Introduction to RSS

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Introduction to RSS

• Michael Hunter
• Reference Librarian
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• for Rochester Regional Library Council
• Member Libraries Staff
• Sponsored by the Rochester Regional Library
  Council
• Supported by Library Services and Technology Act
  (LSTA) and/or
• Regional Bibliographic Databases and Resources
  Sharing (RBDB) funds granted by the
• New York State Library 2004

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For Today . . .

• RSS De-mystified
• RSS and XML
• Readers and Aggregators
• Structure of RSS and Atom Feeds
• Libraries and RSS
• Evaluating RSS Feeds
• Future Implications of RSS

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RSS

• Rich Site Summaries
• Really Simple Syndication
• Really Stops Spam

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Before RSSTracking latest news and site updates

• Software packages that monitored and reported
  changes at sites of your choosing
• News alert services, free and fee
• Manual checking of your bookmarks
• Hit or miss Listserv and Usenet postings

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Using RSS . . .

• Web authors can summarize new content, present it
  in compact, low bandwidth form and provide links
  to the full content
• No more flipping through your bookmarks and
  scanning sites to see whats new
• Using RSS aggregators, multiple sources (RSS
  feeds) of your choosing can be combined into one
  interface. You can specify how often to revisit
  the sources

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How do I access RSS feeds?

• Sites with RSS feeds display a small icon
  (usually orange) labeled RSS or XML
• As RSS is in XML, may require downloading reader
  software (older versions of browsers cannot read
  XML). Sources for reader software include
• www.download.com (search rss reader)
• The URL of the feed appears as the first
  in the element
• Aggregators allow for reading and organizing
  feeds of your choosing

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Blogs and RSS

• Blogs may offer some or all of their content as
  RSS feeds, or not
• Blogs can exist as pure html documents, updated
  frequently
• Making content available in RSS increases a
  blogs access and exposure via aggregators and
  other RSS-based search services
• Blog Subject Directories and Blog Search Engines
  can lead you to RSS feeds of interest

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RSS What is it?

• A broadcast version of current content from a
  website, blog, news page or other source (aka
  RSS Feed)
• Formatted in XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
• Structured (tags, standardized and/or
  author-defined)
• Why use XML?

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Toward Structuring Information More Uniformly XML

• A metalanguage through which content can be
  exchanged across multiple formats and
  applications
• Using XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language), a
  single document can be easily formatted and sent
  as e-mail, web page, web TV, wireless content and
  more

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XML Possibilities

• XML allows us to create our own tags, even unique
  ones, within the syntax of XML.
• How does it do this?
• Through the use of a Document Type Definition or
  DTD
• OR through the use of an XML Schema

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A note in XML
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Notes DTD
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Confused ???

• XML is not comparable to HTML
• HTML is designed as a means to display content on
  browsers and provide linkage capability
• XML is a metalanguage that operates above the
  level of html, ie, an xml document may be
  translated into html, but is not limited to
  that format

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RSS A look in detail

• RSS is a dialect of XML
• Required elements
• version of RSS the feed is in
• NOTE Additional information about the feeds XML
  environment may also be present
• information about the channel
  (metadata) and its contents

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RSS A look in detail

• Channel required sub-elements
• title The name of the channel. This is the URL
  of the website, if the contents of the RSS feed
  are identical to that website
• link The website from which the channel
  originates
• description Phrase or sentence describing the
  channel

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RSS A look in detail

• A channel may contain any number of items
• Title of the item
• Content may be the full text OR
• summary of the item
• pointing to the full text

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Atom Really Similar Syndication

• (Another) recently developed XML-based
  syndication format
• Similar to RSS, but addresses some quirks and
  ambiguities of RSS
• Markup code occurring within content
• Introduction to the Tag
• Use of italics
• Offers more detailed documentation
• Atom 0.3 at http//www.mnot.net/drafts/draft-notti
  ngham-atom-format-02.html
• Atom-to-RSS convertor available at 2rss.com (free)

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OPMLOutline Processor Markup Language

• A file format used to exchange subscription
  lists between programs that read RSS files (such
  as feed readers and aggregators) regardless of
  operating system or environment
• See http//www.opml.org

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RSS History

• December, 1997
• scriptingNews format designed by Dave Winer
• March, 1999
• RSS 0.90 designed by Netscape as a content
  management tool for personalizing home pages in
  my.netscape.com
• June, 2000
• RSS 0.91 developed by Winer at Radio Userland

