WEBPAGE CREATION:
RSS (Rich Site Summary)
BLOGS and RSS have developed a close relationship
with each other. Check out my resource page about Blogs,
Podcasts, etc.
Index for this page:
- RSS in Plain English: A short video that explains RSS very clearly and simply.
- RSS: What is it? Articles and information to get you started.
- RSS Information, tutorials, resources
- RSS QUICKSTART GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS
- RSS in WebCT
- RSS Readers, News Aggregators
- RSS Feed Lists (focus on education, but includes others)
- RSS Feed Creation Tools (create your own feeds)
RSS explained in Plain English: A short, fun video
Thanks to Lee and Sachi Lefever, who shared the code to display the following video. "We made this video for our friends (and yours) that haven't yet felt the power of our friend the RSS reader. We want to convert people... if you know someone who would love RSS and hasn't yet tried it, point them here for 3.5 minutes of RSS in Plain English." 04/30/07
*** 50+ RSS Ideas for Educators: The title is a little misleading. The document is not just ideas, it begins with the basics -- explaining the technologies available, how they work, outlining various applications to use, illustrated tutorial on getting going, and then finally a descriptive list of ideas to get you inspired and on your way. Chock full of links to resources. EXCELLENT! 01/22/06
What is RSS? Two acronym extensions I've seen: Really Simple Syndication // Rich Site Summary
A Quick RSS Primer: What The Heck Is RSS, And What Can It Do For Me? "RSS is becoming mainstream technology—but it's only just starting. Lots of early adopters are using RSS. But the overwhelming majority of people aren't using it, and most Internet users don't even know what it is. So let me see if I can take a few minutes now, before the hype machine goes into a screaming frenzy, to give you a quick RSS primer. I'll explain what it is, tell you what it can do for you, tell you how you can get started using RSS, recommend some software, and let you know some of the limitations." 01/21/05
15 Ways To Read An RSS Feed: "No doubt you have seen those small orange 'XML' or 'RSS' buttons beginning to spread across some of your favourite web sites. Perhaps you have clicked on one out of curiosity, only to be faced with a barrage of angle brackets and undecipherable code, seemingly designed to scare the heck out of anyone less than familiar with the intricacies of this new fangled technology creeping across the web. But once you click on that button - what do you do then? This article will show you exactly what to do." 07/18/04
RSS: A Learning Technology:"This article is first in a quarterly series of articles that will discuss learning technology trends in the distance or spotlight technology trends and examine their applicability to learning. This article will help you understand not only what RSS is, but also why it's getting the hype it is in the world of content, what its potential is in the learning arena, and how it's already being used in educational settings." 05/12/04
RSS ~ A Quick Guide for Educators: What’s Covered? Setting Up an RSS Feed Reader; Finding and Adding Feeds; Using RSS Feeds in the Classroom; RSS Resources. 04/01/04
From Webreference: "RSS is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves a myriad of problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services." 08/17/03
Introduction to RSS from Webreference: An excellent summary of information. Plus: "But you don't have to worry about the details, we've made it easy to create your own RSS channel with free open source scripts, all Web based." 08/17/03
What is RSS? This faganfinder.com page is about using RSS, from a non-technical standpoint. 08/17/03
What is RSS? Good article on XML.com. 08/17/03
An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers: Stephen Downes explains and illustrates RSS well. Includes a section on Why RSS is Important for Educational Designers. 08/23/03
RSS Information, tutorials, resources
Google Reader Tutorials (get your aggregator on): at tutorial at SocialLearning.ca...while you're there check out the rest of the site: "Weblogs & Social Software For Educators". 06/14/06
RSS Compendium at allrss.com: A huge collection of RSS resources. You can subscribe to keep up to date with their news and additions. 02/22/06
Sharing Your Media With Media RSS: **Description: "Media RSS is a new RSS module that supplements the enclosure capabilities of RSS 2.0. RSS enclosures are already being used to syndicate audio files and images. Media RSS extends enclosures to handle other media types, such as short films or TV, as well as provide additional metadata with the media. Media RSS enables content publishers and bloggers to syndicate multimedia content such as TV and video clips, movies, images, and audio." ... "With the explosive growth of podcasting, publishers are including more multimedia in their RSS feeds than ever. While the method of including media content in an RSS feed with enclosures is fairly well known, there are other methods available for including media content in RSS feeds, one of which is Media RSS. ...I'd like to think that Media RSS is going to allow RSS readers to handle media more intelligently, and take some of the burden off of publishers." 01/01/06
Find the right RSS reader for you: "RSS satisfies a need for content producers and consumers to exchange information of common interest. Typically, these publications have been blogs, but additional content types are emerging. In this column, I describe how you can select an RSS reader that’s suitable for you and show you how to make the best of this new revolution." 12/18/05
Integrating RSS feeds into WebCT courses: A blog posting from Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley, in which he provides "Jay's 15 min presentation on integrating RSS feeds into WebCT courses" in 3 formats: mp3 podcast, screencast, and Powerpoint. 08/21/05
