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http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/uksg-2005/
Providing And Using News
Feeds: How RSS Can Help
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Email
[email protected]
URL
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Acknowledgements
Thanks are given to Roddy MacLeod, EEVL, Heriot-Watt University for his
longstanding promotion of use of RSS within the JISC and library sectors
and input to this talk
UKOLN is supported by:
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Introduction
2
Contents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction
The need for better ways of disseminating news
A simple lightweight solution – RSS
RSS viewing tools
RSS creation tools
Beyond news - exploiting RSS's potential
The caveats (technical issues, content issues, …)
Futures
Conclusions
Group discussion
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Introduction
3
About Me
Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus – a Web advisory post for UK HE
and FE and cultural heritage communities
• Involved in Web work since January 1993, when
helped set up UK HE's first (?) institutional Web
service at Leeds University
• JISC representative on W3C (World Wide Web
Consortium)
• Based at UKOLN – a national centre of expertise
in digital information management
• Funding by JISC (Joint Information Systems
Committee) and MLA (Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council)
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Introduction
About You
What do you do?
•
•
•
•
Work in library (academic, public, …)
Work for publisher
Other HE/FE
Other commercial sector
What do you know about news feeds, RSS, …?
• Read RSS feeds
• Publish RSS feeds:
• Using simple tools
• Advanced developer (have read specs, developed RSS
software, …)
• What's RSS?
4
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Introduction
What Do You What To Gain?
What do you want to gain from the session?
What topics would you like to be addressed?
5
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Introduction
6
An Interactive Approach
In light of (potential) high level of expertise in
subject by some participants:
• Session will encourage active participation
• Feel free to contribute examples of work
you are involved in, etc.
• Session will aim to explore common
challenges
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Background
7
What Do We Want To Do?
We provide quality information services and we want
all to have rich access to services & know about them.
So we:
But:
• Enhance service
• In what ways?
• Run mailing lists
• Too much information,
too much spam
• Contribute to mailing list
• Not everyone attends
• Run events
• Not everyone reads
• Publish newsletters
• Not everyone reads
• Provide Web sites
• Time-consuming to
• Ask others to include
news on their Web sites, process
• Limited user choice
newsletters,
email
lists,
…
What we would like to do is minimise human bottlenecks in
rd party context for use on Web and email, whilst
processing• 3….
allowing
users
morein digital
flexibility
inmanagement
handling information
overload
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information
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Background
8
Let’s Kill Email!
Email:
• We’re all familiar with it
• We all use it (even when away at conferences)
But:
• Why send messages which time-out when many
users will read them too late?
• Why not use delivery channels which are spam-free?
• Why not use delivery channels which are more suited
to
receiving information (as opposed to discussions)?
• Why not use a solution which provides richer
structure/metadata
• Why not allow users to select their preferred
channels?
• Why not allow users greater customisation (e.g. don’t
deliver
when
I’m on holiday) www.ukoln.ac.uk
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expertise information
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management
Background
Initial Attempts
Initial attempts at richer solutions e.g. BBC News:
• Solutions included:
• Scrolling Tickertape news display on your PC
• JavaScript to pull news items to your Web site
• Subscriptions to email alerts
• Content often generated from single source
• User has choice: chose content; no tickertape
displayed when away; suspend email; …
But:
• Accessibility problems (JavaScript dependency, ..)
