Pat Fellows October 12, 2005

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Pat Fellows October 12, 2005
RSS Feeds
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Objectives

• RSS Feeds
• What is it?
• How does it work?
• Where to find them?
• Demo

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What are RSS feeds?

• Really Simple Syndication / Rich Site Summary
• An old idea, yet a new way to surf the web
• Push vs Pull technology
• RSS lets users read dozens of websites, all at
  the same time.
• The sites can be scanned in seconds rather than
  having to be laboriously loaded individually
• All the feeds are chosen by the user
• The unwieldy web becomes manageable

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How RSS works

• A short description of a web site in XML
  format-called a RSS feed is made available.
• Programs called RSS aggregators build these
  entries into a larger database
• RSS feeds can easily be viewed using a RSS
  Reader program on your desktop or via a browser
• You subscribe to feeds of interest
• Similar to building bookmarks or favorites

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How RSS works
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Which websites have RSS Feeds?

• Major News sites and noteworthy CNN, NY Times,
  BBC
• Most noteworthy Weblogs and Wikis
• Growing number of Instructional Resources
• MERLOT
• Podcasting sites
• Look for this symbol on the website

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Some popular RSS Feed Readers

• RSS Reader Programs
• SharpReader - Win
• RSSReader - Win
• NetNewsWire Mac not free
• Web Based RSS feeders
• Bloglines
• News is Free
• Browser Built-in Reader - FireFox
• Browser Plugin Pluck
• Good Source for RSS Readers
• http//blogspace.com/rss/readers

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How do I subscribe to RSS - a short demo

• Use a RSS Reader Program
• Install SharpReader
• A local client viewer program
• A personal RSS aggregator
• Looks like your email client program
• How to subscribe to an RSS feed
• Capture xml feed URL
• Add to Reader to subscribe
• A discreet alert called toaster appears with
  new entries
• Use a Browser FireFox
• Look for the symbol at the bottom right
• Simply click to subscribe to feed as a bookmark

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Searching for relevant RSS Feeds

• RSS Feed Directories
• Feed Directory
• Syndic8
• CNet Simply RSS
• RSS Feed Search Engines
• Feedster
• Blogstreet
• Technorati
• Instructional Higher Ed
• MERLOT
• Educuase
• Chronicle of Higher Ed

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Questions?
These slides are available on the WLW archive
site at http//www.uwc.edu/training/wlwarchive/