RSS Usability Guidelines: This will help you if you're creating your own site with an RSS feed. He makes some excellent observations and points. "I have taken notes of common feed publishing errors that caught my attention, so if you consider adding a RSS feed to your website or weblog you might want to use my list as a RSS usability guideline." 08/28/04
Mailfeed ~ RSS your Mail: I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like it could make mail access handy. "MailFeed is a PHP script that checks a POP3, IMAP, or NNTP mailbox on demand and returns an RSS feed containing the messages in the mailbox. I wrote MailFeed after realizing that it would be much more convenient to read my email along with my morning RSS feeds. I find that it's very convenient for reading mailing lists, especially when combined with a good RSS aggregator." 05/24/04
How to RSS ~ How to create your own RSS Newsfeed ~ How to publish RSS Newsfeed ~ How to submit RSS news feed: Full instructions for all aspects of creating and using RSS feeds. After I began to ignore all the hearts and strange other things on this page, I appreciated the simple, easy to understand instructions. 04/26/04
Yahoo has RSS feeds now. See also Yahoo's FAQ about RSS: Several good resources and explanations. 02/09/04
RSSify service: Big thanks to Scott Leslie at EdTech Post for this tip! A simple way to provide an RSS feed for this page without having to invest in any new technology or tools. Each of the new items on your page should be enclosed with some EASY html that marcates them as distinct items. Folks, THIS IS HOW I GOT MY "WHAT'S NEW" PAGE "rss-ified! 12/20/03
Living in Parallel Worlds: Blogs and Course Management Systems: "Clearly Weblogs are growing rapidly outside the Course Management Systems found on so many campuses. ...The typical Weblog...is not a part of the CMS environment. ... it is striking how little integration there is between blogs and CMS environments. ...we may reach a time where we need to build the bridges between two important technologies. When these bridges are built, we should be mindful of the key factors that are driving the explosion of blogs, ease of use and promotion of self-expression." 11/15/03
MyRSS: "myRSS enables anyone to build custom RSS channels for virtually any news site they desire." 11/15/03
Syndicate your own Newsfeed for Blogger. It uses the above guide as PART of its instructions. 10/15/03
How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer: Stephen Downes provides "The ultimate low-tech guide to creating your own RSS feed." 09/26/03
The Fuss: A site that explores the uses of RSS in education. Lots of links to information, aggregators, connecting with learning objects, implementations, and connections for webloggers. 09/07/03
An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers: Stephen Downes explains differences between blogs and RSS. "Weblogs, or as they are sometimes called, blogs, have a unique role in the world of RSS. ... the weblog consists of a series of entries associated with links to other resources on the web. Thus the typical weblog consists of a list of sites, descriptions of those sites, and some discussion." He includes instructions for How to Create an RSS channel. 08/23/03
Article ~ New wave of newsreader software makes sense of the Web: Along with providing links/reviews of various RSS readers, this article helps answer one of my own first questions -- what's the point of using RSS? The article quotes Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo (one of my weekly gurus for computer tech.). "He's renounced e-mail as his preferred medium, and says RSS is the way to go. 'RSS is evolving as a replacement for e-mail publishing and marketing,' he says. 'RSS suddenly makes the Internet work the way it should. Instead of you searching for everything, the Internet comes to you on your terms.' One of the most promising arenas for RSS is in lightening the load of e-mail, which spammers -- and overly restrictive spam-filtering software -- have all but wrecked.'' 08/23/03
Aggregators Attack Info Overload: A good intro article that clarifies the purpose for using RSS -- an "Aggregator" being the software that collects the RSS feeds for you according to your own preferences. The article points to a few of the most popular and best aggregators to use. 08/23/03
Lockergnome's RSS Resources: An excellent page full of links to information, feed readers, tools, etc. 08/17/03
RSS Dev Center: a page of useful links and information from O'Reilly Network. 08/17/03
How do I use RSS? InfoWorld provides a good page of information. "First we document the required and optional sub-elements of <channel>; and then document the sub-elements of <item>. The final sections answer frequently asked questions, and provide a roadmap for future evolution, and guidelines for extending RSS." 08/17/03
Extending RSS: Making use of RSS beyond simple links on blogs. The author distinguishes between types of RSS, and explains that "if you want to extend into distributing more sophisticated or diverse forms of material, then the differences become more apparent." 08/16/03
Making Headlines with RSS ~ Using Rich Site Summaries To Draw New Visitors: This article by Jonathan Eisenzopf's in the February issue of Web Techniques provides details on creating RSS files. 08/17/03
RSS Workshop ~ Creating RSS feeds: "In this workshop you'll learn how to create, validate, parse, publish, and syndicate your own RSS news channel. The emphasis will be the practical application of the two most popular varieties of RSS for dynamic publishing. You can use RSS channels to allow customers to keep up on industry specific news, check weather, look for jobs, view upcoming concerts or university lectures, monitor specific websites, and much more." 08/17/03
Looking for a quick way to get an RSS feed into your course? Click here for info about Feed2JS.