• Proprietary
• Everyone else needs to replicate software, …
• No benefit of scale through standard solutions
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There was a clear need for an open solution, which would allow use
of standard
authoring
and viewers
by any news provider
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RSS – A Universal Solution 
RSS:
• Initially developed as
syndication tool for
My.Netscape portal
• Potential for this
lightweight solution quickly
recognised
• Blogging software
integrated RSS feeds
• Many RSS readers and
authoring tools developed
• RSS becomes part of
JISC's Information
Environment (IE)
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RSS Viewers
Lots of different ways of reading
RSS news feeds, which allows
user to select preferred
approach:
• Web page
• Tickertape
• Pop-up alerts
• Bookmark interfaces
• Email (email-style) interface
• …
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Viewing RSS
RSS Aggregators
An RSS aggregator:
• Brings together RSS news feeds from various
sources
• We've seen desktop & Web aggregators designed
for use by individuals (my favourite services, my
weather report, my stocks and shares, …)
A server-based RSS aggregator:
• Allows service provider to aggregate news feeds for
its communities
• Feeds for student on a particular course
• Feeds related to a funding body
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We will now see the JISC RSS Aggregator, designed to
provide easy access to news from JISC services and facilitate
sharing
and community
building
across the JISC community
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The JISC RSS Aggregator
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/jiscnews/
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JISC RSS
Aggregator:
• Provides single
point of access to
news from JISC
services
• Efficient (limited
management
needed centrally)
• Well-designed,
attractive interface
• Developed by
EEVL (Geir
Granum and
Malcolm Moffat)
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Creating RSS
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RSS File Format
RSS is a powerful, lightweight format. How do
you create RSS news feeds?
RSS Channels
RSS News Items
<channel>
<title>BBC News | UK | UK
Edition</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/u
k/default.stm</link>
<description>BBC UK News
updated every minute of every
day</description>
</channel>
<item>
<title>Tony Blair quits over Iraq</title>
<description>Tony Blair quits the cabinet,
accusing George W Bush of breaking
promises over UN's role in rebuilding
Iraq.</description>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/uk_politics
/3019871.stm</link>
</item>
NOTE: Trust is an important aspect of news feeds – is the
supplier of news embedded in your Web pages, providing
accurate
information – the above news is not true! www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Creating RSS
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RSS Authoring Tools
Many ways of creating RSS files:
• By hand (don't!)
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/news/
• Dedicated RSS tools
• Web-based tools
• Blogs (see SOSIG)
• Generation of RSS
and HTML from
database
• Transformation of
HTML  RSS
(or vice versa)
• Externally-hosted
value-added service providers e.g. Feedburner
• …
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Creating RSS
RSSxpress
http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/
RSSxpress:
• Combined RSS
viewer, editor,
directory and
validator
• Developed at
UKOLN
• Widely used for
creating RSS files
Note: UKOLN planning
updates & new RSS tools.
Suggestions welcome.
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Similar tool:
RSS
Configurator
- <http://www.prs-ltsn.ac.uk/rss/rssconfig.html
>
Creating RSS
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Publishing Your RSS Feed
When publishing your RSS feed:
• Save file at stable location on Web server
e.g. <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/rss/ukoln.xml>
• Validate file (please!) e.g. using RSSxpress
interface, etc. (Broken news is bad news!)
• Ensure Web administrator gives correct MIME
type for .xml, .rss, … file
• Include <LINK> in your HTML news page so that
tools like FireFox dynamic bookmark can be used
(see later)
• For completely new feed register at RSSxpress,
JISC Aggregator, Syndic8, etc.
• View feed in various types of RSS viewers
Validators available at <http://librdf.org/rss/>,
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<http://feeds.archive.org/validator/>,
etc.
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Viewing RSS Feeds (1)
RSS may be used in ways
you have not considered:
• Search results
• Email
• …
If you include a <LINK> tag, users can automatically
add a dynamic
bookmark
toinformation
Firefoxmanagement
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
Viewing RSS Feeds (2)
An example of an email
interface to an RSS file:
• This shows
Thunderbird open
source email client
• Similar software (but
licensed) available for
MS Outlook
• User can chose
whether to view Web
page or just text
• This has been
Note that with some RSS tool the user can
described as
choose to view text-only. Great for the user
“authenticated spam– but should you worry about your logo not
free opt-in email” 
being displayed?
