Meerkat: An Open Wire Service, is the O'Reilly Network's Web-based syndicated content reader. It's based on Rich Site Summary (RSS), an XML specification used for distributing news, product announcements, discussion threads, and other assorted content as channels. Meerkat is written in PHP, served up by an Apache Web server, and keeps its data in a MySQL database. This session's focus is the emergence of open services, XML's role therein, and some of the PHP XML functionality and third-party tools increasing PHP's visibility in the XML-based Weblication arena