SS Feed Integration PowerLink: "Provides the capability to fetch RSS feeds from any Web site supporting RSS service from within a WebCT course. Instructors and designers can easily add an RSS proxy tool to their course from the WebCT Course Menu. The proxy tool transforms the RSS feed into HTML and displays it in a new window, giving students and instructors instant updates to any Web site that is an important resource for the course. Supported: WebCT Campus Edition 6, WebCT Vista 3, WebCT Vista 4." 10/25/06
WebCT VISTA - Adding News Feeds to your Course: a tutorial from Georgia Southern University. 10/24/06
How to get a live newsfeed into your WebCT course: "Incorporating a newsfeed into your WebCT course is a great way to get dynamic, changing content into the password protected environment of WebCT. Potential uses include creating an up to date 'breaking information' news source for your class." **
** NOTE: 10/23/04 - The link on that page above to "Render the RSS" using Adam Curry's recommended site no longer leads anywhere.The XML parser referred to is actually available here from the original author: http://p3k.org/rss/?setup=true
An easy RSSifier with instructions is provided by Wytheville Community College.
There's also Magpie RSS for PHP: (if you have PHP installed on a server) "MagpieRSS provides an XML-based (expat) RSS parser in PHP. MagpieRSS is compatible with RSS 0.9 through RSS 1.0. Also parses RSS 1.0's modules, RSS 2.0, and Atom." 10/23/04
How to get a news feed into your WebCT course: A tutorial from Cyprien Lomas of U.B.C.
Anders Jacobsen article on Optimizing Movable Type (part 6) - Category XML feeds. See also Learning Movable Type (this added 02/09/04)
"Ask Dr. C" Discussion in which users describe how they're adding Blogs/RSS to their courses. 11/12/03
RSS Readers, News Aggregators:
List of Feed Readers for Windows users: Click the title to get to the list, provided by allrss.com -- then look at the rest of their site. Loaded with RSS resources. 02/22/06
(Alphabetical order)
Attensa for Outlook: "Works inside Microsoft Outlook to bring up-to-the-minute RSS news feed headlines and Podcast content from your favorite Websites and blogs right into neatly organized Outlook folders. Now you can stay on top of RSS news and your favorite blogs without all the surfing. Attensa for Outlook is the first RSS news reader and news aggregator for Outlook that lets you use a toolbar in your browser of choice, Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer, to easily add and manage RSS news feeds and subscriptions from Websites and blogs. And, it's the only Outlook RSS reader that automatically loads audio Podcast files into iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists." (Quote is from allrss.com's list of windows feedreaders.) 02/22/06
BlogExpress: [the reader I use]. "News comes fast" is their subtitle. Features a tabbed interface so you can have several webpages open at a time. "BlogExpress is a full-featured .NET application for content syndication (or also called a news aggregator). BlogExpress supports all RSS versions. It can read contents from any Weblogs (a.k.a., blog) and any Websites that provide XML files for content syndication. BlogExpress is easy to use. It is carefully designed for high usability." Free/Donationware. 08/30/03
Bloglines: "A free service that makes it easy to keep up with your favorite blogs and newsfeeds. ...Unlike other aggregators which require you to download and install software, Bloglines runs on our servers and requires no installation. Because your Bloglines account is accessible through a web browser, you can access your account from any Internet-connected machine." 10/18/03