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RSS History

• August, 2000
• RSS 1.0 developed by R. Dornfest, more
  sophisticated and less commercial than previous
  versions of RSS RDF-based and using namespaces
• September, 2002
• RSS 2.0 developed by Weiner
• 2000 and on- Rapid growth and popularity of blogs
  fuels increase in RSS feeds and aggregators
• RSS 0.9x and 2.x are the most popular versions

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RSS Readers/Aggregators

• RSS desktop aggregators (fee-based)
• Amphetadesk http//www.sourceforge.net
• Feedreader http//www.feedreader.com
• Others available at http//radio.userland.com
• Free, browser-based reader (no download needed
  must create an account)
• http//newsisfree.com
• NOTE Always choose an aggregator that allows you
  to add any feed you choose, not just those
  available via the aggregator
• Most aggregators allow users to save searches and
  automatically re-run these, sometimes hourly

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Finding and Searching RSS Feeds
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How do I access RSS feeds?

• RSS Subject Directories
• RSS Search Engines
• General Search Engines
• Subject Metasites
• Other Quality Websites and Weblogs

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RSS Subject Directoriessyndic8.com

• Covers over 71,000 syndicated news sites
• Strong in North American regional feeds
• Categories taken from Open Directory (dmoz)
• Searches for terms in feed names, site names and
  URLs
• Default search is Boolean OR (!!!)
• No phrase search capability
• Filters include language, date, status
• Aggregator available as subscription service

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RSS Subject Directoriesnewsisfree.com

• Covers feeds from over 12,000 news and
  topic-focused sites
• Excellent catagories rich in topical feeds
• Free online aggregator
• In Find More Sources lists of feeds by
• date, feed name and language
• Fee based Premium personalization

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RSS Search EnginesA reminder

• NOTE RSS Search engines index individual Blog or
  RSS posts you must often backtrack from the
  search result(s) to find the URL of the actual
  RSS feed

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RSS Search Enginesfeedster.com

• One of the oldest blog and rss engines
• Indexes posts from over 800,000 syndicated
  sources and adds 5,000 new feeds daily
• Results include source, length and time of
  publication
• Results may be sorted by relevance or date
• Phrase search enabled (quotes)
• Advanced search allows limiting by URL

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RSS Search Enginesdaypop.com

• A current events search engine
• Indexes posts from over 59,000 news sites,
  weblogs and RSS feeds
• Major media sites crawled every 3 hours others
  every 24 hours
• Phrase search enabled (quotes)
• Boolean NOT enabled (minus)

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RSS Search Enginesdaypop.com

• Search limits
• News Weblogs Language Date
• RSS Headlines RSS Weblog Posts
• Top 40 40 most linked-to blog and rss posts
  in the database
• Word Bursts - Words that have received a
  heightened usage in the past couple days
• Top News Bursts Bursty words from front
  pages of newspapers

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General Search Engines

• Yahoo News offers a large selection of RSS feeds
• Google indexes individual posts on a limited
  basis
• Search syntax
• keyword(s) filetypexml
• keyword(s) filetyperss
• Use other general engines that allow searching by
  file extension (Hotbot et. al.)

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Subject Metasites

• Check metasites for online newsletters or other
  current awareness programs that offer an RSS
  feed they are on the rise
• Professional organizations homepages often offer
  an RSS feed
• Governmental organizations are beginning to offer
  RSS as well

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Libraries and RSS
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Libraries and RSS

• Show your users
• What RSS is and what it can do for them
• How to find feeds of interest
• How to find and use RSS Readers and Aggregators
• Best done by offering an RSS guide page
• Generate your own feeds about the librarys
  latest holdings and other news

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Libraries and RSSPublic/School

• Develop and/or monitor listings of RSS feeds
  covering up-to-the-second
• Local interests Whats been published about our
  town/area this week? Whats on about town?
• Topic-focused feeds
• Sports news
• Financial news
• Job listings

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Libraries and RSSAcademic/Corporate

• Develop and/or monitor listings of RSS feeds
  covering up-to-the-second
• Specific research areas or topics
• Political climate and events
• News coverage from foreign countries
• Explore possibilities of journal contents via RSS

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RSS at the National Cancer Institute Current
Clips Supplement

• Users did not access important RSS feeds pointed
  to from the Library page
• Obstacles to using Readers/Aggregators-Installatio
  n and learning curve
• Current awareness services already being
  delivered at NCI via e-mail

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NCIs Current Clips Supplement

• Records created in the OPAC for the URL of each
  RSS newsfeed selected
• Most recent contents of the feed parsed into HTML
  and placed in the Notes field of the OPAC record
• RSS feeds visited several times daily and
  contents of Notes field updated
• Each weekday subscribers receive an e-mail of
  article titles from selected RSS feeds with links
  to the full text

