Download - 01 June 20151Karen Blakeman Blogs, Wikis and RSS Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services blog: //.

21 April 2023 1Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk

Blogs, Wikis and RSS

Karen BlakemanRBA Information Serviceshttp://www.rba.co.uk/blog: http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress UKeiG web 2.0 blog: http://ukeig.wordpress.com/ [email protected]: Karen BlakemanTwitter: karenblakeman

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

http://www.rba.co.uk/

http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress

http://ukeig.wordpress.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Access to documentation

UKeiG fact sheets – http://www.ukeig.org.uk/factsheets/ – UKeiG members only– temporary user name and password for non-members

• username: ukeig33• password: thedoctor

Links to documentation and support materials on http://ukeig.wordpress.com/documentation-and-support-materials/

Blogs and Wikis in Blackboard– http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bknauff/NERCOMP2006/

21 April 2023 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 2

http://www.ukeig.org.uk/factsheets/

http://ukeig.wordpress.com/documentation-and-support-materials/

http://ukeig.wordpress.com/documentation-and-support-materials/

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bknauff/NERCOMP2006/

Outline for the day


Blogs, Wikis. RSS & Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0?

A concept not a product

A way of thinking

A way of working – collaborative, social

About sharing information with others

All sorts of technologies but….

..should not be about technologies – more about content and information

Examples:– blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking (e.g. Furl, Del.icio.us,

Connotea) Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, web based forums, email discussion lists, YouTube, Second Life……


The mandatory web 2.0 meme map!

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html


http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Gartner hype curve


http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp

http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp

Just because it’s Web 2.0…

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT It should make life easier, save time and help you do

the job more effectively… …if does not, ditch it!


Blogs, Wikis and RSS

Blogs and wikis– essentially content management systems– can be used as collaborative tools within and outside the organisation

Blogs– one or a select few post (publish) to many but can have comments

from anyone– useful for announcements, ‘what’s new’, instead of a newsletter, for

mini web sites Wikis

– ideal for collaborating on documents and projects e.g. policies and procedures, course content and documentation, organising a conference

RSS – a means of delivering information– a way to transfer information from one application to another, form one

service to another


Blogs

What is a blog?– short for web log– content management system that publishes information

chronologically, hence the idea of an online diary– content can range from self-indulgent drivel to extreme erudition

– easy to use and publish from anywhere, therefore there is a high

proportion of utter rubbish in the blogosphere

– most blogs automatically generate RSS feeds

“Vodcasts and blogs are to the noughties what graffiti was to the

Seventies: mindless scrawls reading: 'I woz ere.' It says: 'I'm a

moron, but worship me anyway.”

The Observer, 3rd December 2006

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1962820,00.html


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1962820,00.html


Anatomy of a blog (1)

Title and brief description

Most recent posting at

the top

Author/blog profile

RSS feed for postings and comments

Categories assigned by

author

Comments from readers


Anatomy of a blog (2)

Archives

List of recent posts

Tags

Blogroll of related blogs


UKeiG collaborative blog

List of people who can post

articles

Applications of blogs

Instead of or in addition to a printed, emailed or static web based newsletter– Current awareness for staff, users, researchers and clients - “What’s

new”

– publicising new services/products, encourage feedback via comments

Marketing tool inside and outside of the organisation CPD – recording professional development and reflective

practice Recording project development, discussions Comments or “suggestions” box Monitor blogs for information and competitor intelligence Alternative publishing medium Small web sites

– http://www.newsbriefsoman.info/


http://www.newsbriefsoman.info/

Why use blogs for publishing?

Quick and easy to post and edit Links and management of archives and postings is

done by the software Can be done from any Internet connected machine,

even via a mobile Can be hosted on your own server or on the blogging

service’s server If hosted by the blogging service, do not have to wait

for content to be uploaded by the relevant ‘department’ in your organisation

Can be individually authored or collaborative


Blogs as sources of information

Blogs by industry gurus and experts are a good way of

keeping up to date with what is happening in a sector Look for the Blogroll of List of Links on a relevant blog Google Blogsearch http://www.google.com/blogsearch

– use advanced search to search within an individual blog

Ask http://www.ask.com/ – Blogs and feeds Live Feeds search - http://search.live.com/feeds Blog search engines and directories

