RSS - Really Simple Syndication
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disruptivetechnologiesk-16
Thanks to CommonCraft.com for the use of their video
Historical Background
In today’s digital age, one has to be able to efficiently access multitudes of digital resources with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. Accessing the web on a regular basis is a part of the daily routine for many around the globe, but there is a great deal of wasted time spent checking and rechecking websites for new or emerging content. Getting information from the web is easy enough; the problem is doing it efficiently. Countless attempts to bridal the flow of the “Information Superhighway” have been in development since the late 1990’s (Housley, Everything RSS, 2004 - 2007), some more effective than others. This chapter will cover Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary, one of the methods in which information is passed from one source to many different recipients at the same time.
Really Simple Syndication/ Rich Site Summary or RSS, put simply, is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) page that is designed to feed data to other locations that have been setup and ready to receive such data (King, 2003). The receptacles most readily suited for such transfers are websites. The essence of RSS is that it was designed specifically to carry data for processing and was not intended to display data at its destination. In other words, a user need only “subscribe” to a RSS feed to receive its contents on their end. In its early inception, RSS was used by the Netscape Corporation to populate headlines and to push out information to various websites for one of their business ventures. The general consensus was though it served its purpose, it was “deemed overly complex for its goals” and so a refined version was soon developed (Pilgrim, 2002). Shortly after updating RSS 0.90 to 0.91Netscape terminated their project and the updated RSS version was purchased by the software company Userland in July of 1999 (Berkman, 2004). The most current version of RSS and the one used by countless end users is version 2.0.
Since RSS feeds can carry data of various types, they can be used for a multitude of purposes: news updates, website updates, weather, etc. They provide a powerful tool for “…publishers like The New York Times, the BBC, PC World or Apple's iTunes website. They can deliver headlines, story summaries, or the full contents of an original source, along with links to the Web version” (Stepno, 2004). With all these RSS web feeds available, users have a multitude of methods for receiving these feeds. The most common method of retrieving information from RSS is by using a web browser or RSS reader. By pointing your web browser to a RSS enabled website, the user need only subscribe to the sites’ feed to begin to receive information from the site. Netscape, Opera, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer; all have the capability to read and decode RSS feeds and give the user the ability to check these feeds for new information and updates. Since more and more websites and blogs are now providing RSS feeds, new tools are being developed to manage these feeds and make the information easier to handle. RSS news aggregators such as, Rojo, NewsGator, Feedburner, Feeddeamon and even iTunes, are programs or browser plugins that search the database of RSS feeds to which a user has subscribed, scans them for recent updates, and delivers them to the user via stand alone program or via their Internet browser or free web components such as Google Reader and Feedbucket.
(see sample a sample of an RSS feed interface via Internet Explorer below: Courtesy of Microsoft Corporation)
As more and more websites and companies offer RSS, end users will change the way they assimilate their daily information. “Even now, businesses that were initially reluctantly evaluating RSS are beginning to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information avenue. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping advertisements to a minimum and content quality consistent” (Housley, Future of RSS is Not Blogs, 2008). Not only do users have ability to subscribe to content provided by other sources, but users also have the ability to create their own RSS feeds adding specific HTML code to their webpages, or by using websites such as Bloglines to develop web logs to which other can subscribe. Educators can benefit from RSS technology by creating original content via a weblog, and having their students subscribe to the RSS feed generated, thereby helping to manage the content that the students are exposed to, as well ensuring that they have the most recent information posted. From a student’s point of view, they are able to view updated content from sources that determine through subscription, without all the extraneous that comes from surfing the web for content.
Relevance to education
What makes any piece of technology relevant? A tool is only as good as its implementation. Imagine being a computer literacy teacher, or English or History for that matter. You decide to prepare for the upcoming weeks lessons. You’re are abreast of current events, but who has the time to be constantly checking and rechecking websites for new information This is wasted time and effort that can be more wisely applied in other areas.
Information at Your fingertips
As stated before, RSS feed can be utilized by most common browsers: Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, etc. This makes news feeds and information (blog and podcast updated) available to educators and students with minimal effort, taking much of the guess work out of gathering pertinent information.
This makes news feeds and information (blog and podcast updated) available to educators and students with minimal effort, taking much of the guess work out of gathering pertinent information.
The availability of accurate and current information on demand is an invaluable resource for any educator. With the accessibility of information from a variety of sources (feeds), teachers can design lessons and curriculum that can take advantage of this. The creation of student centered lessons, allowing for a variety of methods and sources for problem solving has become even easier with these new tools.
Glossary of Terms
1. Extensibe Markup Language - The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet, and it is used both to encode documents and to serialize data. In the latter context, it is comparable with other text-based serialization languages such as JSON and YAML.
