Scott Horvath, U.S. Geological Survey Public Affairs Specialist/Web Developer/CoreCast Producer Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Learning Objectives Go to Wikipedia. Read about the history of RSS and advanced uses of RSS. Come up with at least 4 websites (2 public and 2 internal) that you could get updates about using an RSS feed (that don’t have an RSS feed already). Then bug your web developer until they make it happen. Sign up for an online RSS reader, add at least 5 RSS feeds from the USGS CoreCast, FWS News, a custom Google News Search feed, a Technorati blog search feed, and at least one from any other source. Make sure at least 1 is on that you add manually and one automatically. Create your own RSS feed using a text editor, about anything, and open it in your browser until you see it working. Using your email program update your signature file to effectively market an RSS feed from your organization, and track the click-thrus based upon your modified RSS URL with a web analytics program. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Go to Wikipedia. Read about the history of RSS and advanced uses of RSS.

Come up with at least 4 websites (2 public and 2 internal) that you could get updates about using an RSS feed (that don’t have an RSS feed already). Then bug your web developer until they make it happen.

Sign up for an online RSS reader, add at least 5 RSS feeds from the USGS CoreCast, FWS News, a custom Google News Search feed, a Technorati blog search feed, and at least one from any other source. Make sure at least 1 is on that you add manually and one automatically.

Create your own RSS feed using a text editor, about anything, and open it in your browser until you see it working.

Using your email program update your signature file to effectively market an RSS feed from your organization, and track the click-thrus based upon your modified RSS URL with a web analytics program.

RSS?

RSS?

What is RSS? Not a history lesson in RSS. RSS = Really Simple Syndication What does “really simple syndication” actually mean? What is the “traditional” syndication path. What is the “new” syndication path. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Not a history lesson in RSS.

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

What does “really simple syndication” actually mean?

What is the “traditional” syndication path.

What is the “new” syndication path.

What is Traditional Syndication? Source: Virginia Commonwealth University, Center for Teaching Excellence Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization Story is written Story is sent to “the wire” Papers pick up ‘feed’ off the wire Story appears here

What is New Syndication? Story is typed Blog Blog Blog News Sites News Sites News Sites RSS Reader RSS Reader Podcasts Directories Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

What is New Syndication? Blog Blog RSS Reader RSS Reader E-mail Share with others Post to Social Media sites, Tweet E-mail Share with others Post to Social Media sites, Tweet RSS Reader E-mail Share with others Post to Social Media sites, Tweet E-mail Share with others Repost, Tweet Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

How Do Read RSS? Use an Aggregator An aggregator is a type of software, or web-service, that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites. -Wikipedia Basically…you need one to read RSS easily . Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Use an Aggregator

An aggregator is a type of software, or web-service, that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites. -Wikipedia

Basically…you need one to read RSS easily .

The How-Tos Set up your feed reader (aggregator) Find an RSS feed Add the feed Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Set up your feed reader (aggregator)

Find an RSS feed

Add the feed

Demo (me and you)

Demo

(me and you)

Public and Internal Uses Latest news releases Latest policy changes Blog postings and comments HR updates on benefits Web Development: Latest updates to any file changes (in a CMS) Bulletin board/forum postings and comments New documents added to a shared file system Geocode news to appear on Google Maps, Virtual Earth, etc Latest podcasts ...who knows what else! Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Latest news releases

Latest policy changes

Blog postings and comments

HR updates on benefits

Web Development: Latest updates to any file changes (in a CMS)

Bulletin board/forum postings and comments

New documents added to a shared file system

Geocode news to appear on Google Maps, Virtual Earth, etc

Latest podcasts

...who knows what else!

Ups and Downs Ups Read news faster, on your own time, your frequency. You can skip past all the other junk on the page and get just the content. Easy to scan headlines and summaries to find what's important. Increases work productivity Can integrate RSS into web-based applications or directly within your own websites. People can always stay up to date with the latest news Increase in web traffic Wider distribution (if you're using blogs as well) One authoritative source of information. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Ups

Read news faster, on your own time, your frequency.

You can skip past all the other junk on the page and get just the content.

Easy to scan headlines and summaries to find what's important.

Increases work productivity

Can integrate RSS into web-based applications or directly within your own websites.