Internet Explorer 7: From this article in PCMag, "On 06.24.05 Microsoft announced that it will introduce new technologies designed to promote the use of RSS. The company plans to include RSS readers in two new versions of its Internet Explorer Web browser—one for the Windows XP operating system and one for Windows XP's successor, codenamed Longhorn." 07/03/05
FastBuzz: "A free web based aggregator to search and view the latest additions to your favorite online publications. Search the news items in the fastbuzz database, or better, subscribe to the search and you will be notified when new articles match your criteria. In an easily skimmable format you can keep track of: Online newspapers, blogs, forums, mailing lists, Web-based publications. Instead of having to visit one site after another to see what's new, you can browse a personal summary on fastbuzz.com, or have it delivered to your email inbox. 01/02/04
Feed Demon: "Thousands of web sites offer their content as RSS newsfeeds, but accessing this information has been cumbersome at best. Until now, that is. FeedDemon enables you to quickly explore the world of RSS from your desktop without having to visit hundreds of sites. Written by Nick Bradbury, creator of TopStyle and HomeSite, FeedDemon makes RSS as easy to access as your email." 08/17/03
FIREFOX with RSS: It's about time that RSS reading became as easy as internet browsing. Firefox (from Mozilla) takes the lead in the browser world with their preview release of their RSS integrated version this week. (Final version they say will come next week.) Firefox 1.0 combines RSS feeds with Bookmarks. 09/18/04
FeedView: Says Lockergnome: "As a Firefox user, I can certainly understand the need to run with a better looking RSS reader than what comes with the default install of this browser. After reading through the basic offering of Feedview, I think this might be a great new direction to take RSS feeds within Firefox!" 01/15/05
Pluck: Integrates with IE to make the browser your RSS reader. As well as collecting news, the tool also has a built in Power Search and a Folders organizer/sharing tool. 10/11/04
QuickSub: If you have an XML button/link on your page to your RSS/blog, look at this app. It enhances that button/link to provide a list of aggregators one might use to add your subscription. 10/08/03
Rippy the Aggregator: What else can you do but mention an application when even its creator lists "Cute name" as the top item on the list of its features? "I couldn't find an RSS reader (or "aggregator", as they're called) that I could just download and have it work. Thus, it was necessary to create one: enter Rippy!" 02/09/04
RssExplorer: An Internet Explorer toolbar that allows you easily find RSS feeds and subscribe to them using your favorite news aggregator / headline viewer. 08/17/03
RSS Readers: A big, categorized list of readers, including items for Win, Macs, handhelds, and more. 08/30/03
Talkr: Talkr converts text-only blogs into podcasts in MP3 that you can listen to on your iPod. It can also convert from text to speech any material you can capture in an RSS reader. In combo with your RSS reader, Talkr can keep tabs on your feeds and send audio to your computer as those audio files become available.07/17/05
OTHER LISTS OF FEED READERS:
Weblogs Compendium: A big, alphabetized list of RSS aggregators. This site has lots of links to other RSS resources too. 03/29/04
RSS Feed Lists & Directories (in alpha order)
Feedzie: A search engine where you can do a specific search for audiofeeds (RSS feeds of podcasting). 08/22/05
NOTE: To help decide if a blog is widely read (perhaps a clue as to whether it's of interest or not?), try Technorati's 'spider' tool -- it can tell you how many in/outboud links there are for that site. ANOTHER site that provides a "blogrank" on your search for blogs is Feedster.com.