2. RSS Aggregator - In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing.
3. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) - RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays. 4. Web feed - A web feed (or news feed) is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator. A web feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed.
Start-up Costs
Target Audience: To most effectively utilize RSS technology and feeds, it is best used with students who are more socially mature. This implementation would be most beneficial to students of the secondary population, (grades 7th – 12th) and university students. The use of the technology is not difficult, but because of the access to a variety of RSS feeds, certain discretion must be exercised when making subscriptions to feeds.
Implementation Scope: In order to be an effective tool and to deal with the inherent problem of technology acceptance, this RSS technology should be first implemented in a small lab setting with a small target group of educators. Later as the target group becomes comfortable with the new material, they themselves will become subject matter experts, allowing them to aid in the training and integration into the rest of the group as a whole.
Because of the way RSS technology is structured, cost considerations need to be made in regards to the RSS feed’s creator and receiver. We will first look at the author/creator’s side.
Author/Creators Start-Up Breakdown In order to create an RSS feed, a teacher would need to use specialized software so that their information could be subscribed to by another party. There are many commercial packages available for RSS publication; FreeForAll, RSS Submit and Adobe Dreamweaver (with some special HTML coding) are among the few. There are also free solutions available. The free publication tool that will be focused upon will be Bloglines. Bloglines is a free web based publication service that allows you to create blogs to which can be subscribed to via an RSS aggregator/reader. This will allow educators to post resources and original content that will be updated on the students’ end almost immediately. Educators need only to visit Bloglines website, signup and they are ready to create their blogs and the RSS links for subscription to the content.
To create RSS content
EQUIPMENT Computer (PC or Apple) Cost: Varies (The assumption is that educator has access either at work or at home.)
Internet Connection (The faster the connection, the faster the posting of your content.) Cost: Varies depending on provider (The assumption is that educator has access to an internet connection at home or at work.)
SOFTWARE Internet Browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera are supported) need to verify…Bloglines was down yesterday and today. Cost: Free (Microsoft Internet Explorer is included in WindowsXP and Vista, Safari is included in Apple’s OS and the other browsers are free downloads.)
Bloglines (Web based software for publication of RSS enabled Blogs and resources) Cost: Free (Bloglines is a free web based program.)
TRAINING Self Training (Educators can follow the online instructions available the Bloglines website to get started.) Cost: Free (The time spent on self training is part of the lesson planning process.)
Subscribers Start-Up Breakdown In order for students to be able to receive the RSS feeds created by their instructors, they would need specialized software on their end, much in the same way the creator of the RSS feed needs. To receive the feeds, the students could use a number of commercial and free RSS readers, or aggregators available (i.e. Rojo, NewsGator, Feedburner, Feeddeamonand Google Reader. We will be focusing the implementation of the latter for the purposes of receiving RSS feeds. The reason for this is the cost effectiveness and Google’s recent foray in the realm of education with their Google Apps. Google Reader is a web based software package to track subscribed RSS feeds and their activity.
To read RSS content
EQUIPMENT Access to a Computer (PC or Apple) Cost: Varies (Computer access will be provided in a lab setting for students by the educational institution.)
Internet Connection (High speed connection) Cost: Varies depending on provider (Connectivity will be provided by the educational institution.)
SOFTWARE Google Reader (Students need to sign up and create a Google Reader account.) Cost: Free (Google Reader is a free web based RSS feed reader.)
TRAINING Teacher Guided Training (Instruction on account creation, creating a Google Reader login, and setting up RSS feed subscription will be provided by the teacher.) Cost: Free (Training provided to the students as part of the classroom curriculum.)
In essence, to create RSS feeds and utilize them in the classroom environment, can be quite easy. There is no cost the educational institution or the educator for the software used, either for the publication or receiving of the RSS content. The training needed for the educators and the students on the use of the software is negligible. The only real investment to use RSS technology is time and effort. After the initial “breaking-in” process, the educator and their students will have a tool that can benefit both parties in their academia and in the real world.
