Please take a look at Atom. Atom exists because Winer blocked early attempts at an open RSS standard. Now Atom is an IETF standard; RSS is merely de facto. Atom is more precise than RSS for current uses (it solves the funny characters problem). Atom is extensible in an orderly way; RSS is "simple" but limited. As syndication applications grow the good design and new features of Atom will prove it to be a more powerful solution.