Two recent entries, one in the form of a blog entry from Dare Obasanjo, the other in the form of a post to the FeedSync list from Steven Lees, both in the last 24 hours,

ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria) Transforms SQL Server into an Atom Store

This is sick. With Astoria I can expose my relational database or even a local just an XML file using a RESTful interface that utilizes the Atom Publishing Protocol or JSON. I am somewhat amused that one of the options is placing a RESTful interface over a SOAP Web Service. My, how times have changed…

It is pretty cool that Microsoft is the first major database vendor to bring the dream of the Atom store to fruition. I also like that one of the side effects of this is that there is now an AtomPub client library for .NET Framework.

Of course, I’m sure there will be many who will contend that GData, and therefore Google were the first to bring the “dream” of an Atom store to fruition my bad. Dare stated “first major database vendor“, which as far as I know is a true and fair statement. That said, I’m leaving in my props to Joe Gregorio cuz’ he deserves both the credit and attention, regardless of the fact that he isn’t a major DB vendor either. and to be completely honest, Joe Gregorio not only brought forward the original dream of the Atom store, but was the originating dreamer that brought AtomPub into existence, quietly building both the client and server pieces of this dream while at the same time acting as the (lead?) editor on a two man *ROCKSTAR* team, and backed by some of the brightest minds in the industry to ensure that the final result was what it needed to be. But let’s try and set aside differences in perspective for now and take a look at what Steven Lees has to say,

LISTSERV 15.5 - FEED-TECH Archives

This is effectively what the FeedSync incubation service (http://feedsync.mslivelabs.com/) does today. Once you have created a feed on the service, you can deal with it entirely using AtomPub operations. The FeedSync service can always give you an up to date FeedSync feed for the collection. (Caveat: it doesn’t have full AtomPub spec coverage yet, for example it doesn’t support media link entries.)

So here’s the thing: Few would argue that MSFT has software flowing through it’s veins. Their software runs 90% of the planets computers, for goodness sake, so claims that they “just don’t get software” are based on long term fantasy, not short-term fact or any sort of historical evidence providing even the slightest level of validity to the argument. They may not make all the decisions that many of us would like them to make, but what if — and stick with me on this one for a sec — what if in the matter of a years time they’ve not only found ways to integrate all the wonderfulness of AtomPub into their core platform infrastructure, but taken it one step further and exposed all this wonderfulness to the 600 million++ customers that in one form or another utilize MSFT products on daily basis?

That’s a lot of people, and correct me if I’m wrong, but given the above two entries coupled with the fact that between MSFT Word (2007)(though I’m not sure how current the support is at this stage) and Windows Live Writer you have the client-side portion of AtomPub, doesn’t this at very least suggest what the title of this post questions?

Actually what I think it suggests is that the AtomPubSub groups kicked some serious a$$ when they created these two lovely specifications, so credit the members of both these groups for creating exactly what they set out to create: An open foundation for our publishing and subscription based present and future.

But I think credit should also be given to the internals @ MSFT who have proven that maybe — just maybe — not all hope is lost as far as what MSFT GET’s and what they do not.

Something to think about, anyway.