Key-players, gurus, experts
Click the link for more information on the Key-players, gurus and experts in the RSS field
Sample Lesson Plans
Click the link for Sample Lesson Plans
Tutorial
Click Below: Short Tutorial on RSS Technology
Sources
Berkman. (2004, April 6). RSS history. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from Harvard Law: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rssVersionHistory.html
Housley, S. (2004 - 2007). Everything RSS. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.rss-specifications.com/everything-rss.htm
Housley, S. (n.d.). Future of RSS is not blogs. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from FreeForAll - RSS Feed Creation Tool: http://www.feedforall.com/future-rss-not-blogs.htm
King, A. (2003, April). Evolution of RSS. Retrieved May 11, 2008, from http://webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/
Make RSS Feeds. (2004 -2007). Retrieved June 20, 2008, from Make RSS Feeds: http://www.make-rss-feeds.com/
Pilgrim, M. (2002, December 18). What Is RSS. Retrieved 6 13, 2008, from http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html
Richardson, W. (2005, March 15). The ABCs of RSS. Retrieved July 2, 2008, from Tech Learining: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=163100414
Stepno, B. (2004). What's the difference between blogs and RSS? Retrieved June 12, 2008, from Bob Stepno's Other Journalism Weblog: http://radio.weblogs.com/0106327/stories/2004/01/27/whatsTheDifferenceBetweenB.html
Sullivan, D. (2003, April 2). Making an RSS Feed. Retrieved June 20, 2008, from SearchEngineWatch.com: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=217527
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Comments (11)
Paola Villalon-Perezsandi said
at 4:38 pm on Jun 17, 2008
Kerry, I found your text very informative and I really want to know what value it holds in education. I will also be waiting for the tutorial because from what you wrote, this RSS is a very interesting topic. I had seen the "feeds" button on my browser, but never really knew anything about them.
-Paola
David Plummer said
at 5:53 pm on Jun 17, 2008
Kerry,
There is a lot of good information and you have a nice flow in the historical background section. My only feedback is that it would be nice to have more links in your text to items that you refer to such as the New York Times, the BBC, Netscape, etc. just in case the reader wants to get more info. The other item is your APA formatting. You have cited everything but it is not in APA format.
For example, if you put the article info into http://www.citationmachine.net/ then the citation for Pilgrim would look like:
Pilgrim, M. (2002, December 18). What Is RSS. Retrieved June 17, 2008, from xml.com Web site: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html
Also when you cite within your paper, the parenthetical in text citation for the pilgrim article would be: (Pilgrim, 2002)
-David
Emily Moore said
at 12:46 pm on Jun 19, 2008
Kerry,
I think you've done a good job citing the players and timeline of RSS. Echoing David, what I think is missiing--and I know RSS is a hard thing to describe--is a description, with examples, that explains what RSS is and how I, the reader can use it. You've said that browsers support it, media sites offer it, and aggregators deliver it, but without examples I can't picture how it works, how it's different from a Web site, or why I might ever want to use it.
-Emily
Veronica Baca said
at 6:56 pm on Jun 22, 2008
Kerry,
I haven't had the opportunity to comment on your current information on your topic RSS. I had to read your information more than one to grasp an understanding. Still learning on this side, however, very very interesting topic. In regards to your information within the relevance to education section, do you know which grade level teachers can use this tool? Also, a suggestion on your citation within the relevance section, you may try to review the APA style of citing and formating. I really enjoyed reading your sections and can't wait to see what other exciting information you have on this topic.
Veronica Baca
David Plummer said
at 11:57 am on Jun 26, 2008
Kerry,
This seems like a great tool for students to gather real-time information of current topics. One thing that comes to mind is to create a webpage with RSS feeds from different sources on the Mars probe. It seems like students could get RSS feeds from NASA, CNN, Universities etc. and keep updated on current findings. I look forward to the lesson plan section and see what innovative things teachers are doing with this technology.
-David
Paola Villalon-Perezsandi said
at 10:54 pm on Jun 26, 2008
Kerry, I like that you are adding visuals to your page. I'm wondering if you could possibly resize the screen shot so that it is not necessary to scroll back and forth to see the whole image. Also, check your last two bullets, the sentences seem to have been cut off. You are doing a great job! Can't wait to see the sample lesson plans.
-Paola
Emily Moore said
at 10:03 pm on Jun 27, 2008
Kerry,
Your visuals are a great addition--they make what RSS is and how it can be used clear very quickly. I can see RSS feeds being a useful tool in virtually every subject/class, from political science to biology to world literature... There are so many feeds available in so many domains from around the world, it's scary. In a good way!
Great work--
-Emily
David Plummer said
at 12:37 pm on Jul 5, 2008
Kerry,
Great job on the information and I agree with everyone that the screenshots are a great addition to your page. It seems that font size and type changes from section to section within the page. It would help the flow to have some more more consistency with the fonts.
David
Kerry Bonugli said
at 5:35 pm on Jul 5, 2008
Yeah...been trying to nail that down. It seems to be a problem with the copying and pasting from the version of Word that I'm using. Will try on the fix.
Dawn Quinn said
at 11:39 am on Aug 6, 2008
RSS is a great tool. I use them in my blogs.
Dawn Quinn said
at 11:48 am on Aug 6, 2008
The information is helpful. You may consider adding a section on how to embedd RSS into different blogs/web sites. For example, what is the script to convert RSS to Javascript and embed into your personal blog? Or, better yet, use a non-Javascript solution like Google Gadget Creator. Check http://www.webaratus.com/www/ for different widgets.
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