Big RSS News In A One-Horse Tech Town

On a rainy thundering afternoon in Boston, the news that Dave Winer has given his RSS intellectual property over to the Berkman Center at Harvard gives me pause. In this one-horse tech town dominated by MIT, it's fun to think what this might mean. Winer's act might have a much more profound legacy than he knows. Are we witnessing a new intellectual home for technological innovation being born -- Berkman @ Harvard -- as well as a shift in high-tech thought leadership from toolmakers to those who interpret the social ramifications of those tools?

Wondering what Clay Christensen might think about all this, as he is the resident Harvard innovator over at Harvard Business School. If I see Dave and Clay eating lunch at Legal Seafood @ MIT, then I'll know they've really thrown down the gauntlet.

Here's the Winer announcement and Dan Gillmor's coverage.