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Introduction

The SHIFT Communications template for Social Media Press Releases defines standard elements for the creation of an online news release. While the SHIFT template provides a standard layout for news releases on the Internet, it does not address the need to electronically markup those elements for Internet distribution.

Distribution is a critical element in the creation of news releases. It is important to have an open standard that enables the distribution of news releases online. Based on requests from members of the press, there is also a need to allow the distribution of parts of the release when the content of the entire release is not required.

hRelease is an open, social media news release standard that encourages the electronic distribution of news across the Internet. hRelease will allow news authors to create a single copy of their online release and share it electronically with wire services, members of the press, and the public. The goal of the hRelease format is to enable a simple way to markup news, allowing authors to share news through blogs, personal and corporate websites, web feeds, and any other online repository.

hRelease Schema

(Draft) - The contents below are for discussion purposes only. Please do not use this document as a guide for your own markup.

In General

The hRelease format is based on a set of fields common to numerous social media news releases published today on the web. Where possible field names have been chosen and reused from preexisting microformats.

Schema

The hRelease schema consists of the following:

• hRelease. required.
• version. optional. text.
• lang. optional. text.
• guid. optional. text.
• contact. required. hCard.
• headline. required. text.
• subheadline. optional. text.
• dateline. required. text.
• published. optional. datetime.
• location. optional. Geo.
• created. optional. datetime.
• expires. optional. datetime.
• news-body. required. text.
• quotes. optional. text.
• boilerplate. optional. text.
• links. optional. xFolk.
• multimedia. optional. elements with "media" class. Additional classes may further define the element using known types (logo, disclosure, thumbnail).
• tags. optional. rel-tag.
• permalink. optional. rel-permalink.
• alternate. optional. rel-alternate. The "type" further identifies the alternate document.
• traditional. optional. rel-alternate. The following attributes must also be present, type="text" and media ="tty".
• trackback. optional. rel-trackback.

Field details

The fields of the hRelease schema represent the following:

• hrelease:: root class name
• version:: This optional field permits hRelease publishers to specify the particular version of hRelease that their content uses. By omitting this field, the publisher is stating that implementations may interpret the hRelease according to any version of the hRelease specification v1.0 or later. In practice the authors of this specification are comitted to maintaining backward compatibility with content produced using earlier versions of the specification. This field is syntax compatible with, and thus reuses the semantics of "VERSION" as defined in vCard RFC2426 section "3.6.9 VERSION Type Definition". The value of this field for this specification is "1.0".
• lang:: To explicitly convey the natural language that an hRelease is written in, use the standard (X)HTML 'lang' attribute on the element with class="hrelease."
• guid:: A globally unique identifier (guid) for this release. This id will often be assigned by a newswire and referred to as a "story number."
• contact:: Current contact info in an hCard. Multiple contacts are allowed. The official source of the release can be coded as an hCard with OrgName representing the source company. The Org:title for the hCard should be "source".
• headline:: The class name headline. Must be contained within a heading tag (<hx>). The release headline.
• subheadline:: The class name subheadline. Must be contained within a heading tag (<hx>). The release subheadline.
• dateline:: The class name dateline. Must be contained within a headine tag (<hx>). The release dateline must include either a location or the published date.
• published:: The class name published. The release publication date. This may be a future date. It may typically be found inside the dateline.
• location:: Origin of the release in a Geo microformat. This may typically be found inside the dateline. Multiple locations are allowed.
• created:: The class name created. The date on which the release document was first created.
• expires:: The class name expires. The date on which the information in the release is no longer valid.
• news-body:: The class name news-body. This element may contain a mixture of narrative text and key facts. This element may or may not contain a bulleted-list of key facts. A bulleted-list of key facts is not required, however, if a list of key facts is included, they must be presented as list-item (<li>) elements.
• quotes:: The class name quotes. Each quote must be enclosed within <blockquote> tags. Use of the microformat citeRel is optional.
• boilerplate:: The class name boilerplate. hResume may be used to further define company history and skills within the boilerplate.
• links:: Anchor text using the xFolk microformat.
• multimedia:: Elements must be designated with a "media" class or enclosed in a parent element with the "media" class. Media may also include additional descriptive classes designed to further identify the type of media. The list of known types will evolve. At this time, known types include: "disclosure," "logo," and "thumbnail." For example, an <img> element enclosed within the media class element can be designated as a thumbnail using the "thumbnail" class.
• tags:: Anchor text using the rel-tag microformat. Keywords or phrases.
• permalink:: Anchor text using rel-permalink. Url to the original version of the release.
• alternate:: Anchor text using the rel-alternate microformat. Web feeds or alternate versions of the release.
• traditional:: Anchor text using the rel-alternate microformat with type="text" and media="tty". The traditional version of the release, often also used for non-web display.
• trackback:: Anchor text using rel-trackback. Url used for online conversation.

Example Releases

• Coca-Cola
• Belkin
• Cisco
• Ford Motor Co.
• Gatorade
• Verizon
• Las Vegas Township Justice Court
• BEA
• SAP AG
• Novell
• Hubspot
• Eurekster
• Plant-It 2020 (Second Life Reforestation Project)
• The first & second GeoCommons SMNRs
• SinglePipe Communications
• A list of PRX Releases
• Releases in General Motors-Europe’s Social Media Newsroom
• A list of some U.K. SMNRs distributed by webitpr can be found here.

hRelease Samples

XHTML Page

XHTML Code

Tools

Basic hRelease Parser -- Coke Virtual Thirst -- Original SHIFT Release

FAQ

Q: Why isn't hAtom being reused with hRelease?

A: Social Media News Releases will often be contained within blog posts. The blog post itself will be coded as hAtom. A conflict will occur when an hRelease is nested within a blog post when hAtom is used for both the post and the hRelease. Additionally, hRelease is designed to be used by people who understand news and news releases. Atom and hAtom are foreign specifications to most of these individuals. To encourage the use of hRelease, it has been coded whenever possible using the language of professional news release authors.

Proposed XML format for Social Media Releases
By Sean Jackson

I have attached to this entry in the attachment area two documents. The first is an overview of an XML format for social media releases. The second is a sample XML file with comments.