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19
Viewing RSS
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Viewing RSS Feeds (3)
"If you've got a late-model wireless device and want to try
accessing your favorite syndicated content on-the-go,
give FeedBurner's Feed Reader (MFR) a test drive:
• Supports feeds in all major formats
(RSS, RDF, and Atom)
• Smart "If-Modified-Since" content
retrieval conserves wireless bandwidth
• …
Other examples of viewers for PDAs:
• Plucker
• Hand/RSS for Palm
• See <http://palmtops.about.com/
cs/productreviews/tp/Palm_RSS.htm>
Note this is intended as a illustration and is not a product
endorsement! The software has not been tested and it is
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not
known
if it complies
with appropriate
Uses Of RSS
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What The Publishers Are Doing
IoP provide RSS
feeds for:
• Events
• Features
• Jobs
• Latest papers
• news
• Press releases
• …
http://syndication.iop.org/?cat
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Uses Of RSS
What The Libraries Are Doing
Many libraries,
especially in the
US, are taking a
similar high profile
approach to RSS
Note that the URL
of the RSS file
shows it is being
generated by a
Cold Fusion script
http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/XML/LibnNotes/GetXML.cfm?
Topic=Consumer%20Information&Display=Consumer%20Information
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Uses Of RSS
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Beyond News Syndication
What else can RSS be used for?
• General content syndication
• Syndication of search results
• Building personalised interfaces
• Tracking items
• Items for sale
• Viewing email
• …
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Developments in the Public Sector
http://www.hubmed.org/
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"HubMed is PubMed on
Steroids":
• Taken from RSS In
Government Blog
<http://www.rssgov.
com/>
HubMed:
• RSS syndication of
searches
• Integrated with Blog
(Biolog) for sharing
annotated abstracts
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Uses Of RSS
What Else Can You Do? (1)
Syndication:
• You have some content which you want others to
automatically include in their Web site (e.g.
UKSG conference details)
Tracking:
• You want users to be able to track progress of
their items (currently available for Parcel tracking;
how about book order; fault reports; …)
Personalised Interfaces:
• Weather from weather service; stocks and shares
from FTSE; ….
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What Else Can You Do? (2)
Email:
• You can read
your GMail email
using an RSS
viewer
• Lsoft apparently
have similar
plans for reading
their archives
(could be used
with JISCMail
archives
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Awasu
RSS reader
has free
plugin for readingwww.ukoln.ac.uk
email
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What Else Can You Do? (3)
Search Amazon:
• Third parties
services can be
used to generate
RSS results for
Amazon searches
• See:
<http://www.oxus.net/
amazon/>
<http://www.watchcow
.net/news/2004/10/
full-frontal-firefoxintegration.php>
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What Else Can You Do? (4)
http://www.watchcow.net/>
Search
Amazon:
Third parties
services can be
used to generate
RSS results for
price changes
on Amazon
Further info
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Quality Issues
http://www.eevl.ac.uk/onestepjobs/
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Technical Issues
• Important to validate RSS file
• Incorrect syntax / characters
may or may not be displayed
• Be aware of non-standard
characters (e.g. £, —, ©, ...)
• Note that special characters
(e.g. < and >) may cause
problems
• Avoid clever tricks – keep to
standard (may work in some
Content Issues
cases but not others
• Accuracy, relevance, timeliness, … of content
• Display of content (don't make assumptions)
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• Context of content (e.g. MLA news from UKOLN)
Caveats
What Does RSS Stand For?
RSS naming and versions can be very confusing
RSS=Rich Site
Summary
RSS=RDF Site
Summary
Developed by Netscape to allow
RSS 0.9 3rd party content to be embedded
in My.Netscape portal
RSS 1.0
RSS – great idea! Let's make it
extensible and part of Semantic
Web; so we'll use XML RDF.
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RSS=Really Simple
Syndication
RSS – great idea! Let's keep
it simple. So we'll use XML.
RSS 2.0
Issues
• Which to go for? (JISC IE uses RSS 1.0)
• Really Simple Syndication is probably the best abbreviation
(RSS
1.0 abbreviation
is recursive
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Caveats
Limitations Of The RSS Format
Limitations Of RSS Format
• RSS's strengths are based on its simplicity
• The simplicity means limited display capabilities
and functionality
• You can't apply rich formatting or embed hyperlinks,
search interfaces, … in RSS feeds
• Actually can by using XML escaping techniques
• Such tricks make work in some viewers (e.g.
browsers) but could cause problems in others
• Do you want to repeat the problems caused during
the browser wars in late 1990s (pages looked and
behaved differently in different browsers)?
