Xarg blog Archive

Peter Van Dijck has written an Introduction to XFML.

XFML is a simple XML format for exchanging metadata in the form of faceted hierarchies, sometimes called taxonomies. Its basic building blocks are topics, also called categories. XFML won't solve all your metadata needs. It's focused on interchanging faceted classification and indexing data.

I like XFML, it seems simple enough to actually use. I also think anyone who would link to Cory Doctorow's Metacrap article when describing their own metadata format has a pretty good handle on building something practical. Mark Pilgrim also wrote about XFML and there is a demo of viewing his "Dive Into Accessibility" web tutorial in a generic XFML browser (as a portal or as a search engine).