A centre of expertise in digital information management RSS and JISC Services Newsfeed Aggregator...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

RSS and JISC Services Newsfeed Aggregator Demonstrator

Brian KellyUK Web [email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is supported by:

Contents• What do we want

to do?• Why use RSS?• RSS examples • The JISC RSS

aggregator• Ensuring quality• Other issues

Contents• What do we want

to do?• Why use RSS?• RSS examples • The JISC RSS

aggregator• Ensuring quality• Other issues

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jisc-2005-02/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jisc-2005-02/


www.ukoln.ac.uk

2

What Do We Want To Do?

We provide quality services and we want everyone to know about them.So we:

• Run events• Publish newsletters• Run mailing lists• Contribute to mailing list• Provide Web sites• Ask others to include

news on their Web sites,newsletters, email lists, …

• ….

But:• Not everyone attends• Not everyone reads• Too much information,

too much spam• Not everyone reads• Time-consuming to

process• Limited user choice

What we would like to do is minimise human bottlenecks in processing 3rd party context for use on Web and email, whilst allowing users more flexibility in handling information overload

What we would like to do is minimise human bottlenecks in processing 3rd party context for use on Web and email, whilst allowing users more flexibility in handling information overload

Bac

kgro

un

d


www.ukoln.ac.uk

3

Initial AttemptsInitial attempts at richer solutions e.g. BBC News:

• Solutions included:• Scrolling Tickertape news display on your PC• JavaScript to pull news items to your Web site• Subscriptions to email alerts

• Content often generated from single source• User has choice: chose content; no tickertape

displayed when away; suspend email; …

There was a clear need for an open solution, which would allow use of standard authoring tools and viewers by any news provider

There was a clear need for an open solution, which would allow use of standard authoring tools and viewers by any news provider

Bac

kgro

un

d

But:• Accessibility problems (JavaScript dependency, ..) • Proprietary• Everyone else needs to replicate software, …• No benefit of scale through standard solutions


www.ukoln.ac.uk

4

RSS – A Universal Solution RSS:

• Initially developed as syndication tool for My.Netscape portal

• Potential for this lightweight solution quickly recognised

• Blogging software integrated RSS feeds

• Many RSS readers and authoring tools developed

• RSS becomes part of JISC's Information Environment (IE)


www.ukoln.ac.uk

5

RSS ViewersLots of different ways of reading RSS news feeds, which allows user to select preferred approach:

• Web page• Tickertape• Pop-up alerts• Bookmark interfaces• Email (email-style) interface • …


www.ukoln.ac.uk

6

RSS Aggregators

An RSS aggregator:• Brings together RSS news feeds from various

sources• We've seen desktop & Web aggregators designed

for use by individuals (my favourite services, my weather report, my stocks and shares, …)

A server-based RSS aggregator:• Allows service provider to aggregate news feeds for

its communities • Feeds for student on a particular course• Feeds related to a funding body

We will now see the JISC RSS Aggregator, designed to provide easy access to news from JISC services and facilitate sharing and community building across the JISC community

We will now see the JISC RSS Aggregator, designed to provide easy access to news from JISC services and facilitate sharing and community building across the JISC community

Vie

win

g R

SS


www.ukoln.ac.uk

7

The JISC RSS AggregatorJISC RSS Aggregator:

• Provides single point of access to news from JISC services

• Efficient (limited management needed centrally)

• Well-designed, attractive interface

• Developed by EEVL (Geir Granum and Malcolm Moffat)

http://www.eevl.ac.uk/jiscnews/http://www.eevl.ac.uk/jiscnews/


www.ukoln.ac.uk

8

RSS File Format

RSS is a powerful, lightweight format. How do you create RSS news feeds?