• Aim to maximise interoperability rather than
maximise functionality
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Caveats
32
Limitations Of RSS Statistics
RSS Statistics
• There are lies, dammed lies and Web statistics!
• Be wary of RSS statistics
Issues
• RSS aggregators may harvest resources which
are not read
• RSS items may be retrieved while your PC is left
on over the weekend
• 40% of my visitors now get information via RSS.
What does this mean? What are the
implications?
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Futures
Beyond Text (1)
Podcasting:
• Automated delivery mechanism for transferring
sound files to you MP3 player (or PC)
• Concept invented in 2004
See Wikipedia entry
• Exponential growth
• Based on RSS 2.0 (plus enclosures)
Is it of interest?
• Accessibility
• Learning processing information on the move
Twenty-nine percent of US adults who own MP3 players like [the] iPod say
they have downloaded podcast programs from the Internet, the Pew Internet
and American Life Project found... more than 6 million people are listening to
a form of communication that emerged only last year ….
33
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Futures
34
Beyond Text (2)
On 5 April 2005 the Bibliocasting list was announced:
".. dedicated to discussion of streaming media in library
environment. This list grows out of increasing popularity
of "Podcasting," .. use of RSS .. to download audio
programs (like audio blogs) to computers and MP3
players.
So what to post on the list? Examples of how libraries
can build on the growing excitement of Podcasting;
Questions on how libraries can use podcasting and
other multimedia information they create to promote
themselves and provide better service; …
We have also set up a podcast for the list...that's right,
you can listen to the list. Each post is transformed from
text-to-speech, and syndicated using RSS.
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RSS & Podcasts
RSS feed of automated text-MP3 conversion of email messages
on biblio list:
• “… can you image anything more boring to do with an
iPod”?
But this led to Andy Powell’s experiment last week:
• Take UKOLN news item
• Use festival to convert to WAV and lam to covert to
MP3 (open source utilities)
• Now have an MP3 sound file
Potential of this idea:
• Sound version of news available to blind users (avoiding
reading navigational elements, etc.)
• Use with RSS Podcast to deliver automatically to MP3
player
• Potential for application with dynamic RSS feeds (e.g. new
Google search results, info on Glastonbury tickets on sale
on eBay below chosen price, …)
35
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Integrating RSS & Podcasts
Awasu:
• An RSS reader &
Podcasting client
Also has plugins for:
• IMAP/POP email
• Alerts for searches
• …
36
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Thoughts:
• We once wanted a
Web interface to
everything
• Do we want an RSS
interface to new
stuff? www.ukoln.ac.uk
Futures
Related Standards (1)
We have discussed RSS and RSS 
Also relevant:
• Atom:
• Proposal to merge RSS
• See <http://www.atomenabled.org/> and
<http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/FrontPage>
• OPML:
• Outline Processor Markup Language
• Can be used to manage (e.g export/import)
groups of RSS feeds
• See <http://www.opml.org/>
37
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Futures
Related Standards (2)
Other related standards:
• iCal:
• Syndication standard for event information
• Example: click on iCal file for UKSG dates and date
automatically added to your calendar
• Used by CETIS
• See <http://www.usetasks.com/
documentation/tasks/ical_apps.html>
• NewsML
• Heavyweight standard for syndicating news
• "NewsML is designed to provide a media-independent,
structural framework for multi-media news."
• Used by news profession (e.g. Reuters)
• Includes embargo deadlines, version control, etc.
• See <http://www.newsml.org/>
38
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Conclusions
39
RSS:
• Powerful lightweight solution for news
syndication
• Provides users with flexibility in how they
choose to receive news
• More than just news – potential for richer
syndication of content, dynamic content, …
• Quality of content important in ensuring
end users trust the content (of possibly
unknown providers)
• Need to develop appropriate publishing
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procedures
for news
Discussion
Opportunity for general discussion
40
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