People can always stay up to date with the latest news

Increase in web traffic

Wider distribution (if you're using blogs as well)

One authoritative source of information.

Ups and Downs Downs You might miss other important information on the site. You could miss new features of that site. Easy to skip over important information as you add more feeds. Information overload (feeling stressed?) Declaring “RSS bankruptcy” Internal feeds not available from home...only in the office. Assuming all news items will go out in the RSS feed (not always the case; might miss new RSS feeds from the same site) Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Downs

You might miss other important information on the site.

You could miss new features of that site.

Easy to skip over important information as you add more feeds.

Information overload (feeling stressed?)

Declaring “RSS bankruptcy”

Internal feeds not available from home...only in the office.

Assuming all news items will go out in the RSS feed (not always the case; might miss new RSS feeds from the same site)

Make RSS?

Make RSS?

Ways to Create an RSS Feed Out of the Box Content Management Systems Web Application/Software Software (e.g. FeedForAll) Online Services RYO/BYOC (Roll Your Own/Bring Your Own Code) Database driven Directory traversal Manually edit the file Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Out of the Box

Content Management Systems

Web Application/Software

Software (e.g. FeedForAll)

Online Services

RYO/BYOC (Roll Your Own/Bring Your Own Code)

Database driven

Directory traversal

Manually edit the file

The Basics <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?> <rss version=&quot;2.0&quot;> <channel> <title>Title of the channel</title> <link>URL of the website</link> <description>Description of what the RSS feed is for</description> <item> <title>Title of the item</title> <link>Link to the item</link> <description>Summary of the item</description> </item> </channel> </rss> Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

<?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?>

<rss version=&quot;2.0&quot;>

<channel>

<title>Title of the channel</title>

<link>URL of the website</link>

<description>Description of what the RSS feed is for</description>

<item>

<title>Title of the item</title>

<link>Link to the item</link>

<description>Summary of the item</description>

</item>

</channel>

</rss>

The Basics <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?> <rss version=&quot;2.0&quot;> <channel> <title>Title of the channel</title> <link>URL of the website</link> <description>Description of what the RSS feed is for</description> <item> <title>Title of the item</title> <link>Link to the item</link> <description>Summary of the item</description> </item> <item>…</item> </channel> </rss> Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

<?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?>

<rss version=&quot;2.0&quot;>

<channel>

<title>Title of the channel</title>

<link>URL of the website</link>

<description>Description of what the RSS feed is for</description>

<item>

<title>Title of the item</title>

<link>Link to the item</link>

<description>Summary of the item</description>

</item>

<item>…</item>

</channel>

</rss>

Additional Items to Consider Publication date of the item: <pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate> Author of the item: <author>Joe Schmoe</author> Category the item falls under (or keywords): <category>Business</category> <category>school homework teaching students</category> Media files (i.e. - podcasts, video, etc): <enclosure /> Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Publication date of the item:

<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>

Author of the item:

<author>Joe Schmoe</author>

Category the item falls under (or keywords):

<category>Business</category>

<category>school homework teaching students</category>

Media files (i.e. - podcasts, video, etc):

<enclosure />

Advanced RSS <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;ISO-8859-1&quot;?> <rss version=&quot;2.0&quot; xmlns:georss=&quot;http://www.georss.org/georss&quot;> <channel> … <item> <title><![CDATA[No Yellowstone Evacuation Warning Issued]]></title> <category>PR</category> <category>Geology Earthquake Yellowstone volcanoes</category> <link>http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2103&amp;from=rss</link> <georss:featuretypetag>state</georss:featuretypetag> <georss:featurename>NAT</georss:featurename> <description><![CDATA[ <p><!--introstart-->The USGS is not affiliated with a web site that recommends evacuation of Yellowstone National Park and bears the USGS logo. The USGS is not recommending the evacuation of the Park.<!--introend--></p> <p>Officials at the USGS are working through the appropriate legal channels to have both the warning and logo removed from the web site.</p> <p>Yesterday, the USGS issued a <a href=&quot;http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2102&quot;>press release</a> announcing that the swarm of earthquakes has stopped for now and may have ceased entirely.</p> <p>&quot;Changes in the alert level are announced through the <a href=&quot;http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/&quot;>Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Web site</a>&quot;, reports YVO Scientist-in-Charge, Dr. Jake Lowenstern. &quot;If an evacuation order were necessary, it would be handled through Yellowstone National Park and neighboring communities.</p> <p>YVO is a cooperative project of USGS, the University of Utah, and Yellowstone National Park. Under the Stafford Act, the USGS has the Federal responsibility to issue warnings of potential volcanic disasters.</p> <p>For a podcast interview with USGS scientists on the recent earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park, listen to Episode 80 of CoreCast at <a href=&quot;http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/&quot;>http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/</a>.</p> ]] ></description> <pubDate>1/8/2009 11:39:14 AM</pubDate> <author>OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)</author> </item> </channel> </rss> Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

