Seeds: the social internet feed caching and dissemination architecture

Abstract

Syndicated content in the Internet has been a huge success ever since the early days of RSS 0.9 and MyNetscape. Currently, it is the cornerstone of content push, ranging from podcasts to emerging Web 2.0 sites such as Friend-Feed and Plexus. Unfortunately, the simple technology that makes publication and subscription very simple and flexible, thus explaining in part its success, is also limiting its usefulness in more demanding applications. This paper proposes a novel distributed architecture for feed caching and dissemination. It leverages social networks as promoters of discovery and aggregation, and peer-to-peer protocols for content distribution, while providing an evolutionary upgrade path that does not disrupt current infrastructure or require changes to publishers’ or consumers’ habits.