RSS
IST 400 | New Media & Social Technologies
iSchool
Syracuse University
Eric Hansen | ethansen+ist@gmail.com

Outline
Really Simple Syndication, Really
Web Watershed
Choose Your Weapon
What Big Ears You Have

Really Simple Syndication

Technically Speaking
RSS is:
A standard way to format a text file
That organizes content (text, pics, etc.)
In a machine-readable format (xml)
For easy Internet syndication

Machine readable

<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
Machine readable
<rss version=\"2.0\" xmlns:dc=\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\">
<channel>
<title>TMZ.com</title>
TMZ.com’s
<link>http://www.tmz.com</link>
<description>TMZ.com</description>
<image>
RSS file
<url>http://www.tmz.com/media/feedlogo.gif</url>
<title>TMZ.com</title>
<link>http://www.tmz.com</link>
</image>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2007 TMZ.com, Inc. The contents of this headlines and excerpts feed are available for
limited commercial distribution. You may repost this feed to your site provided you link back to the original story, do
not edit the material, and do not remove this copyright notice.</copyright>
<generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator>
<item>
1.
<title>Rosie Going Nowhere for Now</title>
<link>http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/11/rosie-going-nowhere-for-now/</link>
<guid isPermaLink=\"true\">http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/11/rosie-going-nowhere-for-now/</guid>
<comments>http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/11/rosie-going-nowhere-for-now/#comments</comments>
2.
<description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/category/lets-get-this-party-started/\"
rel=\"tag\">Let's Get This Party Started</a></p><a href=\"http://www.tmz.com\">TMZ.com</a>: Rosie
O'Donnell is sticking around at \"The View\" for at least another year, though it seems she might
bolt after next year to start her own show.Page Six says that Ro will re-up for another year at ABC
when her contract ends this summer, mainly... <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/11/rosie-going-
nowhere-for-now/\">Read more</a><br/><br/>]]></description>
3.
<category>Let's Get This Party Started</category><category>Let'sGetThisPartyStarted</
category><dc:creator>TMZ Staff</dc:creator><dc:date>2007-03-11T03:05:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
More content
<item>
<title>Bobby Trendy: Anna Loved the Lip Gloss!</title>

Human readable
More content

Human readable

Human readable

Human readable

Human readable

RSS: Really Simple
Syndication
Online content (e.g. news) is dynamic
RSS files are updated with the latest content
of a site (automatically)
Could be the latest story, comment, photo,
podcast, video, etc.
Fresh content can be syndicated (widely
distributed) easily

RSS: I’m Ready for
Some Stories!
Explaining RSS the Oprah way
“A way online to get a quick list of the
latest story headlines from all your
favorite websites and blogs all in one
place.”
Credit: Stephanie Quilao, Back in Skinny
Jeans blog

backinskinnyjeans.com

Before we move
forward...
RSS File = RSS Feed = Feed
XML, RSS, ATOM = easy subscription
to any news reader
easy subscription to a
=
specific news reader

Web Watershed

The Blog Effect
Blogs are built using RSS (or ATOM)
by default
More sites are resembling blogs
RSS has become a de facto standard
on millions of Web sites

Choose Your Weapon

Before we move
forward...
News reader = Feed reader =
Aggregator = RSS reader = News
aggregator, and so on
Their basic function is managing all the
feeds (RSS, ATOM, etc.) to which
you’ve subscribed.

Google Reader

My Yahoo!

Bloglines

NewsGator

newsvine

Netvibes

What Big Ears You Have

Free Services
Google alerts IceRocket
Technorati BlogPulse
alerts
Wikipedia RSS
BoardReader

Google Alerts

Technorati

Wikipedia

BoardReader

IceRocket

BlogPulse

Paid Services
Nielsen BuzzMetrics
Cymfony
Umbria
Hitwise
Radian 6

Thank You

Video/ Photo Credits
• http://flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/
• http://flickr.com/photos/mr38/
• http://flickr.com/photos/demian
• http://flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/
• http://commoncraft.com/show
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=6gmP4nk0EOE
• http://flickr.com/photos/39132450@N00/