Week 3: Rss Feed

In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionising the way news, media and content creators share information, but it is also changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to check for new information on those sites. Imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time, without having to search each site for new information. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

Please look at this YouTube video presentation to explain RSS Feeds


This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account or a Google news reader account for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Note/tips:
It is up to you to decide which newsreader account to use.
If you already have a google account you can use the same login and password for the google newsreader account.

Discovery Resources:
Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds.

An introduction to Google reader - A short Youtube video.

Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that PLCMC (original project) created showing how to add feeds.

JISC - video on RSS Feeds

Discovery Exercise:
1.Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.

2.Create a free online Bloglines account or Google reader Account for yourself and subscribe to some RSS Feeds. Look for the orange RSS logo/button on your chosen sites, or you may even see a handy button saying: "subscribe to itunes, googlereader, bloglines" etc.

3.Subscribe to this blog using the RSS feed, (look for the organg RSS Feed logo)
Also, as part of this project, you are asked to subscribe to other colleagues' blogs - this is any easy way to keep up to date and network with each other, also a good way to get handy hints!

Have a look at some websites and blogs you like to see if they have an RSS feature. You could also have a look at a few of the sample websites & blogs listed below. Check for the RSS Feeds and subscribe to one or more.

http://www.irishtimes.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.independent.ie/
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/
http://www.philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/
http://ullb.blogspot.com/
http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/
http://rarebookblog.com/
http://tametheweb.com/

And, finally, don't forget to write about your experiences with RSS feeds in your blog!

4 comments:

  1. I could get addicted to this! I'll be swamped with news! For some reason the whole concept conjures up the bloodthirsty plant (representing me!) in the cult movie 'The Little Shop of Horrors', where I keep shouting FEED ME! Sorry... definitely time to leave!

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  2. I must admit that I have found this exercise one of the harder ones. I managed to set up the RSS feeds in my google reader but was stumped as how to tranfer them to my blog. I did find the youtube video tutorials quiet useful. However Michelle enlightened me yesterday on the process and I would like to share it with everyone. No doubt I am not the only person who encountered this problem. Instructions:
    Go to blogger website www.blogger.com
    Log in to your blog.

    Click on Layout Tab.

    Choose add gadget option from menu.

    Add a blog to your list

    Choose option import subscriptions from Google reader.

    Select the which sites from your reader you want to import

    Press the add button

    they should then appear in your blog

    As the old saying goes a problem shared is a problem halved. So I hope you have found these instruction helpful.

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  3. Thanks for that information Peter! Great to share tips!

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  4. Along with blogs, this has been my absolutely favourite thing. I'd have been happy enough to stop here, enough learned, and I almost did, but it's worth continuing. I'm loving RSS feeds as a way of keeping up with things, adding and managing feeds is very easy, and it's a nice feature to have feeds on your blog.

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Useful comments!