com/2006/12/introducing-operat
  or

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Other microformat extractors

• TAILS an open source project.
• http//blog.codeeg.com/tails-firefox-extension-03/
  
• Allows custom scripting of the actions taken when
  a microformat is found.

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Microformat creators

• These are little applets that let you type in the
  information in a form and generate a microformat
  for including in on a site. The Microformats.org
  site has links to many such creators.

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Uses in the npTech context?

• Information sharing between npo sites
• Social Networking Community Building
  applications?
• Data Integration Applications?
• Are there new microformats we need to evolve to
  meet specifucu npo reuirements.

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Some online resources

• microformats.org
• Jeremy Keiths site http//adactio.com/extras/get
  tingmicroformats/

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New book Im eager to read

• MicroformatsEmpowering Your Markup for Web 2.0
  By John Allsopp