Outline

• RSS
• Look Around at RSS Sources
• Feedreaders & Aggregators
• Yahoo Pipes
• Google Documents
• Feedburner
• Dapper
• Why?

What is RSS?

• Really Simple Syndication (aka, Rich Site Summary)
• Publisher's Point of View: methods to push content to their audience
• User's Point of View: information comes to ME - I am in control
• The word SUBSCRIBE is not an accident

Look Around at RSS Sources

• Blogs
• Newspapers
• Anyone who has information to share incrementally

Feedreaders

• Tools for bringing content together
• Many choices: both browser-based and client-based
• Examples: Google Reader, Newsgator
• Users select the content
• Keeps track of what you have and have not read
• Usually provides way to mark content for further review

Aggregators

• Those who build the aggregator select the content
• Website presents the content of many feeds in a single interface
• amatomu.com

Yahoo Pipes

• "Pipes is an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator."
• A programming toolkit, with premade building blocks, that lets you create new RSS feeds based on one or more existing RSS feeds.
• Lets non-programmers build interactive applications that use RSS feed data as their input.
• Demo: http://pipes.yahoo.com

Google Documents

• Online storage and browser-based manipulation of documents and spreadsheets
• Supports collaboration
• Can publish spreadsheet data in an RSS format
• Demo: http://docs.google.com/

Publisher Tool Example: Feedburner

Publisher Tool Example: Dapper.net

Why?

• Free Tools
• Supportive online communities
• RSS, Yahoo Pipes and Google Docs are aligned with people's increasing desire to filter their viewing experience of news and media
• Services like Feedburner put information in the hands of the publishers
• Encourages collaboration by those separated by distance
• Because it is fun!