<?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;ISO-8859-1&quot;?> <rss version=&quot;2.0&quot; xmlns:georss=&quot;http://www.georss.org/georss&quot;> <channel> … <item> <title><![CDATA[No Yellowstone Evacuation Warning Issued]]></title> <category>PR</category> <category>Geology Earthquake Yellowstone volcanoes</category> <link>http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2103&amp;from=rss</link> <georss:featuretypetag>state</georss:featuretypetag> <georss:featurename>NAT</georss:featurename> <description><![CDATA[ <p><!--introstart-->The USGS is not affiliated with a web site that recommends evacuation of Yellowstone National Park and bears the USGS logo. The USGS is not recommending the evacuation of the Park.<!--introend--></p> <p>Officials at the USGS are working through the appropriate legal channels to have both the warning and logo removed from the web site.</p> <p>Yesterday, the USGS issued a <a href=&quot;http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2102&quot;>press release</a> announcing that the swarm of earthquakes has stopped for now and may have ceased entirely.</p> <p>&quot;Changes in the alert level are announced through the <a href=&quot;http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/&quot;>Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Web site</a>&quot;, reports YVO Scientist-in-Charge, Dr. Jake Lowenstern. &quot;If an evacuation order were necessary, it would be handled through Yellowstone National Park and neighboring communities.</p> <p>YVO is a cooperative project of USGS, the University of Utah, and Yellowstone National Park. Under the Stafford Act, the USGS has the Federal responsibility to issue warnings of potential volcanic disasters.</p> <p>For a podcast interview with USGS scientists on the recent earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park, listen to Episode 80 of CoreCast at <a href=&quot;http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/&quot;>http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/</a>.</p> ]] ></description> <pubDate>1/8/2009 11:39:14 AM</pubDate> <author>OC_Web@usgs.gov (Office of Communications Web Group)</author> </item> </channel> </rss>

Online Services For public content only (ex. – News Releases) Use a social bookmarking service (ex. - Delicious) to save each of your news releases with a title, description, and tags. Use an RSS feed enhancing service (ex. – FeedBurner) and “burn” the Delicious RSS feed from where you’ve been saving all of your news releases. Add the link to your “burned” feed OR the standard RSS feed from your bookmarking service to your web page. Some other example services: Page2RSS Feed43 Yahoo Pipes….and many others. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

For public content only (ex. – News Releases)

Use a social bookmarking service (ex. - Delicious) to save each of your news releases with a title, description, and tags.

Use an RSS feed enhancing service (ex. – FeedBurner) and “burn” the Delicious RSS feed from where you’ve been saving all of your news releases.

Add the link to your “burned” feed OR the standard RSS feed from your bookmarking service to your web page.

Some other example services:

Page2RSS

Feed43

Yahoo Pipes….and many others.

Publishing Your New RSS Feed Post it to your home page using a known icon. Post it on the specific site that it's for. Post it to a page of all RSS feeds for your site. Include a link to it in your email notices/alerts. Write a news release about it! Have your office include it as part of their email signature! ((1 person x 30 emails/day x 247 days = 7,410) x 20 people/office) = 148,200 exp/yr Post to iTunes (if it's a podcast) Submit to USA.gov! Include it as part of your news release footer. Burn it! (Feedburner.com) Publish it to Twitter using Twitterfeed.com Add it to your Facebook profile Add it to various RSS directories. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Post it to your home page using a known icon.

Post it on the specific site that it's for.

Post it to a page of all RSS feeds for your site.

