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The letters currently stand for “Really Simple Syndication.” Microsoft describes RSS as a “ convenient way to syndicate information from a variety of sources.” It is a way to receive updates on topics of importance to you quickly and easily. The content is “pushed” to you from the source. For more detailed information, visit Microsoft RSS Feeds, http://msdn.microsoft.com/aboutmsdn/rss/ or Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol). The Wikipedia article probably has more than you ever want to know.
The way it works is that you subscribe to an RSS feed using an “aggregator.” The aggregator checks the sites you have subscribed to every so often and presents you with a list of content. Feedreader is a freeware aggregator.
This is a sample of what you might see. I subscribe to the Macromedia Developer center. The selected item shows a short abstract and if the creator included it, a keyword and creator names. The line “Action” includes a link to the actual web page that has the content.
This particular aggregator allows you to either view the web page in the window below the list of titles or to use the “aquarium” view to fill the window with the web page. F11 toggles between the two views.
There are many readers, some free and some commercial. Lists are available at Harvard Law School, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/directory/5/aggregators and at rssreaders.net, http://www.rssreaders.net/. Any search of the web will turn up dozens, including readers that are additions to your browser or your email client. The next version of Microsoft Outlook will probably include a reader as well. I use FeedReader because it is the first one I found, it’s free and it does use up much memory or disk space.
How do you add a feed?
Sites usually display the feeds in one of two ways. Some use a link with an icon 
. The link is to the actual XML file for the feed. You click on the icon or the feed title, then copy the link from the address bar and paste it into the appropriate dialog box in the reader. The second common way is to provide a page with a list of the links. You can copy the link from the page and paste it into the reader. Note that it is simply a link to the XML file that delivers the feed.
Some examples of sites with feeds:
Virtually every newspaper and magazine online has a page of feeds.
What’s the advantage of RSS over email subscriptions or surfing the web?
You can select the material you actually want to read. You are downloading only a very small amount of content (the title and the short abstract) and you don’t have to do anything to end the subscription except to delete the feed from your reader. You don’t have to visit the sites that are important to you to check on new content—they push the new content to you.
Creating Feeds for a Website
If you are a webmaster, there is a good tutorial at http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/. It also has a pretty good explanation of RSS if you want to know more.
Creating feeds is very easy thanks to some utilities. I have tried two. One is a commercial product called FeedForAll. It sells for $39.95. It works very well and is fairly simple to use. It generates the XML file quickly and you can have your feed up and running in about 5 minutes. It has a very nice interface and many bells and whistles to allow you to customize the feed (e.g., the time and length of publication, previews and more).
Remember Dan Bricklin—remember Visicalc? Dan has written a number of software applications over the years and was co-author of Visicalc—possibly the first useful application for personal computers like the TRS-80. Dan has continued over the years to write interesting software applications and has authored an RSS feed generator that is an open source product. The program is List Garden and may be downloaded at http://www.softwaregarden.com/products
/listgarden/index.html. The program runs in your browser and provides more detailed explanations with each parameter that you use to set up the feed.
I may be interested in setting up RSS feeds for the PCC web site if there is enough interest to warrant the extra work. Let me know if you are interested. The feeds might include items such as updates to the calendar, information about the main meeting, notice of pages being uploaded to the site. I am still exploring the possibilities.
See you at the meeting.
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