RSS+Feeds

The following article is from [|www.novemberlearning.com]

RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a simple yet amazing tool that has the ability to streamline the way you currently view many of the websites that you click through on a daily basis. This is done by way of a special (XML) file that sits alongside of a webpage file on a website. The file strips the website of all of its bells and whistles and brings the user a basic chronological summary of updates to the website. Usually, these updates contain a headline, a brief description, a URL to the full story being summarized, a date, and the creator’s name. By now, you’re probably thinking that this doesn’t sound all that amazing. Well, let’s put it another way. Think of the four or five most intelligent people you have ever had as a teacher. Now, pair them up with all of those people out there who you respect and read about on a daily basis. Combine those with people who have similar interests to you who you have not even discovered yet. Finally, mix in a variety of news sources that you rely on to get the news you are interested in hearing. Take all of this information, funnel it into one location (without constantly having to search it out), and you now begin to gain an understanding of what RSS has to offer. Once you grasp the concept of RSS and begin making its use a part of your daily routine, you will feel like you have never learned so much in your life. You will quickly see that your RSS feeds have the potential to become an extremely valuable source of professional development. Getting started with RSS is very easy. You only need two things: an aggregator and a feed. Once you have these two things, you’re off to the races.
 * Getting Started with RSS**
 * An **// aggregator  //** is a piece of software that takes in all of the ugly XML pages that you have subscribed to and puts them in a form that is easy to read, all in one location. Think of an aggregator in the same way that you think of an email program that brings all of the email that is sent to you into one place. As with email programs, there are two main types of aggregators that you can choose from. Computer based aggregators run on a single computer, while web based aggregators are globally available on the web. There are many different aggregators to choose from, and all of them are slightly different, but after trying out several, my preference is the web-based aggregator, Bloglines. I can use Bloglines on any computer anywhere in the world.
 * The **// feed  //** is the information that you are subscribing to. Just as I compared the aggregator to an email program, I can also compare the feed to the email. Simply put, the feed is the XML file from a website that I subscribe to. It’s the information that my aggregator is pulling in. It’s the stuff I want to read. Unlike email though, NO SPAM.

To set up an account in Bloglines ([|http://www.bloglines.com]), begin by clicking on the register link on the top right corner of the page. You will be taken to a form that asks your email address, your preferred password, and a few other easy questions. Click on the register button and you will receive an email asking you to confirm your account. Upon confirmation, you will be taken to a page that allows you to select some new feeds to start receiving content on. You can choose to add some of these feeds now, or you can simply go to your aggregator’s main page by clicking on feeds on the top, left corner of the page. If a site has an RSS feed, it will tell you. Look around the site. Sometimes, RSS is represented by an orange badge that says RSS or XML. On other sites, you will simply see text that says, “Subscribe to this site by RSS.” More universally, we are seeing a trend of sites moving toward this icon to represent sites powered with RSS. You can find feeds pertaining to most interests that you might have. Additionally, all blogs and most major news sources also publish their content with RSS feeds. So if you have a particular news source or blog that you follow regularly, start there. One way to go is to search within a search engine for a term plus RSS (example: math +k12 +rss). Or you might consider beginning your search at Technorati (http://www.technorati.com) and Feedster (http://www.feedster.com). Technorati is a search engine that searches only blogs, while Feedster searches any site that publishes an RSS feed. Simply search for a topic that interests you, and start from there. Once you are finished registering for Bloglines and are on your main Bloglines page, and once you have found your first feed that you wish to subscribe to, click on the add button on the top of the left column. You will see a space in the right column where you can paste in the URL of the website that contains your desired feed. After you type the URL in and hit subscribe, you will possibly see a few different options to select. These options are the different “brands” of RSS (RSS, RSS2, Atom) that you can subscribe to. Using Bloglines, I have had success at using any brand of RSS, so simply select one. Then, you can take the time to organize your feeds by creating folders from the drop down menu. When you are ready to subscribe press the subscribe button. If for some reason, the feed can’t be read, go back a step and select a different brand of RSS feed and try again. Once successful, you should see a feed on the left hand side of your screen that has the name of the blog you just subscribed to as well as the number of feeds currently waiting for you, if any.
 * Registering for a Bloglines Account**
 * Searching for RSS Feeds**
 * Adding Feeds**