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21 April 2023 1Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk
Blogs, Wikis and RSS
Karen BlakemanRBA Information Serviceshttp://www.rba.co.uk/blog: http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress UKeiG web 2.0 blog: http://ukeig.wordpress.com/ [email protected]: Karen BlakemanTwitter: karenblakeman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
Access to documentation
UKeiG fact sheets – http://www.ukeig.org.uk/factsheets/ – UKeiG members only– temporary user name and password for non-members
• username: ukeig33• password: thedoctor
Links to documentation and support materials on http://ukeig.wordpress.com/documentation-and-support-materials/
Blogs and Wikis in Blackboard– http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bknauff/NERCOMP2006/
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Outline for the day
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Blogs, Wikis. RSS & Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0?
A concept not a product
A way of thinking
A way of working – collaborative, social
About sharing information with others
All sorts of technologies but….
..should not be about technologies – more about content and information
Examples:– blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking (e.g. Furl, Del.icio.us,
Connotea) Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, web based forums, email discussion lists, YouTube, Second Life……
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The mandatory web 2.0 meme map!
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
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Gartner hype curve
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http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp
Just because it’s Web 2.0…
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT It should make life easier, save time and help you do
the job more effectively… …if does not, ditch it!
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Blogs, Wikis and RSS
Blogs and wikis– essentially content management systems– can be used as collaborative tools within and outside the organisation
Blogs– one or a select few post (publish) to many but can have comments
from anyone– useful for announcements, ‘what’s new’, instead of a newsletter, for
mini web sites Wikis
– ideal for collaborating on documents and projects e.g. policies and procedures, course content and documentation, organising a conference
RSS – a means of delivering information– a way to transfer information from one application to another, form one
service to another
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Blogs
What is a blog?– short for web log– content management system that publishes information
chronologically, hence the idea of an online diary– content can range from self-indulgent drivel to extreme erudition
– easy to use and publish from anywhere, therefore there is a high
proportion of utter rubbish in the blogosphere
– most blogs automatically generate RSS feeds
“Vodcasts and blogs are to the noughties what graffiti was to the
Seventies: mindless scrawls reading: 'I woz ere.' It says: 'I'm a
moron, but worship me anyway.”
The Observer, 3rd December 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1962820,00.html
21 April 2023 9Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk
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Anatomy of a blog (1)
Title and brief description
Most recent posting at
the top
Author/blog profile
RSS feed for postings and comments
Categories assigned by
author
Comments from readers
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Anatomy of a blog (2)
Archives
List of recent posts
Tags
Blogroll of related blogs
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UKeiG collaborative blog
List of people who can post
articles
Applications of blogs
Instead of or in addition to a printed, emailed or static web based newsletter– Current awareness for staff, users, researchers and clients - “What’s
new”
– publicising new services/products, encourage feedback via comments
Marketing tool inside and outside of the organisation CPD – recording professional development and reflective
practice Recording project development, discussions Comments or “suggestions” box Monitor blogs for information and competitor intelligence Alternative publishing medium Small web sites
– http://www.newsbriefsoman.info/
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http://www.newsbriefsoman.info/
Why use blogs for publishing?
Quick and easy to post and edit Links and management of archives and postings is
done by the software Can be done from any Internet connected machine,
even via a mobile Can be hosted on your own server or on the blogging
service’s server If hosted by the blogging service, do not have to wait
for content to be uploaded by the relevant ‘department’ in your organisation
Can be individually authored or collaborative
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Blogs as sources of information
Blogs by industry gurus and experts are a good way of
keeping up to date with what is happening in a sector Look for the Blogroll of List of Links on a relevant blog Google Blogsearch http://www.google.com/blogsearch
– use advanced search to search within an individual blog
Ask http://www.ask.com/ – Blogs and feeds Live Feeds search - http://search.live.com/feeds Blog search engines and directories
– http://www.technorati.com/
– http://www.blogpulse.com/
– http://www.quacktrack.com/
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Advanced search in Google Blogsearch
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Ask Blog Search
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Live.com Feeds Search
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Blogpulse Trends
Shows how often your search terms occur in
postings – can compare up to three searches
Product/company reputation
The “Kryptonite Blogstorm”– http://introtodigitalage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Pict
ure%201.png
– http://introtodigitalage.com/?m=200606 – http://tinyurl.com/9p93l
Bicycle lock that could be opened with a bic pen– company ignored the blogs until a “demonstration” video
appeared– then issued reassurances– only offered free product exchanges when NY Times and AP
picked up the story– estimated cost $10 million
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Quality checking blogs
The usual:– date last updated, who is behind the site, domain name
check if applicable Check out the blogger profile, ‘mission statement’, ‘about this
blog’, blogroll Read the content
– check for obvious bias, errors Use advanced search screens of blog search tools to find out
who has linked to the blog or individual postings– Technorati, Blogpulse, Ask Blogs and Feeds
May be difficult or impossible to check out authors of comments
Corporate blogging
The Business value of blogging, March 2007– http://www.lewispr.com/Business_value_of_blogging.pdf
Blogs and RSS: tools for competitive intelligence– http://www.digimind.com/en/download/White_Paper_Blogs-R
SS_EN_2006.pdf An excellent overview and introduction to blogs and RSS and how they can be used in competitive intelligence. Includes an extensive list of references and further reading. Downloaded 2 October 2006.
