Introduction to RSS as an Information Management Tool

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Introduction to RSS as an Information Management
Tool

• Martin De Saulles
• University of Brighton

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Summary

• What is RSS?
• How do you use it?
• How do you manage information with RSS?

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What is RSS?
How do you use it?
Managing information with RSS
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What is RSS?
RSS is based on XML, a widely used standard for
textual information exchange between applications
on the Internet. RSS feeds can be viewed as plain
text files, but they're really designed for
computer-to-computer communication. (Feedburner
- http//www.feedburner.com/fb/a/feed101 )
There is some discussion as to what RSS stands
for, but most people plump for 'Really Simple
Syndication'. In essence, the feeds themselves
are just web pages, designed to be read by
computers rather than people. (BBC -
http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to
publish frequently updated content such as blog
entries, news headlines or podcasts. (Wikipedia
- http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
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So why should I be interested?

• Do you regularly visit web sites for
  information/news?
• Do you receive email newsletters/alerts when new
  content is added to these sites?
• Do you worry that you may be missing important
  items in your email inbox?
• Do you have trouble keeping up with all the
  newsletters/updates/alerts?

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YES! I need help
NO! I can cope just fine
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Information Overload
Managers spend up to two hours a day searching
for information, and more than 50 percent of the
information they obtain has no value to them.
(Source Accenture, 2007)
SMEs in the UK waste over 3 billion a year
unsuccessfully looking for information (Source
De Saulles, 2007)
29 of work email users said spam had increased
in their work email accounts, up from 21 two
years ago. (Source Pew Internet Research, 2007)
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How much information?

• 250 megabytes per person per year
• Printed documents 0.003
• Most is magnetically stored
• Magnetic storage costs falling

Source Lyman and Varian, 2003 -
http//www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/ho
w-much-info-2003/
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How big is 5 exabytes?

• 17 million books in Library of Congress 136
  terabytes of information
• 5 exabytes 137,000 Libraries of Congress
  2,329,000,000,000 books (2.3 trillion)

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Massive growth
From 5 exabytes in 2002 to
In 2008, the amount of digital information
created, captured, and replicated was 1,288 x
1018 bits. In computer parlance, that's 161
exabytes or 161 billion gigabytes. This is about
3 million times the information in all the books
ever written. (Source IDC, 2007)
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Falling storage costs

• 1956 10,000 per megabyte
• 1980 300 per megabyte
• 1990 9 per megabyte
• 2000 2 cents per megabyte
• 2008 0.04 cents per megabyte

20 million times cheaper
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Its not slowing down
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OK Maybe I will need help in the future
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How is RSS used?

• Reading news
• Reading blogs
• Search alerts
• Tracking changes to wikis
• Monitoring to do lists/task management
• Managing podcasts
• Keeping up with friends/colleagues

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What does RSS look like?
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What does RSS look like?
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So what

• It is all about the structured presentation of
  information
• Agreed standards 0.91, 1.0. 2.0
• Computers talking to computers
• Allows information to be mixed/mashed and
  presented in variety of formats

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What is RSS?
How do you use it?
Managing information with RSS
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So what do I actually do?

• Find a news feed/blog you would like to subscribe
  to
• Choose a RSS reader/aggregator
• Subscribe
• Read your feed(s)

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Choosing a RSS reader/aggregator
Client software
Mobile
Web-based
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Using the RSS reader/aggregator (1)
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Using the RSS reader/aggregator (2)
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Using the RSS reader/aggregator (3)
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Why I like Google Reader (1)
Monitors what you read
Can be used offline
Flag items
Easy to organise feeds
Handles images well
Organise by subject folder
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Why I like Google Reader (2)
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What is RSS?
How do you use it?
Managing information with RSS
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Managing information with RSS (1)
Managing CPD Information
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Managing information with RSS (2)
Managing blogs of interest
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Managing information with RSS (3)
Keeping tabs on the blogosphere
70 million blogs What are people saying about
you or your organisation?
Put this feed in your reader
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Managing information with RSS (4)
Managing internal information
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Managing information with RSS (5)
Keeping up-to-date with personal information
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Managing information with RSS (6)
Helping with collaboration
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Managing information with RSS (7)
Keeping up with the news
Firefox and IE7
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Managing information with RSS (8)
Tracking your organisation or a competitor in the
news
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More advanced uses of RSS
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Some things to think about

• Is any of this relevant to me?
• Can I use RSS to push relevant information to
  users?
• Do my users need help understanding RSS?
• Are my users already using it?
• Issue of protected content Newsgator allows
  access to password-protected content
• How can RSS help me keep on top of the
  information mountain?

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My thoughts

• RSS will become increasingly important as a way
  to distribute and share information
• Information professionals cannot ignore it
• Try it it will not cost anything except your
  time