Cre

atin

g R

SS

RSS Channels<channel><title>BBC News | UK | UK Edition</title><link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/uk/default.stm</link><description>BBC UK News updated every minute of every day</description></channel>

RSS News Items<item><title>Tony Blair quits over Iraq</title><description>Tony Blair quits the cabinet, accusing George W Bush of breaking promises over UN's role in rebuilding Iraq.</description><link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/uk_politics/3019871.stm</link></item>

NOTE: Trust is an important aspect of news feeds – is the supplier of news embedded in your Web pages, providing accurate information – the above news is not true!

NOTE: Trust is an important aspect of news feeds – is the supplier of news embedded in your Web pages, providing accurate information – the above news is not true!


www.ukoln.ac.uk

9

RSS Authoring Tools

Many ways of creating RSS files:• By hand (don't!)• Dedicated RSS tools• Web-based tools• Blogs (see SOSIG)• Generation of RSS

and HTML from database

• Transformation of HTML RSS (or vice versa)

• Externally-hosted value-added service providers e.g. Feedburner (??)

• …

Cre

atin

g R

SS

http://www.sosig.ac.uk/news/http://www.sosig.ac.uk/news/


www.ukoln.ac.uk

10

RSSxpress

RSSxpress:• Combined RSS

viewer, editor, directory and validator

• Developed at UKOLN

• Widely used for creating RSS files

http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/

Cre

atin

g R

SS

Note: UKOLN planning updates and new RSS tools. Suggestions welcome.

Note: UKOLN planning updates and new RSS tools. Suggestions welcome.


www.ukoln.ac.uk

11

Publishing Your RSS Feed

When publishing your RSS feed:• Save file at stable location on Web server

e.g. <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/rss/ukoln.xml>• Validate file (please!) e.g. using RSSxpress

interface, etc. (Broken news is bad news!)• Ensure Web administrator gives correct MIME

type for .xml, .rss, … file• Include <LINK> in your HTML news page so that

tools like FireFox dynamic bookmark can be used (see later)

• For completely new feed, register at RSSxpress, JISC Aggregator, etc.

• View feed in various types of RSS viewers

Cre

atin

g R

SS

Validators available at <http://librdf.org/rss/>, <http://feeds.archive.org/validator/>, etc.

Validators available at <http://librdf.org/rss/>, <http://feeds.archive.org/validator/>, etc.


www.ukoln.ac.uk

12

Viewing RSS Feeds (1)RSS may be used in ways you have not considered:

• Search results• Email• …

If you include a <LINK> tag, users can automatically add a dynamic bookmark to Firefox

If you include a <LINK> tag, users can automatically add a dynamic bookmark to Firefox


www.ukoln.ac.uk

13

Viewing RSS Feeds (2)An example of an email interface to an RSS file:

• This shows Thunderbird open source email client

• Similar software (but licensed) available for MS Outlook

• User can chose whether to view Web page or just text

• This has been described as “authenticated spam-free opt-in email”

Note that with some RSS tool the user can choose to view text-only. Great for the user – but should you worry about your logo not being displayed?

Note that with some RSS tool the user can choose to view text-only. Great for the user – but should you worry about your logo not being displayed?


www.ukoln.ac.uk

14

Viewing RSS Feeds (3)"If you've got a late-model wireless device and want to try accessing your favorite syndicated content on-the-go, give FeedBurner's Feed Reader (MFR) a test drive:

• Supports feeds in all major formats (RSS, RDF, and Atom)

• Smart "If-Modified-Since" content retrieval conserves wireless bandwidth

• …Other examples of viewers for PDAs:

• Plucker• Hand/RSS for Palm• See <http://palmtops.about.com/

cs/productreviews/tp/Palm_RSS.htm>

Note this is intended as a illustration and is not a product endorsement! The software has not been tested and it is not known if it complies with appropriate standards.