Include a link to it in your email notices/alerts.

Write a news release about it!

Have your office include it as part of their email signature!

((1 person x 30 emails/day x 247 days = 7,410) x 20 people/office) = 148,200 exp/yr

Post to iTunes (if it's a podcast)

Submit to USA.gov!

Include it as part of your news release footer.

Burn it! (Feedburner.com)

Publish it to Twitter using Twitterfeed.com

Add it to your Facebook profile

Add it to various RSS directories.

Optimizing: Web 2.0-it! Good news! It’s already set for 2.0 applications You can do more to further optimize it: Burn it! Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Good news! It’s already set for 2.0 applications

You can do more to further optimize it:

Burn it!

Tracking RSS Effectiveness Tracking effectiveness is not as simple as traditional web statistics. It's more about actual syndication/buzz. FeedBurner stats Web server statistics (look at .mp3 downloads for podcasts) Technorati, IceRocket, Google Blogs, BlogPulse, Google News, Summize, Tweetscan, Backtype Use special URLs to identify your RSS links Use special queries to track your product...save as RSS Del.icio.us bookmarks &quot;Digg Effect&quot; (and other social news sites) AideRSS many, many other ways. Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Tracking effectiveness is not as simple as traditional web statistics. It's more about actual syndication/buzz.

FeedBurner stats

Web server statistics (look at .mp3 downloads for podcasts)

Technorati, IceRocket, Google Blogs, BlogPulse, Google News, Summize, Tweetscan, Backtype

Use special URLs to identify your RSS links

Use special queries to track your product...save as RSS

Del.icio.us bookmarks

&quot;Digg Effect&quot; (and other social news sites)

AideRSS

many, many other ways.

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) A table of contents for your feeds ( USGS example ) Primarily used to transfer all of your feeds from one aggregator to another. No need to add them all over again. As a developer, you can categorize your feeds for redistribution…or even a directory traversal option, or playlist. Many RSS readers allow exporting to OPML. Read more about OPML… on Wikipedia Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

A table of contents for your feeds ( USGS example )

Primarily used to transfer all of your feeds from one aggregator to another. No need to add them all over again.

As a developer, you can categorize your feeds for redistribution…or even a directory traversal option, or playlist.

Many RSS readers allow exporting to OPML.

Read more about OPML…

on Wikipedia

RSS Cheat Sheet: usgs.gov/corecast/docs/rss_cheatsheet.pdf USGS RSS/Podcasts: usgs.gov/rss USGS CoreCast: usgs.gov/corecast USGS CoreFacts: usgs.gov/corefacts USGS Podcast Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reston-VA/US-Geological-Survey-USGS-Podcasts/19522531085 (or just search for USGS) Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Your Turn! Go to Wikipedia and read about the history of RSS and some advanced uses of RSS (on your own) * Come up with a list of at least 4 ways (2 public and 2 internal) that you could get updates on using an RSS feed. Then bug your web developer until they make it happen :) * Sign up for an online RSS reader, add at least 5 RSS feeds from the USGS CoreCast, FWS News, a custom Google News Search feed, and a Technorati blog search feed, and at least one from any other source. Make sure that at least 1 is one that you add manually and one automatically. * Create your own RSS feed using a text editor, about anything, and open it in your web browser until it works. Using your email program, update your signature file to effectively market your RSS feed, and track the click-thrus based upon your modified RSS URL with a web analytics program. (on your own) Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization

Go to Wikipedia and read about the history of RSS and some advanced uses of RSS (on your own)

* Come up with a list of at least 4 ways (2 public and 2 internal) that you could get updates on using an RSS feed. Then bug your web developer until they make it happen :)

* Sign up for an online RSS reader, add at least 5 RSS feeds from the USGS CoreCast, FWS News, a custom Google News Search feed, and a Technorati blog search feed, and at least one from any other source. Make sure that at least 1 is one that you add manually and one automatically.

* Create your own RSS feed using a text editor, about anything, and open it in your web browser until it works.

Using your email program, update your signature file to effectively market your RSS feed, and track the click-thrus based upon your modified RSS URL with a web analytics program. (on your own)

Extras Ex: Custom URL to help track click-thrus Mentioning to these sites does not constitute and endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, or any other Government organization