March 5, 2010 23 Comments

Twitter Needs an OPML-like Function

I’m looking over at you, Dave Winer, because you probably wrote about this years ago or something.

I’m sitting here at Zemoga‘s offices in Colombia. I realized that I wanted to be able to find a “Team Zemoga” list, click on it, and then dump the entire team into a list on my Seesmic Desktop. I realize that I can follow other people’s public lists, but the functionality is just a bit too clunky still.

I want the ability to take a Twitter list and share it as a new “team” list, with the ability to quickly manage the “follow/followback” as well as the ability to DM them almost like they’re IM users.

Make sense? Is this just me?

Related posts:

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  4. Get More Twitter Followers TODAY
  5. GroupTweet Makes Twitter Groups Easy

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  • noahwesley

    I think TweepML might be getting close to this. http://tweepml.org/

  • http://anotherguy.us/ Tim Stiffler-Dean

    I agree. It's one of those issues that I've had in adopting lists for my own use. I want to be able to get in touch with these people in a more intuitive way, but for right now, my Google Contacts is working better than Twitter lists.

  • http://twitter.com/PeterLiu47 Peter Liu

    I agree! I manage several Twitter accounts and would love to be able to port lists from one to another.

  • http://allurblogs.blogspot.com/ AJinNashville

    Great point, Chris! How much you wanna bet you hear back from Dave, like, TODAY! *LOL*

  • joshuaguffey

    Sure does! Working with lists tends to be the biggest workflow bottleneck in Twitter right now. Even via Tweetie & Tweetdeck it isn't as good as it could be.

  • http://scrapsofmygeeklife.com scrappinmichele

    Nope, not just you. I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter Lists. Love the idea, but most of the time I end up frustrated because lists don't do what I want them to do.

  • http://willowsmarsh.com Karen Masullo (OPCGal)

    Yup. Yup.Yup.Yup.Yup.Yup.Yup.Yup.Yup.

  • http://www.ocbchgal.com/ Kathy

    Columbia? Columbia where? The country? ;)

    I also want Tweetdeck on my Palm Pre. Can you put that request in for us as well?

    Thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/MMSocieties Francisco J Palacio

    Don Cristobal?

    Are Dr. Schmidt's Developers listening, though?

    [WINK, WINK]

    Would this perhaps be something to make Buzz/Wave more interesting (this OPML function that you mention?

    (And BTW, made it to the Museum? Safely?)

    Buenas noches!

  • sue_anne

    Yes, a “Save as” function on a list would be awesome as would the ability to send DMs to multiple contacts at a time.

  • http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/ Chuck Frey

    Since OPML was created as an XML format for outlines, it could also open up some opportunities for displaying Twitter feeds and lists as hierarchical or visual (mind mapped) outlines. That could be very cool!

  • http://ephealy.com/ Ed Healy

    noahwesley is on it. You can use http://tweepml.org/ until Twitter brings that functionality in-house.

  • http://www.ChristopherSPenn.com Christopher S. Penn

    Twitter has batch list functionality. It's in the API, under Post Lists ID. Just load up the list as a series of IDs and use curl on your Mac to post the list contents. Instant list!

  • http://www.hooversbiz.com/ TimWalker

    It makes sense, Chris. It's not just you.

    In the future, all of this ought to be so easy that it never gets harder than, say, exporting a dataset as CSV so you can manipulate it in Excel or the like. But we're a ways from having real portability like that, methinks.

  • http://www.hooversbiz.com/ TimWalker

    A little arcane for the average user, no? Or even the average user who could manipulate OPML?

    I'm comfortable with OPML and I've used Twitter and Twitter-ecosystem tools a ton, but I don't immediately grok “in the API,” “load up the list as a series of IDs,” or “use curl on your Mac.”

    Granted, I'm not technically savvy — but you shouldn't have to be, for what Chris is talking about.

    Or am I way off?

  • joshuaguffey

    I enjoyed C Penn's geek flavor here.
    For the average user? Sure; you are right Tim. But there's a few of us geeks listening. :-)

  • joshuaguffey

    Ohh! Personally I am very glad there isn't support for multiple DMs in the interface. 'That guy' would love that!

  • annawoods04

    Twitter has changed the way I communicate and absorb content on the web. With only 140 characters it forces people to be precise and to the point. It doesn’t allow for the excess baggage that can come with an article, blog post, or forum discussion. I can choose who to follow providing me with content I want not what is forced upon me. Twitter is going to change everything we have ever known about the web.

    reputation management

  • http://www.indicee.com/blog Geoff D.

    I'll take it a step further! I would love to see the ability to merge/sync follows from multiple accounts. Let's say I go to work for a company and want this new company to follow who I'm following. It's so brutally cumbersome right now.

    I like your idea as well. An export function of some kind is so, so, so overdue!

    Cheers!

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  • http://www.yuregininsesi.com/ yuregininsesi

    Twitter has batch list functionality. It's in the API, under Post Lists ID. Just load up the list as a series of IDs and use curl on your Mac to post the list contents. Instant list!

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  • http://twitter.com/linkwhere Schumi Zhang

    yes, it does make sense, i want it too.