Moreover RSS News Feeds: They don't have an Education category, but maybe they'll see the light soon and create one. 10/11/04
Blogs Canada 10/18/03
Edu_RSS
From Stephen Downes -- "...your one-stop source for today's top writers
in educational technology." 08/23/03
FaganFinder: a meta-search engine for blogs 10/18/03
Feedster RSS Search Engine: 10/18/03 On a recent comparison of RSS searches, Feedster came out on top as producing the most hits along with the most relevant hits on a topic. 03/14/04
Learning
& Technology Blogs (eLearn Space): Along list of Education-focussed
feeds/blogs 10/18/03
Moreover: " In addition to the pre-built categories, Moreover has hundreds of additional topic-specific categories and 10,000+ customizable company specific categories." 03/28/04
News Is Free: or if you like, go straight to their Education category. 10/18/03
Syndic8 - Find an RSS channel: I've seen this described as "a directory of just about every channel in existence." "Find syndicated news feeds on a wide variety of topics. There is a lot here; be sure to explore all of the tabs at the top of the page." 10/18/03
(Alphabetical order)
Blogrolling: "The basic service is free and it couldn't be easier to integrate into your website." ~ "A webservice designed to make your blogging life easier. BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal, helping you manage your ever-evolving linklist with ease. Now it's as simple as clicking a link or making a pit stop at BlogRolling." 02/27/04
Dapper.net: [the following info from Answers.com] "Dapper is a free, web-based service that enables users to easily create an interactive feed from any website for consumption on any platform: RSS reader, iGoogle, enterprise mashup, mobile phone, etc. Users can make a dynamic feed (API) that changes based on user input for any website. With Dapper, anyone can create RSS feeds, universally embeddable widgets, and XML (among other formats) for any website." 10/21/07
See this short demo video that illustrates how easy it is to make a "Dapp". 10/21/07
Dapper Facebook AppMaker: "Turn any website into a Facebook application -- no programming required!" "Use your own header, footer, background styling — really make it yours — and with absolutely no programming. If you can make a Dapp, you can make a Facebook app." 10/21/07
Feed2JS: Create an RSS page from any webpage. "Using RSS feeds in your webpages is just a cut-n-paste away!" The people who run this FREE service created it because "... it seemed like people could use an easier method for incorporating RSS into their own web sites." This site offers a simple-to-use tool that converts the web address for any RSS feed into a JavaScript command that will display the feed wherever you want it. A simple way to get an RSS feed into your course! Here's a link directly to the feed generating form. 03/21/05
FeedFire ~ Automatic Site-To-RSS Feed Creation: Read the introductory article here, because it's better information than at the Feedfire website. Then visit FeedFire for free registration and feed creation. 10/23/04
FeedSpring: FREE software for creating RSS feeds. 03/12/05
Metacentric: This Robin Good review of Metacentric is a good lead-in, because when you get to Metacentric's homepage you kind of have to know what they're talking about. Robin Good says: "...provides a scraper service that transforms standard HTML into RSS 1.0 using XSL transformation. The Metacentric service also includes a Javascript include feed, for easy syndication with other Web sites, and a pure RDF metadata feed. Metacentric prices are based on the number of service requests for the RSS feeds you publish. Unfortunately all prices are in British Pounds (GBP), though you can pay in your own preferred currency via PayPal." 06/25/05
Movable Type: One of the most popular, from what I can see in my own blog-reading journeys. "...powerful, customizable publishing system which installs on web servers to enable individuals or organizations to manage and update weblogs, journals, and frequently-updated website content." Visit Anders Jacobsen article on Optimizing Movable Type (part 6) - Category XML feeds. See also Learning Movable Type (some great resources there). 02/09/04
RSS Creator: "With our web based service you can have your own RSS Feed Channel in under 5 minutes. It's so easy, even a kid could use it. Even if you don't have a web site of your own, you can create & host your RSS feed channel with us....We will demystify the whole process and automatically create your RSS feed channel. We also fully automate the updating of the feed when you add more content. No programming required. It is as easy as writing an email. If you can write an email, then you can have your RSS Feed Channel running in under 5 minutes." 12/031/04
Thingamablog! Make a blog on your own website easily without knowing HTML. This is an application that combines it all in one app -- create and publish your blog as easily as a simple webpage, read other blogs, it's a newsreader, RSS reader and FTP publisher. Finally somebody's thinking Integrate! See also: Getting Started. 09/03/04
WeedExporter: I just saw WeedExporter mentioned as a way to create RSS files. (See this discussion at www.webct.com.) I had a look at the WeedExporter information and see that it doesn't specifically mention RSS feed creation as a purpose. But it can be used to create XML, and its purpose is to "simplify the creation of files containing repetitive sections of Windows Media files metadata." 08/21/05
Vodcasting, Screencasting, or Whatever you'd like to call it, and WebCT: Robin Petterd (the person in the discussion posting mentioned above) created this tutorial about the way he creates videos for students. "A system that allows me to record software demonstrations during face to face sessions with students and then deliver these to students via WebCT and RSS feeds." 09/19/05