The email killers - Information Age–
http://www.information-age.com/article/2006/august/email_killers
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Blogging librarians
UK Library Blogs
– http://uklibraryblogs.pbwiki.com/ Blogorama in Internet Resources Newsletter:
– http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/ LIS-Bloggers email discussion list
– http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html British Librarian Bloggers | Google Groups
– http://groups.google.com/group/britlibblogs
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Where are the blogging librarians?
Science @ UCD Library– http://ucdscience.blogspot.com/
Reader Services@ucd Library– http://ucdreaderservices.blogspot.com/
Shush! – the Information Services Library blog– http://library.northampton.ac.uk/blog/index.php
Univ of Bath Library Science News– http://bathsciencenews.wordpress.com/
Spineless?– http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/
E-Resources News and Trials (University of Liverpool)– http://liveresources.blogspot.com/
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Yet more blogging librarians
Info Junkie– http://swashford.wordpress.com/
Swansea Libraries – http://swansealibraries.blogspot.com/
Galway Library– http://galwaylibrary.blogspot.com/
Libraries in the NHS– http://nelh.blogspot.com/
Talking Knowledge Management– http://talkingkm.blogspot.com/
The Manchester Lit List – http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/
Tell Us What You Think of The Library Weblog– http://telluswhatyouthink.wordpress.com/
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Setting up your own blog
Check your own internal systems to see if there are already blogging modules available
Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/– owned by Google– host on Blogger or publish to your own site, but need to use
blogger.com for both Wordpress - free
– Host on http://www.wordpress.com/ – Software for loading onto your own site at
http://www.wordpress.org/ Typepad – priced
– Host on http://www.typepad.com/ or software for your site Also Movable Type, Live Journal at http://www.sixapart.com/
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Blog host or own server?
Blog Host May not be allowed on your
organisation’s server Keeping it private may not be
straightforward consider confidentiality Not possible to fully customise
the blog in line with the ‘corporate image’
User stats not always easily available
Can post from any Internet connected computer without having to worry about firewalls
Could lose your information if the services closes or fails
Own Server Should be able to customise
the look and feel, and interface of the blog but depends on the software
Can integrate the blog fully with your web site
Can include the blog in your site search option
Easy access to user stats Can easily keep the blog
private or for selected users But the content may still have
to go through the usual authorisation channels
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What can go wrong on a blog host?
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Integrating your blog with your web site
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Blog usability issues 1-5
Weblog Usability (Jakob Neilsen’s Alertbox)http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html
1.Author biography
2.Author photo [optional]
3.Use descriptive posting titles
4.Use descriptive links
5.Have links to “classic hits”
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Blog usability issues 6-10
6. Categorise postings
7. Publish frequently or have a publishing schedule [but don’t publish for the sake of it!]
8. Have focussed content and find “your voice” – set up more than one blog if necessary
9. Do not forget that you might be writing for your future boss
10. Set up your own domain name [not essential and hosting on other servers e.g. Typepad, Blogspot is now acceptable]
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Blog content
Postings can be as short or as long as you like– can be short announcements of new services – can be lengthy, detailed articles
• http://www.theoildrum.com/
• http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ Beware of copyright and plagiarism Quote sources and acknowledge other blogs Add value:
– summarise lengthy articles, sources– why might it be relevant or important to your readers– include your own opinion or evaluation
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Comments
‘Comments’ can be used to facilitate feedback and encourage discussion
Can be switched off If switched on are you:
• going to allow anyone to comment (dangerous – automatic spamming is ubiquitous)
• force people to register• use a ‘captcha’ - completely automated public Turing test
to tell computers and humans apart• use a spam detection module e.g. Akismet• moderate all comments• combination of two or more of the above
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Blog Bling
Phil Bradley, Library and Information Show, NEC Birmingham, April 18th 2007 – Adding Bling to Your Blog!
