RSS to become a structured data delivery mechanism?

I just read a great post on Read/Write Web about RSS and its role as a content distribution mechanism. The post talks a bit about the history and structure of RSS and then considers whether it will be possible to extend RSS to deliver structured data. The example given is of a hypothetical bank that delivers bank statements through an extended version of RSS and in a format that your accounting software will understand as opposed to what I understand to be a variation of good old fashioned HTML or XML.

Being able to extend RSS or develop a similar delivery mechanism to RSS for structured data will go a long way towards helping create the much talked about Semantic Web. It would also make it possible for automated systems to take care of a range of every day tasks we have to deal with.

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rss, structured data, xml, delivery mechanism