Transcript RSS Basics and Beyond Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of

RSS Basics and Beyond
Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content
RSS Basics and Beyond
Quick Questionnaire
Who has heard of RSS?
Who reads RSS feeds?
Who creates RSS feeds?
Google “RSS”.
What does RSS stand for?
13 June 2007
RSS Basics and Beyond
RSS Working Definition
RSS is a combination of:
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Data Format
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RSS (0.93, 1.0, 2.0…)
RDF
Atom
Data Interchange
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Syndication
RSS Basics and Beyond
Really Simple Syndication
Syndication is key element
It enables you to make your content available
to anyone to use.
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News
Events
Book lists
Study guides
Etc.
It puts you on par with the AP or Reuters
RSS Basics and Beyond
RSS is Nearly Everywhere!
RSS Basics and Beyond
Where Does RSS Come From?
Automatically Generated
 Weblog software (Movable Type, TypePad, Bloglines,
Wordpress, etc.)
 Content management systems (i.e., Wikis)
Using Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc.
Create feeds from database searches
By Hand
If you know HTML you can learn RSS
RSS Basics and Beyond
Finding Feeds
Look for icons on page
Look for icons in browser location bar
If you can find the link, you can use the content. Some
conditions apply. See copyright holder for details.
RSS Basics and Beyond
Consuming RSS
All tools have common traits
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Access RSS Feeds
Track what a user has already read
Reproduce feed content
Link to original source
RSS Basics and Beyond
RSS Readers
 Download and compare FeedDemon and
FeedReader
 Compare the readers above to the aggregators Bloglines
and Google Reader
 What is an aggregator?
Consuming RSS: Readers
PC-Based -- tied to a particular computer
Special Applications
 FeedDemon
 FeedReader
 NetNewsWire (for Macintosh)
Web Browsers
 Safari
 IE7
 Firefox
RSS Basics and Beyond
Consuming RSS: Aggregators
Web-based
Access anywhere
Examples
 Yahoo!
 Bloglines
 Google Reader
Even read off-line
RSS Basics and Beyond
Consuming RSS: Integration
RSS is just a stream of information
Easy to integrate into a web page
Many tools have ‘hooks’ to hang RSS on:
 Weblog software
 Content management
 Wiki software, etc., etc., etc.
But if you’re using good ol’ HTML
 Feed2JS
 RSS2HTML
RSS Basics and Beyond
It’s This Easy
Go to http://feed2js.org
Click “Build”
Paste in a feed URL (www.loc.gov/rss/pao/news.xml)
Click “Generate JavaScript”
Copy 4 lines of HTML onto the page you want it to appear
RSS Basics and Beyond
del.icio.us
 Go to http://del.icio.us/
 What do you notice about the domain name?
 What doe del.icio.us do?
Create “Live” Subject Guides
del.icio.us lets you ‘tag’ web sites
Create an account for your library
People tag web pages that make sense
 Sales & Marketing
 Management
 Human Resources
As people find web sites that are interesting
and fit a subject guide, tag them
RSS Basics and Beyond
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Every del.icio.us tag has an RSS Feed
Example: http://del.icio.us/rss/CityPublic_History
Put it in a ‘what’s new’ section on a subject guide -- with
Feed2JS or other
RSS Basics and Beyond
del.icio.us result
RSS Basics and Beyond
Cambridge (Ontario)
RSS Basics and Beyond
Monitoring the Web
How do you know when a web page changes?
 New journal issue?
 New report from the county board?
Monitoring tools check sites for you
 Google Alerts watches topics
RSS Basics and Beyond
Roll Your Own RSS
Several ways to get an RSS feed
 Write one by hand
 Set up a (free) blog
 Write a script yourself (if you have a Perl/PHP/Ruby
person)
 Use a service like FeedXS
RSS Basics and Beyond
Beyond the Basics
Mostly talked about existing services that you can leverage
Now turn to some more advanced topics
 Search = Feed
 Using RSS to get to your patrons where they “live”
RSS Basics and Beyond
Final Thoughts
RSS means simplicity of sharing content
Simple to create, simple to use
Great tool for putting your library “out there” where your
patrons are
Flexible
Very low barrier to creation or consumption
RSS Basics and Beyond