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NCIs Current Clips Supplement

• Open Source RSS-to-email utilities
• Perl FetchRss
• www.lathi.net/twiki-bin/view/Main/FetchRss
• Java fetchrss
• fetchrss.dev.java.net
• Python rss2email
• www.aaronsw.com/2002/rss2email
• More information at
• www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA428129

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Libraries and RSS

• Spreading the word at Dartmouth
• www.dartmouth.edu/libacq/News_Center/ncrss.
• shtml
• James Cook University (Australia)
• www.library.jcu.edu.au/LibraryGuides/rss.shtmldis
  play
• Subject Guides from Kansas City PL
• www.kclibrary.org/guides
• Journals and RSS
• www.biomedcentral.com

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Libraries and RSS

• Specialized services
• www.hubmed.org www.medscape.com
• Bibliography on Libraries and RSS
• www.public.iastate.edu/CYBERSTACKS/GenBib.htm

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Generating your own RSS Feed

• Online RSS editors
• Created from data filled in via an html form
• UKOLNs rssxpress
• RSS from HTML (Scraping)
• Scraping programs attempt to automatically
  identify items suitable for RSS syndication by
  analysis of the markup language
• Tend to be of lower quality than human-edited
  feeds
• MyRSS

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Generating your own RSS Feed

• RSS created by professional Content Management
  Systems as a service
• RSS generated from a database
• From a MySQL database
• www.lowendmac.com/tech/php16.html
• Using ASP on an MS Access database
• www.purplepages.ie/site/articles/article.asp?faq
  6fldAuto76
• Like all XML, RSS must be validated to be
  successfully accepted by readers/aggregators

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Evaluating RSS Feedsand Implications for the
Future
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Evaluating RSS Feeds

• Evaluate the source website
• If no site information is available
• Examine the information in the section
  of the feed itself
• Who is responsible?
• Last update
• The most recent information may be available
  about a website via its rss feed

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RSS The pros . . .

• Creates a broadcast version of frequently updated
  content from a website, blog, news page or other
  source
• Authors can
• Summarize new content
• Broadcast new content eg. online newsletters
• Can be used as a way to distribute content to
  subscribers (syndication) independent of e-mail.
  Subscribers logon or access via aggregators.

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RSS The pros . . .

• RSS is fully re-useable across a range of
  applications and channels
• RSS is secure as yet, do not carry viruses
• RSS adds value to a website
• RSS is controllable ie, subscription-based
• RSS can lead to Deep Web content otherwise
  inaccessible

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RSS and Search

• RSS documents could be searched by elements of
  the pre-defined tags
• Allows for finer searching, beyond title or full
  text, eg. and elements
• Real Estate Listings
• Price Location Features
• Effective searching in any XML environment
  requires some degree of standardization and
  promotion of that standardization
• But who will grind the corn..?

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Controlled Vocabularies and XML

• XML Topic Maps The Answer??
• TopicMaps.org is developing the application of
  the topic map paradigm to the Web, which is
  expected to become increasingly XML-based.
• For more information
• http//www.topicmaps.org
• http//www.w3schools.com/xml
• http//nlsearch.com (Check the Special Edition
  Alerts on XML)

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RSS the cons . . .

• Requires readers and/or aggregators
• Limited formatting options
• Image locations cannot be specified
• Typographic choices limited
• Limits editorial options
• Cannot showcase or prioritize feed content
• Offers no reply button
• RSS is a bandwidth hog
• Aggregators frequent visits to a site can hinder
  other traffic

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The Living WebWhat can blogs and RSS feeds tell
us about an authors point of view?

• Which ones does an author list on their
  blog/homepage?
• Which ones does an author visit/subscribe to?
• Sometimes I want to know what the world thinks
• GOOGLE
• Sometimes I want to know what I think
• MY WEBLOG
• Sometimes I want to know what those I respect
  think
• BLOGS AND FEEDS I READ

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RSS and the Semantic Webas envisioned by Tim
Berners-Lee

• GOAL To increase data and information processing
  across repositories that use different ways of
  organizing and structuring that data
• How? By creating and maintaining a common set of
  terms that are used universally to describe and
  represent objects on the Web
• RSS tags may be a beginning

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Thank You andHave fun with RSS!!!
Michael Hunter Reference Librarian Hobart and
William Smith Colleges Geneva, NY 14456 (315)
781-3552 hunter_at_hws.edu