RSS

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is. Well don’t worry, you're not alone. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:



* Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
* Google Reader Getting Started - about 10 minutes and covers all aspects of working with Google Reader

Exercise:

1. Follow the resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
2. Create a free Google Reader account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds to your reader.
3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.

PS: Once you tackle this discovery exercise, you've tackled the most difficult one. :)