Week 4: RSS

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, students will:

• be familiar with the terminology surrounding RSS
• recognize and understand the contents of an RSS feed, including the XML file structure
• have a basic understanding of the history of RSS
• explore some of the ways in which libraries are using RSS

Readings

If you are absolutely new to RSS, start with the first two items on the list (a video & a great RSS tutorial) then move on to the next 2 articles. The remaining articles on the list fill in the technology details and provide good explications on the history of RSS and the various specifications.

• RSS in Plain English, The Common Craft Show (audio + video)
• 7 Things you Should Know About RSS, Educause Learning Initiative
• Hot! Fresh! Delivered to You! RSS Tutorial, Luke Rosenberger
• Using RSS: An Explanation and Guide, Steven Cohen
• The Future of RSS: Is E-Mail Publishing Dead?, Robin Good
• RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters, Mark Nottingham
• RSS (file format), Wikipedia Article

Case Studies

Things to do this week

• Read the articles and explore the case studies for this week and post your thoughts & comments to your blog. Don't forget our weekly deadline for blogging is 9 am, Friday. Remember to check out your classmates' posts too and respond (where appropriate) in the comments.
• If you don't already use an RSS reader, check out Google Reader, Bloglines, Rojo or Netvibes (or all four if you're feeling adventurous and have some time to kill!). As RSS "consumers", I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about using feeds and aggregators, whether you are new to RSS game or are a seasoned player. Post your comments to your blog.
• Continue tagging pertinent content in del.icio.us using the "lis9763" tag.