– http://www.technorati.com/

– http://www.blogpulse.com/

– http://www.quacktrack.com/


http://www.google.com/blogsearch

http://www.ask.com/

http://search.live.com/feeds

http://www.technorati.com/

http://www.blogpulse.com/

http://www.quacktrack.com/

Advanced search in Google Blogsearch


Ask Blog Search


Live.com Feeds Search



Blogpulse Trends

Shows how often your search terms occur in

postings – can compare up to three searches

Product/company reputation

The “Kryptonite Blogstorm”– http://introtodigitalage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Pict

ure%201.png

– http://introtodigitalage.com/?m=200606 – http://tinyurl.com/9p93l

Bicycle lock that could be opened with a bic pen– company ignored the blogs until a “demonstration” video

appeared– then issued reassurances– only offered free product exchanges when NY Times and AP

picked up the story– estimated cost $10 million


http://introtodigitalage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Picture%201.png

http://introtodigitalage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Picture%201.png

http://introtodigitalage.com/?m=200606

http://tinyurl.com/9p93l


Quality checking blogs

The usual:– date last updated, who is behind the site, domain name

check if applicable Check out the blogger profile, ‘mission statement’, ‘about this

blog’, blogroll Read the content

– check for obvious bias, errors Use advanced search screens of blog search tools to find out

who has linked to the blog or individual postings– Technorati, Blogpulse, Ask Blogs and Feeds

May be difficult or impossible to check out authors of comments

Corporate blogging

The Business value of blogging, March 2007– http://www.lewispr.com/Business_value_of_blogging.pdf

Blogs and RSS: tools for competitive intelligence– http://www.digimind.com/en/download/White_Paper_Blogs-R

SS_EN_2006.pdf An excellent overview and introduction to blogs and RSS and how they can be used in competitive intelligence. Includes an extensive list of references and further reading. Downloaded 2 October 2006.

The email killers - Information Age–

http://www.information-age.com/article/2006/august/email_killers


http://www.lewispr.com/Business_value_of_blogging.pdf

http://www.digimind.com/en/download/White_Paper_Blogs-RSS_EN_2006.pdf

http://www.digimind.com/en/download/White_Paper_Blogs-RSS_EN_2006.pdf



Blogging librarians

UK Library Blogs

– http://uklibraryblogs.pbwiki.com/ Blogorama in Internet Resources Newsletter:

– http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/ LIS-Bloggers email discussion list

– http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html British Librarian Bloggers | Google Groups

– http://groups.google.com/group/britlibblogs


http://uklibraryblogs.pbwiki.com/

http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html

http://groups.google.com/group/britlibblogs

Where are the blogging librarians?

Science @ UCD Library– http://ucdscience.blogspot.com/

Reader Services@ucd Library– http://ucdreaderservices.blogspot.com/

Shush! – the Information Services Library blog– http://library.northampton.ac.uk/blog/index.php

Univ of Bath Library Science News– http://bathsciencenews.wordpress.com/

Spineless?– http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/

E-Resources News and Trials (University of Liverpool)– http://liveresources.blogspot.com/


http://ucdscience.blogspot.com/

http://ucdreaderservices.blogspot.com/

http://library.northampton.ac.uk/blog/index.php

http://bathsciencenews.wordpress.com/

http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/

http://liveresources.blogspot.com/

Yet more blogging librarians

Info Junkie– http://swashford.wordpress.com/

Swansea Libraries – http://swansealibraries.blogspot.com/

Galway Library– http://galwaylibrary.blogspot.com/

Libraries in the NHS– http://nelh.blogspot.com/

Talking Knowledge Management– http://talkingkm.blogspot.com/

The Manchester Lit List – http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/

Tell Us What You Think of The Library Weblog– http://telluswhatyouthink.wordpress.com/


http://swashford.wordpress.com/

http://swansealibraries.blogspot.com/

http://galwaylibrary.blogspot.com/

http://nelh.blogspot.com/

http://talkingkm.blogspot.com/

http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/

http://telluswhatyouthink.wordpress.com/

Setting up your own blog

Check your own internal systems to see if there are already blogging modules available

Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/– owned by Google– host on Blogger or publish to your own site, but need to use

blogger.com for both Wordpress - free

– Host on http://www.wordpress.com/ – Software for loading onto your own site at

http://www.wordpress.org/ Typepad – priced

– Host on http://www.typepad.com/ or software for your site Also Movable Type, Live Journal at http://www.sixapart.com/


http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.wordpress.com/

http://www.wordpress.org/

http://www.typepad.com/

http://www.sixapart.com/

Blog host or own server?