Gizmos, widgets etc that you can add to your blog– Swicki search engine (http://www.eurekster.com/)– RSS to email– RSS to PDF– Calendars– Tag clouds– Photos from Flickr, Picasa – RSS feeds from other blogs and sites
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Policies and legal issues
Internal or public?– even if internal (within the organisation) there are still IP,
regulatory, data protection and FoI implications
Blogging policy– outlines what you can say and do internally and publicly– for example IBM’s blogging policy
http://tinyurl.com/28mpha (goes to the IBM web site) • written collaboratively using an internal wiki
Accessibility issues– How to Make Your Blog Accessible to Blind Readers -
American Foundation for the Blind. http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=57&TopicID=167&DocumentID=2757
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Return on investment
Difficult to tell Encourage feedback from readers Number of readers
– if hosted on your own servers, can tell from your web stats– if hosted on Blogger install third party page tracking services
• http://www.sitemeter.com/• Google analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics
– if hosted on Wordpress, basic stats are supplied as part of the package
– many people may read the content via the RSS feed and not visit the blog
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Wikis
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Wikis
wiki-wiki – Hawaiian meaning quick First wiki was the WikiWikiWeb, Ward Cunningham 1995 A collaborative web application that allows users to easily
add and edit content Can be used for
– developing documentation
– project management
• History keeps a record of the changes and different versions of the documents
– developing a conference programme
Many have blog like discussion areas and RSS feeds Most famous example is Wikipedia
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Wikis
Standardised format and layout
“Makes our contributors concentrate on content
rather than wasting time on pretty layouts” Default in most wikis lets anyone create and edit a page
– need to protect Admin functions and limit creation, edit and access rights
– can ‘lock’ individual pages or sections– can require registration to set up new pages or edit existing
ones– many wiki packages and hosted services now automatically
protect the ‘admin’ or guide you through the process of setting up permissions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/graphics/2008/06/04/calex04.gif
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Wikipedia
Option to edit the page
Wikipedia (2)
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No edit option
Wikipedia - history
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Date of edits Author/editor
http://www.alacrawiki.com
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No edit option even if you register and
sign in
Wikis for collaborating on documents
Single centrally located copy instead of multiple copies circulating via email all with different edits
Collaborators do not have to be running the same software or same version
Can see the “time line” or history of edits– who has edited what and when– useful in compliance situations
Some wikis allow for comments and discussion on edits
But have to be online to work on the document
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What are wikis used for in real life?
National Archives– http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Wiki used to write a thesis– http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/Alicia+Holsey
Wiki CrimeLine– http://www.wikicrime.co.uk/
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki – http://www.libsuccess.org/
ShareILL - Interlibrary Loan Wiki– http://www.shareill.org/
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What are wikis used for in real life?
Wikis for training materials and conference organising– Sarah Washford
http://swashford.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/wiki-wonders/
Wikis for compiling subject guides– We have Wiki
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2008/01/09/we-have-wiki/
Using a Wiki for an Intranet– Janssen-Cilag, an Australian pharmaceutical subsidiary of
Johnson & Johnson, switched from a static HTML site to using a wiki. http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2007/09/18/enterprise-wiki-increases-collaboration-and-connections-at-janssen-cilag/
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http://interlend.pbwiki.com/
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Top 3 tips for using implementing a wiki
Identified at “Blogs and Wikis in Libraries – Our New Best Friends?” 8th November 2007. Organised by CILIP’s Information Services Group – London and South East branch
1. Don’t call it a wiki
2. Don’t call it a wiki
3. Don’t call it a wiki
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Experimenting with wikis
May already have wiki options on your system– Blackboard, Moodle, SharePoint
Not always straightforward to install on your own system– use third party “wiki farms” to start with– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_farms – some wiki farms make your wikis completely open, that is
viewable and editable by anyone Compare wikis at http://www.wikimatrix.org/
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Experimenting with wikis
Some wiki farms to try:– Peanut Butter Wiki http://pbwiki.com/ – Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com/ – Seedwiki http://www.seedwiki.com/ – Wet Paint http://www.wetpaint.com/
Also try– Google Docs http://docs.google.com/ – Google Sites http://sites.google.com/
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Google Docs
http://docs.google.com/– need a Google account
Text (Word) documents, spreadsheet and presentations
Keep your documents totally private or Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address
Edit documents online with whomever you choose. Publish documents online to the world, or to just who
you choose Post your documents to your blog
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Google Docshttp://docs.google.com/
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Google Sites http://sites.google.com/
Marketed as a way of producing your own site hosted on Google
Can be set up and used as a wiki 100 MB storage
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Using RSS for alerts, gathering information and providing
information
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What is RSS?
Stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary or RDF site summary– depends on version
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.9x)• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.x)
– also ATOM (Google)– written in XML
• extensible markup language– look for the orange logos
A means of delivering headlines, alerts, tables of contents
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Regarded as the de facto standard
RSS in Plain English
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
or on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
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Why isn’t RSS more popular?
Need a feed reader to read them and get the most out of the technology
Web based readers
or Programs on your desktop machine, laptop, Blackberry,
mobile RSS reader incorporated into IE 7 and Outlook 2007
– now rolling out onto people’s desktops
Firefox and Thunderbird users– already able to read and use RSS directly or via add-ons
Opera – already handles RSS
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Raw RSS feed
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Feed may be displayed like this…
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http://www.google.com/reader
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Feeds in Omea
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Feeds in Outlook 2007
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RSS instead of email
Reduces the overload in your email inbox
By-passes spam filters
Quicker and easier to scan and spot individual headlines within an alert or newsletter and decide what is relevant
Can set up filters to pick up stories that mention specific products, companies etc. (desktop programs only)
You control when you receive and read the feeds
Easier to “unsubscribe”
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Adding a feed to your reader
Spotted an interesting RSS feed?– Click on the RSS, XML, Atom or feed logo
• sometimes the URL of the feed is displayed in the text of the page
– Copy the URL of the feed page – Paste into the Add or Subscribe box of your reader
• there may be additional options you can select
OR– Depending on your feed reader, there may be buttons, right
click options, browser plug-ins that will directly ‘subscribe’ you
That's it!
Want to add a feed to your reader?
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1. Locate the feed and click on the link
2. Copy the URL of the displayed
feed
3. Open your reader and paste the URL into the Add or Subscribe box
Want to change feed readers?
No problem Export your list of feeds to an OPML file
(Outline Processor Markup Language) Import the OPML file into your new feed reader
– Note: will not import program specific filters or rules
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Want to unsubscribe from a feed?
Simply delete the feed from your feed reader!
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What else can you do with RSS?
Add them to your iGoogle home page Incorporate them into your Pageflakes or Netvibes
start page Display them on your web site, blog or wiki Monitor Twitter tweets Send your favourite feeds to your Twitter account via
Twitterfeed Monitor your Facebook notifications Almost anything
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iGoogle
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Pageflakes, Netvibes
http://www.pageflakes.com/ http://www.netvibes.com/ Known as ‘start pages’ Collate data, photos, videos, weather news,
calendars, notepads for queries, RSS feeds etc. by adding ‘flakes’ to your page
Can have multiple tabs to generate separate collections
Can keep them private, share with a group of people, or make them public (pagecast)
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Pageflakes
http://www.pageflakes.com/– UKeiG
• http://www.pageflakes.com/ukeig1 – East Lothian Libraries
• http://www.pageflakes.com/libraries0/17137920/– Dublin City Public Libraries
• http://www.pageflakes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries/ – Scottish Libraries
• http://www.pageflakes.com/scottishlibraries – Llyfrgell Ceredigion Library in Aberystwyth
• http://www.pageflakes.com/LlyfrgellCeredigionLibrary/19167751
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Pageflakes - UKeiGhttp://www.pageflakes.com/ukeig1
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Pageflakes – Dublin City Librarieshttp://www.pageflakes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries/
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Add feed content to your web page or blog
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RSS feed from the Blog
RSS feed of eLucidate table of
contents
Add feed content to your web page or blog
Web page– Check existing options in your content management system– Use a third party service to convert the RSS feed and create
code for your page e.g. Rapidfeeds.com
Blog– Blogger – sign in to your blog and go to Layout, Add a page
element, click on Feed and enter the URL of the feed in the box
– Wordpress – sign in to your blog, go to Design, Widgets, Add the RSS widget and then click on Edit to add the URL of the feed and configure it
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Tracking down RSS feeds
Look for the RSS/XML logos on a site Use blog search tools Ask.co.uk – Blogs and feeds Windows Live (live.com) – Feeds
– http://search.live.com/feeds
– also site: + feed: command to track down feeds on a specific site e.g.site:bbc.co.uk feed:bbc.co.uk
– feed:amazon.co.uk site:amazon.co.uk energy
Exalead.com - limit search to RSS feeds
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Page doesn’t have a feed?
Page2RSS– http://www.page2rss.com/ – essentially a page change monitoring programme that sends
alerts as RSS feeds – enter the URL of the page you want to monitor– copy and paste the link of the RSS feed into your reader
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Who does RSS?
