Pushing & Pulling Information Using RSS Feeds

Teri M. VogelLauc-B 2007 Conference

November 2, 2007http://tmvogel.googlepages.com/lauc-b

http://kosmar.de/wp-content/web20map.png

http://www.railsonwave.com/assets/2006/12/25/Web_2.0_Map.svg

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/ia-trendmap-2007v2

RSS within 2.0 Landscape• Notification – Syndication – Glue

Connects

Applications

http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/rss_is_the_web_20_pipe.htm

What RSS is...What it does

• Way to keep up with new blog postings w/o 1) checking blogs over and over, or 2) using e-mail alerts. (2003-2004)

• Way to keep up with new/updated content on many websites (2.0 & otherwise) w/o checking.......and to repackage or redistribute that content for using elsewhere. (2007+)

RSS Feed Basics• aka feeds, web feeds, newsfeeds, etc.• specifications: 1.0, 2.0, ATOM...

– .xml, .rss, .rdf• Really Simple Syndication

• XML file that’s a syndication of website content– Site gets updated...file gets updated– XML – usually not read unaided

RSS Feed Basics

• No standard to identify RSS-enabled sites– Text, graphical cues– Autodiscovery: IE, Firefox, Safari

• To Read Feeds?? –RSS READER (AGGREGATOR)

YOU

Blogs

News Sites

Databases

E-Journals /E-Magazines

??????

Checking for Updates

E-Mail Alerting

Information Flow

http://RSS

Reader

Reader “pings” to check if feed (page/site) has been updated)

New feed content pulled back into reader

Titles | Dates | Links Authors | Content

YOU

Information Flow w/ RSS

You + RSS Reader

YOU• Select [subscribe] RSS

feeds• Read what you want,

– save, clip, e-mail items– organize feeds– de-select [unsubscribe]

feeds with a click

RSS READER• Checks website

[feed] for fresh content

• Pulls in new content– Title, date stamp, link

to full article– All-some-none of the

article – Readable, automated

Demo #1: Bloglines

PULL RSS Feeds - Bloglines

• Login• Copy feed (URL)• Click add/subscribe• Paste feed• Subscribe

Exercise #1: Bloglines

Demo #2: Google Reader

PULL RSS Feeds – Google Reader

• Click or or enter feed URL• Select subscription option (Google)

– Always use Google to subscribe to feeds

• or • Subscribed

Making Your Reader Public

• Bloglines URL– http://www.bloglines.com/public/tmvogel

• Google Reader– Shared items (public)– Share starred and/or tagged items

1. view public page2. add a clip to your site

Types of Readers

• Web– Bloglines, Netvibes, Google, My Yahoo

• Desktop– Feed Demon, NetNewsWire,

NewsGator/Outlook• Browser

– Safari– Firefox: Live Bookmarks, Sage– IE: Favorites

Demo #3: Netvibes

Exercise #2: Netvibes

RSS – Pull TechnologyAdvantages (KM)• Concentrates INFORMATION• Current awareness/alerting

– Customizable (“newspaper”)

• Saves time Challenges Need to use the information Don’t go overboard with feeds

Easier to Manage Information

Add More Feeds

Looking for RSS Feeds?

• Directories• Search engines

– General– RSS-specific

RSS in Web 2.0 Apps

• Blogs– Entries/comments– ‘Subscribe’ buttons– Feedburner

• Statistics

• Wikis– Updates

• Folksonomies– User or Tag

• Podcasts– RSS feeds w/ MP3s– Reader or iTunes

RSS + News

• Magazines• News: Print, TV, Radio, Wires• News Searches

– Google, Yahoo, Moreover

RSS + New Book Lists

• UCLA• Case Western• MIT• NC State

RSS & Databases

• PubMed• Ei Village 2 (Compendex, Inspec)• Web of Science• Gale• Ebsco• Astrophysics Data System• OvidSP

RSS & E-Journals

• Most Publishers– TOC and article-based

• Feeds by Topic (AIP)

• Dynamic Searches– Scitation (AIP, ASA, ASME, ASCE, ECS,

IET, SPIE)– Science Direct

PUSHING RSS Feeds

• R in RSS = remix, repackage, redistribute, repurpose

• Using RSS to display/push information from one website to another– Dynamically updated content

BLOG

RSS JavaScript

JavaScript

WEBPAGE

WEBPAGE with

HEADLINES

RSSJS

• Run RSS feed through RSSJS service; paste JavaScript block to website

• Feed2js• RSS-to-Javascript.com

• Widgets & Applications• LibraryThing• Netvibes• iGoogle

Converting RSS

Demo #4: Feed2JS

Exercise #3: Feed2JS or RSS-to-Javascript.com

• Yahoo Pipes– Aggregates multiple feeds into single feed

• Create your own feeds• Remix feeds & search engines, customize• private or publish

• Feedblendr.com– Aggregates multiple feeds into single feed

• Create your own feeds

Remixing Feeds

Demo #5: Yahoo Pipes

Exercise #4: Feedblendr.com

RSS within “3.0” Landscape

• A Web 3.0 Driver– “The transportable web”– User-defined aggregators– Mashups/widgetizing– Invisible and everywhere– Netvibes, iGoogle, Facebook, Yahoo Pipes