Note this is intended as a illustration and is not a product endorsement! The software has not been tested and it is not known if it complies with appropriate standards.


www.ukoln.ac.uk

15

Content Issues• Accuracy, relevance, timeliness, … of content• Display of content (don't make assumptions)• Context of content (e.g. MLA news from UKOLN)

Quality Issues (1)Technical Issues

• Important to validate RSS file• Incorrect syntax / characters

may or may not be displayed• Be aware of non-standard

characters (e.g. £, —, ©, ...)• Note that special characters

(e.g. < and >) may cause problems

• Avoid clever tricks – keep to standard (may work in some cases but not others

http://www.eevl.ac.uk/onestepjobs/http://www.eevl.ac.uk/onestepjobs/


www.ukoln.ac.uk

16

Quality Issues (2)

Who is the target audience for your news?Initially early RSS adopters across JISC services:

• Used RSS to provide news to their user communities

• Used RSS to provide automated news on additions to collections, search results, etc.

But:• This doesn't necessarily help JISC and other JISC

services• JISC & JISC Services are important stakeholders

Therefore:• Need for RSS news aimed at JISC• This can help in promotion to related bodies (e.g.

JISC RSCs)


www.ukoln.ac.uk

17

Some Of The Caveats

What does RSS stand for?• Several independent driving forces for RSS:

• Netscape called it Rich Site Summary (v 0.92)• W3C felt it should be based on RDF/XML to provide

extensibility and called it RDF Site Summary (v 1.0)• Dave Winer (& others) valued its simplicity and developed

an alternative called Really Simple Syndication (v 2.0)

• JISC IE uses RSS 1.0 • In practice many viewers handle all versions

Limitations Of RSS Format• You can't (shouldn't) embed hyperlinks, formatting,

search interfaces, … in RSS feedsRSS Statistics

• There are lies, dammed lies and Web statistics! Be wary of RSS statistics

Fu

rth

er I

nfo

rmat

ion


www.ukoln.ac.uk

18

Useful RSS Tools

Lists of RSS viewers available at: <http://www.2rss.com/readers.php> <http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_

Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers/>

EEVL's RSS Aggregator software: Used in JISC & EEVL's jobs aggregators Software available from <http://www.eevl.ac.uk/

downloads/software/aggregator/about.htm>

Urchin RSS Aggregator: Web based, customisable, RSS aggregator and filter See <http://urchin.sourceforge.net/>

Fu

rth

er I

nfo

rmat

ion

Why not encourage colleagues to use variety of RSS viewers so that they can give feedback on problems

Why not encourage colleagues to use variety of RSS viewers so that they can give feedback on problems


www.ukoln.ac.uk

19

Conclusions

RSS:• Powerful lightweight solution for news syndication • Provides users with flexibility in how they choose

to receive news• Quality of news content important in ensuring

end users trust the content of possible unknown organisations (BBC is widely known but what are EEVL SOSIGs?)

• Technical quality important to ensure news processed correctly be wide range of tools

• Important to develop appropriate publishing procedures for news

• Need for news targetted at different user communities, including JISC


www.ukoln.ac.uk

20

Further InformationRSS @ A Glance, Guidelines from the JISC News Working Group,

Malcolm Moffatt, <http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/index_glance.htm>RSS - A Primer for Publishers & Content Providers,

Malcolm Moffatt, <http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/>Links to RSS Resources, The Fuss, <http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?

TheFuss>Improving Communications within JISC through News Aggregation,

Paul Davey et al, Ariadne 41, <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue41/davey/>Syndicated content: it's more than just some file formats,

Paul Miller, Ariadne 35, <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue35/miller/>RSS: the latest feed, Judith Wusteman, Library Hi Tech, Vol. 22 (4),

<http://www.ucd.ie/wusteman/lht/wusteman-rss.html>Rich Site Services (sic), Gerry McKiernan,

<http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/GenBib.htm>

More resources linked in from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jisc-2005-02/>

More resources linked in from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jisc-2005-02/>

A centre of expertise in digital information management RSS and JISC Services Newsfeed Aggregator...

Documents

Transcript of A centre of expertise in digital information management RSS and JISC Services Newsfeed Aggregator...