Lots of people– Companies and organisations, for example CILIP, UKeiG
• for delivering news of training and events, headlines and abstracts of newsletter articles, blog headlines, discussions in web based communities of practice
– many news services now offer RSS feeds
• Yahoo News, Google News, Moreover
• BBC, newspapers, magazines, Factiva
– professional, scientific, trade press
• BMJ, New Scientist, Information World Review etc.
– book publishers
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How much of the story do you see?
Depends on:– how the author of the feed has set it up
• first few lines
• whole article
• sometimes just the title
– your feed reader and how it has been configured
– there is always a link to the full article and source
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Quality of RSS feeds
Quality dependent on source of the feed Assumed that RSS feeds are always immediate
– depends on publisher and aggregator• may be deliberate policy to delay free services• aggregator may take longer to generate the feeds than
individual publisher• may be delayed due to publishing schedule and/or
technology in use
Not all the articles may be available– copyright clearance may not have been given by the author– advertising and revenue issues
• why get the hard copy + adverts when available without ads electronically
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RSS readers
RSS Compendium– http://rsscompendiumblog.wordpress.com/– http://allrss.com/
Web based readers– access from any terminal or PC– options and functions not as comprehensive as most PC
programs– Newsgator.com, Bloglines.com, www.google.com/reader/
Desktop programs– plugins for Outlook e.g. Newsgator– standalone programs e.g. Omea, GreatNews, RSS Bandit,
Feed Demon(priced) – Outlook 2007 and IE 7 have RSS capability built in
Potential problems
Can become addictive– “Can’t talk now – have to squeeze five minutes work in
between feed updates”
Information overload– don’t subscribe to unnecessary feeds– delete feeds you no longer read– use filters or the search option in your feed reader to
automatically identify key stories
Not always the most up to date – e.g. FT, IWR, Moreover
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Why aren’t all publishers doing it?
Time and resources required to learn and manage a new technology
Have to integrate it into your publishing schedule and process
Loss of advertising revenue You do not know how many readers you have You do not know who your readers are No mailing list
– You can no longer sell additional services or advertising
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Writing and publishing RSS feeds
By hand – not recommended! From your blog Use a service such as Feedburner
(http://www.feedburner.com/) to generate them or convert one version to another e.g. ATOM to RSS 2.0
Combine RSS feeds using for example Yahoo! Pipes, Feedjumbler, RSS Mix
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Combine RSS feeds
FeedBlendr – “blending you a delicious feed smoothie!”– http://feedblendr.com/
Blogdigger Groups – Beta– http://groups.blogdigger.com/
RSS Mix – “Mix any number of RSS feeds into one unique new feed!”– http://www.rssmix.com/
FEEDcombine– http://www.feedcombine.co.uk/
xFruits – “Compose your information system”– http://www.xfruits.com/
Yahoo Pipes: Rewire the web– http://pipes.yahoo.com/
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Desktop programs
FeedSpring – free– http://usablelabs.org/feedspring.html
RSS Publisher – free– http://www.rsspublisher.com/
FeedforAll – priced, USD 39.95– http://www.feedforall.com/
Some are listed on DMOZ at http://tinyurl.com/aawgf, see also http://allrss.com/
Most ensure that you fill in the required fields and validate the feed for you
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FeedforAll
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Making your RSS feed available
Remember that your readers control if and when they read the feed
Use one of the orange logos to make it clear you have an RSS feed – has become the standard but others can be used
Feed Icons (http://www.feedicons.com/) has a collection of different colours and formats available for download
Incorporate and display feeds on your web site, blog, Pageflakes, NetVibes, Facebook,Twitter (via Twitterfeed) etc. etc.
Offer email versions of your feed
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Offer email versions of your feeds
Alternative to your RSS feed alerts for those who prefer email or are not able to use RSS
Feedburner – http://www.feedburner.com/ – ‘burn’ your feed on Feedburner– click on your new Feedburner feed, then on the Publicize tab,
an in the left hand menu select “Email subscriptions”
RSS FWD– http://www.rssfwd.com/ – click on the ‘Publishers’ link– also offers visitors (readers) to a page an option to ‘subscribe’
to email alerts if none is already available– site must support auto-discovery of feeds
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Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration. Jan Koblas, Chandos Publishing, ISBN 1-84334-178-6
How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library, Phil Bradley. May 2007, Facet Publishing, 224pp paperback ISBN: 978-1-85604-607-7
Blogs and Wikis in Blackboard, NERCOMP - Blackboard User Group, December 6, 2006, Barbara Knauff, Senior Instructional Technologist, Academic Computing, Dartmouth College– http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bknauff/NERCOMP2006/
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Finish your RSS Feeds!
http://blaugh.com/2007/01/19/where-do-you-think-youre-going-mister/