Yesterday at the Religion Newswriter’s Association New Media preconference, Brian Peat created an RNAconference blog. He even gave us a homework assignment to login and write a post. (Sorry, Brian, my dog ate my password, but I left several comments and even a trackback.)
At some point, Brian started playing around to show everyone the neat tricks you can make a blog do.
Sit. Beg. Roll over. Aggregate this RSS feed from my Flickr account…
Oops. That last trick stumped a few people.
“What is RSS?” they asked.
Which surprised me. A surprisingly small number of the journalists seemed to understand RSS. When Brian tried to explain it, they didn’t take the technology back to its origin.
RSS = Real Simple Syndication.
Syndication is a journalism thing, right? A syndicated journalist writes one article. That article goes out to the newspapers who “subscribe” to his syndication feed. And the article appears in many different publications in many different contexts across the country.
RSS is the exact same thing, but even more flexible. Now, anyone can create syndicated content. Anyone can grab syndicated content. And we aren’t limited in the ways we choose to read the syndicated content.
Newspapers were the original syndication aggregators. I buy one newspaper, and read columns from the best writers across the country, aggregated by the editors who have chosen to publish those syndications.
Now anyone can choose a syndication aggregator like bloglines or google reader. I become my own newspaper editor, compiling the columns and newsfeeds that interest me.
How is this important? Culturally, I can indulge my tunnel vision with content and ideas that reinforce my own interpretation of the world.
Now, though, I can share my view of the world with others. Suddenly, my reading habits become a playlist I can publish to the world. Andy Beard told me last week that I can share my RSS feeds as an OPML file. (Though I haven’t figured out how to do thi yet.)
When I do, suddenly, my reading habits become a potential micro-newspaper to people who like what I read.
I doubt RSS will ever catch on as an abstract concept. It’s too techie.
But the concept is going to change everything. It’s already changing radio, you know. Why listen to NPR anymore? I get an RSS feed of all my favorite shows, downloaded right to my mp3 player. Usually, I don’t think of iTunes as anything but a really cool way to grab audio subscriptions.
In fact, it’s just a fancy, user-friendly RSS feed aggregator. Lots of mp3 RSS aggregators will work. But iTunes has got style.
And like Kate said yesterday, “Style is an issue of survival.”
7 comments ↓
thanks for the kind words! I thought about the name behind RSS but just totally forgot to mention it! But yes, I knew what the letters stood for.
OK, I consider myself to be a relatively bright person - and only understood about 1/3 of what I just diligently read.
A little help please - like an example of how this might be of use to an archaic blogger, preferably with some kind of practical illustration?
Remember - I’m not sure if an MP3 player is the same thing as and iPod and I don’t read newspapers of any kind.
Wow, so all those hours I spent taking an online Web 2.0 course through my employer (a public library system) did give me just a little edge! (And I was amazed that my tech-savvy teenager didn’t know anything about Bloglines or similar RSS feed aggregators!) Here’s my simple application: I can go to ONE place to see if there are new entries on any of the blogs I like to read. From my list, I can choose to go to any of those sites and catch up. If the writers are on hiatus, I see that there’s nothing new — without having to go to each and every site.
Sorry, got to go now. I have to beg one of my sons to help me set up my new MP3 player because I did something wrong and it won’t work. :-\
I like the thought of publishing my RSS. Well, mostly. I do, after all, read that Craver guy…. should I really let the whole world know?
It’s a cool concept. It’s going to be one of those things (I think) that people will use without understanding it. The next generation will do that. Kind of like my daughter using the Internet and not really understanding what it is.
Brian, thanks for stopping by. The preconference was enlightening.
Susan, so much for the title. I guess I didn’t make it simple after all. It is a tricky concept to understand. Basically think of RSS as a way to subscribe to an enewsletter without giving out your email address. And in a format that allows you to receive the newsletter via email, your web browser, or a third party aggregator like BlogLines.
Katharine, Web 2.0 is a marketing thing. But the concept is sound. Finally people are beginning to realize that the web is not print on a screen, or TV on your computer. It is interactive and measurable media. I believe the implications of that last statement will define this century.
L.L., if you are publishing online, the whole world already knows. RSS just makes it easier for them to find you. For me the issue is simple. I have nothing to hide. If I am not willing to put my name behind my words in public, then there is a problem with my words. (I realize that others may be bound by their employer etc., but thankfully that has not been an issue for me.)
RLP, I agree. The concept of RSS is less important than the application. But in order to build a network–like you and I are doing–we need to understand how to drive the cement truck.
I think, then, that I put an RSS possiblity? on my blog and have signed up for same from you and ESI because when you publish something new on this blog, it pops into my email.
Xanga had something similar but you signed up through “subcriptions” to other blogs - and it was lovely because I knew which blogs had been updated so didn’t have to go searching through each one separately to see who had updated and where I hadn’t left an encouraging comment.