Blog Host May not be allowed on your

organisation’s server Keeping it private may not be

straightforward consider confidentiality Not possible to fully customise

the blog in line with the ‘corporate image’

User stats not always easily available

Can post from any Internet connected computer without having to worry about firewalls

Could lose your information if the services closes or fails

Own Server Should be able to customise

the look and feel, and interface of the blog but depends on the software

Can integrate the blog fully with your web site

Can include the blog in your site search option

Easy access to user stats Can easily keep the blog

private or for selected users But the content may still have

to go through the usual authorisation channels


What can go wrong on a blog host?


Integrating your blog with your web site


Blog usability issues 1-5

Weblog Usability (Jakob Neilsen’s Alertbox)http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

1.Author biography

2.Author photo [optional]

3.Use descriptive posting titles

4.Use descriptive links

5.Have links to “classic hits”


http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Blog usability issues 6-10

6. Categorise postings

7. Publish frequently or have a publishing schedule [but don’t publish for the sake of it!]

8. Have focussed content and find “your voice” – set up more than one blog if necessary

9. Do not forget that you might be writing for your future boss

10. Set up your own domain name [not essential and hosting on other servers e.g. Typepad, Blogspot is now acceptable]


Blog content

Postings can be as short or as long as you like– can be short announcements of new services – can be lengthy, detailed articles

• http://www.theoildrum.com/

• http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ Beware of copyright and plagiarism Quote sources and acknowledge other blogs Add value:

– summarise lengthy articles, sources– why might it be relevant or important to your readers– include your own opinion or evaluation


http://www.theoildrum.com/

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Comments

‘Comments’ can be used to facilitate feedback and encourage discussion

Can be switched off If switched on are you:

• going to allow anyone to comment (dangerous – automatic spamming is ubiquitous)

• force people to register• use a ‘captcha’ - completely automated public Turing test

to tell computers and humans apart• use a spam detection module e.g. Akismet• moderate all comments• combination of two or more of the above


Blog Bling

Phil Bradley, Library and Information Show, NEC Birmingham, April 18th 2007 – Adding Bling to Your Blog!

Gizmos, widgets etc that you can add to your blog– Swicki search engine (http://www.eurekster.com/)– RSS to email– RSS to PDF– Calendars– Tag clouds– Photos from Flickr, Picasa – RSS feeds from other blogs and sites


http://www.eurekster.com/

Policies and legal issues

Internal or public?– even if internal (within the organisation) there are still IP,

regulatory, data protection and FoI implications

Blogging policy– outlines what you can say and do internally and publicly– for example IBM’s blogging policy

http://tinyurl.com/28mpha (goes to the IBM web site) • written collaboratively using an internal wiki

Accessibility issues– How to Make Your Blog Accessible to Blind Readers -

American Foundation for the Blind. http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=57&TopicID=167&DocumentID=2757


http://tinyurl.com/28mpha

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=57&TopicID=167&DocumentID=2757

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=57&TopicID=167&DocumentID=2757

Return on investment

Difficult to tell Encourage feedback from readers Number of readers

– if hosted on your own servers, can tell from your web stats– if hosted on Blogger install third party page tracking services

• http://www.sitemeter.com/• Google analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics

– if hosted on Wordpress, basic stats are supplied as part of the package

– many people may read the content via the RSS feed and not visit the blog


http://www.sitemeter.com/

http://www.google.com/analytics

Wikis


Wikis

wiki-wiki – Hawaiian meaning quick First wiki was the WikiWikiWeb, Ward Cunningham 1995 A collaborative web application that allows users to easily

add and edit content Can be used for

– developing documentation

– project management

• History keeps a record of the changes and different versions of the documents

– developing a conference programme

Many have blog like discussion areas and RSS feeds Most famous example is Wikipedia


Wikis

Standardised format and layout

“Makes our contributors concentrate on content

rather than wasting time on pretty layouts” Default in most wikis lets anyone create and edit a page

– need to protect Admin functions and limit creation, edit and access rights

– can ‘lock’ individual pages or sections– can require registration to set up new pages or edit existing

ones– many wiki packages and hosted services now automatically

protect the ‘admin’ or guide you through the process of setting up permissions

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/graphics/2008/06/04/calex04.gif


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/graphics/2008/06/04/calex04.gif


Wikipedia

Option to edit the page

Wikipedia (2)


No edit option

Wikipedia - history


Date of edits Author/editor

http://www.alacrawiki.com


No edit option even if you register and

sign in

http://www.alacrawiki.com/

Wikis for collaborating on documents

Single centrally located copy instead of multiple copies circulating via email all with different edits

Collaborators do not have to be running the same software or same version

Can see the “time line” or history of edits– who has edited what and when– useful in compliance situations

Some wikis allow for comments and discussion on edits

But have to be online to work on the document


What are wikis used for in real life?

National Archives– http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Wiki used to write a thesis– http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/Alicia+Holsey

Wiki CrimeLine– http://www.wikicrime.co.uk/

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki – http://www.libsuccess.org/

ShareILL - Interlibrary Loan Wiki– http://www.shareill.org/


http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/Alicia+Holsey

http://www.wikicrime.co.uk/

http://www.libsuccess.org/

http://www.shareill.org/

What are wikis used for in real life?

Wikis for training materials and conference organising– Sarah Washford

http://swashford.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/wiki-wonders/

Wikis for compiling subject guides– We have Wiki

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2008/01/09/we-have-wiki/

Using a Wiki for an Intranet– Janssen-Cilag, an Australian pharmaceutical subsidiary of

Johnson & Johnson, switched from a static HTML site to using a wiki. http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2007/09/18/enterprise-wiki-increases-collaboration-and-connections-at-janssen-cilag/


http://swashford.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/wiki-wonders/



http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2007/09/18/enterprise-wiki-increases-collaboration-and-connections-at-janssen-cilag/

http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2007/09/18/enterprise-wiki-increases-collaboration-and-connections-at-janssen-cilag/

http://interlend.pbwiki.com/


http://interlend.pbwiki.com/

Top 3 tips for using implementing a wiki

Identified at “Blogs and Wikis in Libraries – Our New Best Friends?” 8th November 2007. Organised by CILIP’s Information Services Group – London and South East branch

1. Don’t call it a wiki




Experimenting with wikis

May already have wiki options on your system– Blackboard, Moodle, SharePoint

Not always straightforward to install on your own system– use third party “wiki farms” to start with– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_farms – some wiki farms make your wikis completely open, that is

viewable and editable by anyone Compare wikis at http://www.wikimatrix.org/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_farms

http://www.wikimatrix.org/

Experimenting with wikis

Some wiki farms to try:– Peanut Butter Wiki http://pbwiki.com/ – Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com/ – Seedwiki http://www.seedwiki.com/ – Wet Paint http://www.wetpaint.com/

Also try– Google Docs http://docs.google.com/ – Google Sites http://sites.google.com/


http://pbwiki.com/

http://www.wikispaces.com/

http://www.seedwiki.com/

http://www.wetpaint.com/

http://docs.google.com/

http://sites.google.com/

Google Docs

http://docs.google.com/– need a Google account

Text (Word) documents, spreadsheet and presentations

Keep your documents totally private or Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address

Edit documents online with whomever you choose. Publish documents online to the world, or to just who

you choose Post your documents to your blog



Google Docshttp://docs.google.com/



Google Sites http://sites.google.com/

Marketed as a way of producing your own site hosted on Google

Can be set up and used as a wiki 100 MB storage


http://sites.google.com/

Using RSS for alerts, gathering information and providing

information


What is RSS?

Stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary or RDF site summary– depends on version

• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.9x)• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.x)

– also ATOM (Google)– written in XML

• extensible markup language– look for the orange logos

A means of delivering headlines, alerts, tables of contents


Regarded as the de facto standard

RSS in Plain English

http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

or on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU


http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Why isn’t RSS more popular?

Need a feed reader to read them and get the most out of the technology

Web based readers

or Programs on your desktop machine, laptop, Blackberry,

mobile RSS reader incorporated into IE 7 and Outlook 2007

– now rolling out onto people’s desktops

Firefox and Thunderbird users– already able to read and use RSS directly or via add-ons

Opera – already handles RSS


Raw RSS feed


Feed may be displayed like this…


http://www.google.com/reader


http://www.google.com/reader

Feeds in Omea


http://www.bloglines.com/


http://www.bloglines.com/

Feeds in Outlook 2007


RSS instead of email

Reduces the overload in your email inbox

By-passes spam filters

Quicker and easier to scan and spot individual headlines within an alert or newsletter and decide what is relevant

Can set up filters to pick up stories that mention specific products, companies etc. (desktop programs only)

You control when you receive and read the feeds

Easier to “unsubscribe”



Adding a feed to your reader

Spotted an interesting RSS feed?– Click on the RSS, XML, Atom or feed logo

• sometimes the URL of the feed is displayed in the text of the page

– Copy the URL of the feed page – Paste into the Add or Subscribe box of your reader

• there may be additional options you can select

OR– Depending on your feed reader, there may be buttons, right

click options, browser plug-ins that will directly ‘subscribe’ you

That's it!

Want to add a feed to your reader?

21 April 2023Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk

68

1. Locate the feed and click on the link

2. Copy the URL of the displayed

feed

3. Open your reader and paste the URL into the Add or Subscribe box

Want to change feed readers?

No problem Export your list of feeds to an OPML file

(Outline Processor Markup Language) Import the OPML file into your new feed reader

– Note: will not import program specific filters or rules


Want to unsubscribe from a feed?

Simply delete the feed from your feed reader!


What else can you do with RSS?

Add them to your iGoogle home page Incorporate them into your Pageflakes or Netvibes

start page Display them on your web site, blog or wiki Monitor Twitter tweets Send your favourite feeds to your Twitter account via

Twitterfeed Monitor your Facebook notifications Almost anything


iGoogle


Pageflakes, Netvibes

http://www.pageflakes.com/ http://www.netvibes.com/ Known as ‘start pages’ Collate data, photos, videos, weather news,

calendars, notepads for queries, RSS feeds etc. by adding ‘flakes’ to your page

Can have multiple tabs to generate separate collections

Can keep them private, share with a group of people, or make them public (pagecast)


http://www.pageflakes.com/

http://www.netvibes.com/

Pageflakes

http://www.pageflakes.com/– UKeiG

• http://www.pageflakes.com/ukeig1 – East Lothian Libraries

• http://www.pageflakes.com/libraries0/17137920/– Dublin City Public Libraries

• http://www.pageflakes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries/ – Scottish Libraries

• http://www.pageflakes.com/scottishlibraries – Llyfrgell Ceredigion Library in Aberystwyth

• http://www.pageflakes.com/LlyfrgellCeredigionLibrary/19167751


Pageflakes - UKeiGhttp://www.pageflakes.com/ukeig1


Pageflakes – Dublin City Librarieshttp://www.pageflakes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries/


Add feed content to your web page or blog


RSS feed from the Blog

RSS feed of eLucidate table of

contents

Add feed content to your web page or blog

Web page– Check existing options in your content management system– Use a third party service to convert the RSS feed and create

code for your page e.g. Rapidfeeds.com

Blog– Blogger – sign in to your blog and go to Layout, Add a page

element, click on Feed and enter the URL of the feed in the box

– Wordpress – sign in to your blog, go to Design, Widgets, Add the RSS widget and then click on Edit to add the URL of the feed and configure it


Tracking down RSS feeds

Look for the RSS/XML logos on a site Use blog search tools Ask.co.uk – Blogs and feeds Windows Live (live.com) – Feeds

– http://search.live.com/feeds

– also site: + feed: command to track down feeds on a specific site e.g.site:bbc.co.uk feed:bbc.co.uk

– feed:amazon.co.uk site:amazon.co.uk energy

Exalead.com - limit search to RSS feeds


Page doesn’t have a feed?

Page2RSS– http://www.page2rss.com/ – essentially a page change monitoring programme that sends

alerts as RSS feeds – enter the URL of the page you want to monitor– copy and paste the link of the RSS feed into your reader


Who does RSS?

Lots of people– Companies and organisations, for example CILIP, UKeiG

• for delivering news of training and events, headlines and abstracts of newsletter articles, blog headlines, discussions in web based communities of practice

– many news services now offer RSS feeds

• Yahoo News, Google News, Moreover

• BBC, newspapers, magazines, Factiva

– professional, scientific, trade press

• BMJ, New Scientist, Information World Review etc.

– book publishers


How much of the story do you see?

Depends on:– how the author of the feed has set it up

• first few lines

• whole article

• sometimes just the title

– your feed reader and how it has been configured

– there is always a link to the full article and source


Quality of RSS feeds

Quality dependent on source of the feed Assumed that RSS feeds are always immediate

– depends on publisher and aggregator• may be deliberate policy to delay free services• aggregator may take longer to generate the feeds than

individual publisher• may be delayed due to publishing schedule and/or

technology in use

Not all the articles may be available– copyright clearance may not have been given by the author– advertising and revenue issues

• why get the hard copy + adverts when available without ads electronically



RSS readers

RSS Compendium– http://rsscompendiumblog.wordpress.com/– http://allrss.com/

Web based readers– access from any terminal or PC– options and functions not as comprehensive as most PC

programs– Newsgator.com, Bloglines.com, www.google.com/reader/

Desktop programs– plugins for Outlook e.g. Newsgator– standalone programs e.g. Omea, GreatNews, RSS Bandit,

Feed Demon(priced) – Outlook 2007 and IE 7 have RSS capability built in

Potential problems

Can become addictive– “Can’t talk now – have to squeeze five minutes work in

between feed updates”

Information overload– don’t subscribe to unnecessary feeds– delete feeds you no longer read– use filters or the search option in your feed reader to

automatically identify key stories

Not always the most up to date – e.g. FT, IWR, Moreover


Why aren’t all publishers doing it?

Time and resources required to learn and manage a new technology

Have to integrate it into your publishing schedule and process

Loss of advertising revenue You do not know how many readers you have You do not know who your readers are No mailing list

– You can no longer sell additional services or advertising


Writing and publishing RSS feeds

By hand – not recommended! From your blog Use a service such as Feedburner

(http://www.feedburner.com/) to generate them or convert one version to another e.g. ATOM to RSS 2.0

Combine RSS feeds using for example Yahoo! Pipes, Feedjumbler, RSS Mix


Combine RSS feeds

FeedBlendr – “blending you a delicious feed smoothie!”– http://feedblendr.com/

Blogdigger Groups – Beta– http://groups.blogdigger.com/

RSS Mix – “Mix any number of RSS feeds into one unique new feed!”– http://www.rssmix.com/

FEEDcombine– http://www.feedcombine.co.uk/

xFruits – “Compose your information system”– http://www.xfruits.com/

Yahoo Pipes: Rewire the web– http://pipes.yahoo.com/


Desktop programs

FeedSpring – free– http://usablelabs.org/feedspring.html

RSS Publisher – free– http://www.rsspublisher.com/

FeedforAll – priced, USD 39.95– http://www.feedforall.com/

Some are listed on DMOZ at http://tinyurl.com/aawgf, see also http://allrss.com/

Most ensure that you fill in the required fields and validate the feed for you


FeedforAll


Making your RSS feed available

Remember that your readers control if and when they read the feed

Use one of the orange logos to make it clear you have an RSS feed – has become the standard but others can be used

Feed Icons (http://www.feedicons.com/) has a collection of different colours and formats available for download

Incorporate and display feeds on your web site, blog, Pageflakes, NetVibes, Facebook,Twitter (via Twitterfeed) etc. etc.

Offer email versions of your feed


Offer email versions of your feeds

Alternative to your RSS feed alerts for those who prefer email or are not able to use RSS

Feedburner – http://www.feedburner.com/ – ‘burn’ your feed on Feedburner– click on your new Feedburner feed, then on the Publicize tab,

an in the left hand menu select “Email subscriptions”

RSS FWD– http://www.rssfwd.com/ – click on the ‘Publishers’ link– also offers visitors (readers) to a page an option to ‘subscribe’

to email alerts if none is already available– site must support auto-discovery of feeds


Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration. Jan Koblas, Chandos Publishing, ISBN 1-84334-178-6

How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library, Phil Bradley. May 2007, Facet Publishing, 224pp paperback ISBN: 978-1-85604-607-7

Blogs and Wikis in Blackboard, NERCOMP - Blackboard User Group, December 6, 2006, Barbara Knauff, Senior Instructional Technologist, Academic Computing, Dartmouth College– http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bknauff/NERCOMP2006/


21 April 2023 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk94

Finish your RSS Feeds!

http://blaugh.com/2007/01/19/where-do-you-think-youre-going-mister/