After months of waiting, Dave Winer's new OPML Outliner is now available for download. It's core purpose, according to Dave is, "to create outlines and share them with other people, in various forms." Sounds good. How this works is part of Dave's latest big idea:

"Any file you save in the www folder is uploaded to hosting.opml.org. The uploading process starts within ten seconds. You can monitor this by choosing Open Log Outline in the Community menu. There's a command in the Community menu that opens the www folder."

Here's the basic manifesto:

"The OPML Editor follows in the tradition of simple text-based tools masquerading as a rich development platform. Or is it the other way around?

It's always been this way. The most powerful applications are also the most powerful development platforms. The various text editors on Unix. Quark XPress on the Macintosh. Notepad on Windows. Inside every text editor is the potential of platform, and every platform must have a simple text editor.

It was with this simple premise that I set out in 1988 to make an outliner that was also a programming language and object database. Now, in 2005, all the power of this idea is available in a download that's about the size of a 15 minute podcast.

If this works, people with great ideas should arrive shortly. Maybe you're one of them? If so — I've been waiting for you!"

I can't wait to start playing with this. Thanks Dave for what looks like another seminal Winer contribution to our online community.