RSS for Beginners: Peter Scott

posted by Allan_Chan @ 11:46 AM

Summary
WB2
RSS for Beginners. Peter Scott. An introduction to RSS (Really Simple Syndication), the fastest-growing method for distributing information through the Internet. Find out about software for reading and creating RSS feeds; resources; how libraries and publishers are utilizing RSS; and where to search for and submit RSS feeds.


Notes

Peter Scott is the Internet Projects Manager at the University of Saskatchewan Library.

http://allrss.com/mla2005

RSS stands for the following: Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, Really Something Signifigant but for our purposes today we will be using Really Simple Syndication.

Simply put, RSS is a means by which information can be syndicated. RSS is an easy way for you to keep updated automatically on websites you like. Instead of having to go to websites to see if they've written a new article or feature, you can use RSS to get them to tell you when they have something new.

When you are on news sites or blogs today you will see some buttons such as XML, RSS, RDF. Basically these buttons are files of information for a computer. This file can be used in various ways. The file contains information about the file, descriptors and what it does.

RSS has been around since 1996/1997. We are now on version 2 for RSS. In order for us humans to read these files, we need something called a news reader or aggregator. There are some that sit stand alone on your computer and there are some that are on the web. Peter then gave a demo of Abilon, a news reader. The great thing is that you will not be getting spam in your newsreader. The news reader only grabs items that you want. No unwanted stuff, it's like having a custom newspaper for yourself. You can add in any feed that you want. The news reader will display a listing of your feeds, then after you choose your feed it will display the titles from that feed and then you can read the actual news item title. Peter then demonstrated another news reader called SharpReader which looks and functions alot like an email program.

Bloglines
Bloglines is a web based news reader/aggregator. Bloglines works with a tab styled interface where everything is organized neatly. Bloglines is free. Some of the folders that Peter has created for his feeds are: Library Related, Moreover, Amazon RSS Feeds, E-Journals, RSS and Yahoo What's New. Yahoo News allows you to create a RSS feed from a search that you have done in it. This is known as customizing feeds. Some library feeds were then examined by Peter. Library feeds included Library stuff, LISNews.com, librarian.net, Library Grrls (a blog from livejournal.com) and of course Peter Scott's Library Blog. Bloglines provides a way to share your feeds and then produces a url for it. You can use this url in your library to recommend a list of feeds to your users.
Mozilla's Firefox web browser allows you to detect RSS feeds and also has it's own built in news/reader aggregator. RSS feeds can be sent to blackberries, pda's and cell phones.

Who is Supplying Feeds?
News sites, newspapers. A question was asked if there is a trend towards a digression from emails and listservs in favor of RSS Feeds? The answer is yes. USask has developed RSS feeds into their listing of Ejournals. An Ejournal title's page contains the RSS feed. It displays the new news items from the feeds but it also actually gives you the direct feed. What USask has been doing then has been to invite instructors to take these RSS feeds into their own homepages. Basically they are building resources for their faculty.

The University of Louisville has created a list of RSS feeds for their new books lists. They have broken down their new books into subject headings and each subject heading has an RSS feed, therefore say you are interested in Chemistry and you are subscribed to this feed; anytime there is a new book in Chemistry that title would be sent in the feed.

http://del.icio.us/tag/rss is a way for all of us to submit and organize information for the world. Think of ordinary people cataloguing the internet.