Definition
RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is an established format for web content. This is a format which many sites subscribe to in order to allow a user to get new content from a variety of sources in a single site or program.

There are two different types of RSS feeds, web-based and client based. There are drawbacks and benefits to both. Web-based readers are sites which you use to subscribe to feeds. You then have to be on line to read the feeds. Client-based RSS readers are a bit harder to set-up, but they have the benefit of allowing you to read your feeds when you are off-line. You just has to be on line to download the current updates.

Examples

Web-based
Sage (firefox plugin)
Bloglines
Google Reader

Client-based
Windows: GreatNews, FeedDemon
Mac: NewNewsWire
Linux: LifeRea

Kind of Cool/Different
3-D RSS Reader



Why Use It?
RSS is useful both for keeping your users in touch with your most recent information, and also for your organization to stay in touch with what other similar organizations are doing.

For Admins: If you use RSS format to encode news about your site and activities, it will be easier for your users to keep track of whats going on with your group without checking up on your site over and over.

For Users: RSS is very useful if you want to keep track of the status of a variety of sites that are updated on a frequent basis. Instead of constantly going online and checking to see if the sites you are interested in reading have updated, you can have these updates automatically sent to the reader of your choice. You can then aggregate these feeds into groups, making it easier to read the categories of your choice.

Mixing RSS with Tagging
Another way to use RSS feeds is by attaching certain tags to articles. In this way, you can have feeds for all articles marked with a specific tag. For example, if you want to read all articles that users have marked with “nptech.”
Google also provides RSS feeds for a keyword searches. For example, if you want to have a feed of when a certain keyword is searched for (like the name of your company).

RSS and Multimedia
Feeds also can be made for multimedia notifications, for example if you want notifications of new podcasts or video feeds.

Use-Cases
The “nptech” tagstream: “In the nonprofit world, the NPTech tag stream is a way for nonprofit technologists to share web pages, photos and upcoming events of interest with each other. Anyone can search inside this tag stream or subscribe to the RSS feed of all items tagged nptech, particular users' items tagged nptech or items tagged nptech and any other term. Since being originated by Compumentor's Marnie Webb a year and a half ago, the nptech tag stream has had thousands of items tagged into it.” (from netsquared.org)

Our News Feeds page is an example of how we use others' RSS feeds to bring you ever-chamging information from a variety of sources together in a common format.

Ratings
Web-based
Cost: $
Start-up time (for admins): TT
Maintenance time (for admins): T
Start-up time(for users): T
Maintenance time (for users): T
Complexity for facilitators: ***
Complexity for users: *
Bandwidth requirement: N
Read accessibility: N/A
Write accessibility: N/A
Traffic: N/A
Bling: 3
Blingability:1

Client-based
Cost: $
Start-up time(for admins): TT
Maintenance time (for admins): T
Start-up time(for users): TT
Maintenance time (for users): T
Complexity for facilitators: ***
Complexity for users: **
Bandwidth requirement: N
Read accessibility: N/A
Write accessibility: N/A
Traffic: N/A
Bling: 3
Blingability: 2

How-To
For Admins:
Check out this wiki on Creating Feeds, already conveniently created by the editors of the Media Literacy Wiki.

For Users:
As a user, it's fairly easy to get hooked into an RSS feed. Web-based Readers are pretty easy to learn, just go to one of the websites and follow the directions. Client-based readers take a bit more time to download, but have the benefits mentioned above.

Once you have a reader setup, look for alerts on pages that let you know they have RSS feeds. These alerts are often accompanied by a little orange symbol like this: Click on these to add a feed from that site to your reader.

To practice, you can add an RSS feed from our website. Just click here: Site Reports & RSS Feeds, or on the same link in the side menu, navigate to the tab which focuses on the feed you want, and click on the orange icon in the top right!

Helpful Links