RSS

Josh Clark,

UCD Science Librarian

joshua.clark@ucd.ie

IS 20090

Web 2.0 & Social Media: An Introduction

30 September 2009

Agenda for today’s lecture

What is RSS?

How does it work?

Why is it useful?

RSS practical session!

So…what is RSS?

RSS in a Nutshell

Really Simple Syndication

- allows Web content to be “syndicated”

Bottom line:

You don’t have to visit a website in order to view its content

syndicating Web content.

Story is written Story appears here

Story

is s

ent t

o

“the

wire”

Papers pick up

“feed” off the wire

Syndication – what’s that?

Syndication

Story appears here

and here

here here

and here

here

Written once Put on wire

APPEARS IN

MANY PAPERS

Syndication

Just like RSS. Except…

The article or “post” is written (i.e., on a blog)

The blog automatically creates a “feed” and makes it available on the Web

You use a “feed reader” to subscribe to the feed

You see updated headlines to your subscribed feeds in your feed reader

Article or “post” is written Article appears in your feed reader

“Fee

d” is

avai

lable

on the

Web

You use feed reader

to subscribe to the

feed

RSS Syndication

RSS in Plain English

(YouTube video)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

A little history…

1997 – Dave Winer (software developer) develops an XML-based web syndication format for his blog, Scripting News

1999 - Netscape also experimenting at this time – RDF Site Summary and later, incorporating parts of Winer’s format

2000 – RSS 1.0 developed

2002 – RSS 2.0 developed (Winer assists)

2003 – RSS 2.0 specification released

RSS is everywhere!

A sampling of RSS feed icons

Now the standard…

feeds here

and feeds here

Newspapers….

other Irish sites…

Feeds here

RSS and Social Networking

flickr feed for new photos here

YouTube video categories –

…notification when new videos are posted

RSS and Business

RSS is being used in business

it’s all about marketing!

feeds for company press releases, events, news, new products, etc.

using others’ feeds on own website

Feed here

RSS and academia

A powerful tool for researchers

Keep up to date with the latest research

Uses: subscribe to journal TOCs, cited articles, searches…

Journal tables of contents

UCD Scholarcast

UCD Library…subscribe to our blogs, news, etc.

Podcasts too!

RSS: an alternative to email?

email is subject to spam filters

too many emails!

email involves personal details – “signing up”

RSS is anonymous

UCD Connect uses RSS…

an RSS feed consists of…

a summary of content includes headlines, excerpts, links

to full content wherever it resides on the Web

also contains metadata (information about information), such as date of publication, authorship, etc.

an RSS feed consists of…

Headline & Source (& link to actual story) summary

Time stamp

Maybe a photo

what does RSS look like?

What’s behind it all? XML

eXtensible Markup Language

separates form from content

Allows feeds to be viewed by many different RSS feed readers

what does RSS look like to you?

what does RSS look like to you?

what does RSS look like to you?

Internet Explorer 6.x

what does RSS look like to you?

Internet Explorer 7.x

what does RSS look like to you?

Firefox 3.x!!!

what does RSS look like to you?

Google Chrome 3!!!!

What’s required?

An RSS feed readercould be part of your email program- Gmail (google reader)- Yahoo!, etc.

could be Web-based (see RSS Compendium @ allrss.com)

…or on your desktop (software)

Netvibes (web-based)

Bloglines (web-based)

Mozilla Thunderbird email client (desktop)

RSS Mashups

Filtering and using RSS feeds for useful purposes

i.e., Google Maps and _________

filter or combine feeds into one useful feed – get rid of the noise!

RSS can be used to create new functionalities on the Web…

Using feeds from YouTube, flickr, Google Maps, Google Earth…

Last year’s US presidential election…

this mashup brought in info from YouTube, blog feeds, Google Maps…

This is all great, but even so….

People still don’t understand itRelatively simple, but slow to

spreadThis could change – integration is

keyMake it simple! Preselected

feeds, etc.

Feed overload!

Can be a problem

Easy to subscribe to

too many feeds

AND….

There’s a new kid in town!

Many websites that offer feeds are also tweeting!

News travels fast…but travels even faster on Twitter!

Twitter…a viable alternative to RSS feeds!

A typical day in TwitterLand….

UK Guardian’s coverage of the Labour conference in Brighton…

The mainstream is catching on

IS20090 Week 4 assignment

EMBED 5 feeds (your choice) into your blog

For your blog:

An approx. 200 word post about how RSS feeds could help you as a student

Acknowledgements

Slides 6-10 are adapted from Peter Bromberg’s “RSS Demystified” presentation found at http://www.slideshare.net/pbromberg/rss-demystified

(used with permission)

(Peter Bromberg, South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative)