Thursday, July 07, 2005
Social Software Series: RSS
RSS is not necessarily a phenomenon strictly of the social software movement, but it has become a key element of it, especially in the way it enables connections to be made between sources and allows one to follow "feeds" from different sources very easily. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you talk to. Neither really quite describes what RSS is or why it's such a cool technology. Basically RSS is a way of interpreting a web site so that it can be read in what's known as News Aggregators. These Aggregators display each site as a feed, interpreting certain elements to show up in your reader as headlines or text. The effect is much like reading email. Generally, along one side is a list of sites. Sites that have been updated will show up as bold, much like new emails. Clicking on a site shows all the new headlines and summaries of those stories underneath the headlines. Using a reader makes it easy for you to keep up with news sites and blogs because you are alerted when a site is updated rather than having to simply visit every site every day. For more information about RSS and readers and how they work, listen to our podcast or view the screencast of how to use a reader. The wikipedia also has good information on RSS and all its permutations.
How does this relate to social software? Almost all social software programs generate an RSS feed and also will generate a simple script that allows you to include that feed in a web page in addition to following it through an aggregator. So, for example, I'm interested in letting others know what kinds of information I've found under the topic of "blogging and education," so I have included the feed on this site (on the right). Others might decide that I tend to find interesting items and so "subscribe" to my feed or include it on their own site. Or, if you look at the main ETC site, you see I've included the feed for this blog there and I plan to add it to Blackboard as well, so that this information can appear in multiple places and be continually updated without any extra work on my part. And because just the headlines are usually displayed, the feed doesn't take up much space and you can quickly see if you're interested in reading the full article, saving you time in the end. As I discuss other software, I'll be showing how this can be taken advantage of to its fullest, including following specific tags.
RSS has quite honestly changed how I surf the web. I can follow news sites and blogs and other web sources in one place, allowing me to track a lot more information. I can also track the information I collect in the same place. RSS is also being used in calendars, to-do lists, and project management. There's a lot of potential for collaboration and sharing via RSS.
social software, rss
How does this relate to social software? Almost all social software programs generate an RSS feed and also will generate a simple script that allows you to include that feed in a web page in addition to following it through an aggregator. So, for example, I'm interested in letting others know what kinds of information I've found under the topic of "blogging and education," so I have included the feed on this site (on the right). Others might decide that I tend to find interesting items and so "subscribe" to my feed or include it on their own site. Or, if you look at the main ETC site, you see I've included the feed for this blog there and I plan to add it to Blackboard as well, so that this information can appear in multiple places and be continually updated without any extra work on my part. And because just the headlines are usually displayed, the feed doesn't take up much space and you can quickly see if you're interested in reading the full article, saving you time in the end. As I discuss other software, I'll be showing how this can be taken advantage of to its fullest, including following specific tags.
RSS has quite honestly changed how I surf the web. I can follow news sites and blogs and other web sources in one place, allowing me to track a lot more information. I can also track the information I collect in the same place. RSS is also being used in calendars, to-do lists, and project management. There's a lot of potential for collaboration and sharing via RSS.
social software, rss
