RSS as SOP
From MMTNewMedia
Matthew Latterell leads a discussion with breakout session participants on integrating RSS into websites.
Contact Matthew: Email: matthew@netcorps.org Phone: 541.465.1127
Resources from presentation
Matthew's presentation materials are here: http://www.netcorps.org/press-room/netcorps-blog/archive/2007/10/18/how-rss-feeds-changed-my-life-for-the-better
Easy ways to publish your own RSS feeds: http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5820.cfm
Why nonprofit managers must use RSS – and how to start: http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7325.cfm
Make your nonprofit more effective with RSS aggregation: http://www.socialsignal.com/nonprofit-RSS
How to create RSS feeds for your organization: http://marshallk.com/how-to-create-rss-feeds-for-your-organization
Session Notes
In no particular order, here are some things that stood out to me from this session:
RSS (Real Sinmple Syndication) is a way to filter information that you receive and share. Some examples are comparing housing prices and local restaurants. An individual can subscribe to content that they care about.
RSS has no bottleneck. You can organize the information on an RSS however it makes sense to you. Another advantage is you can pick the information up at any computer - not just your personal computer.
RSS also allows an individual or organization to aggregate relevant information and distribute it to the target audience -- so if you are a nonprofit focused on improving child care, you can create an rss feed that collects news items about children and then share that feed with people who visit your site.
The first I'd ever heard about RSS was at this workshop. Although I haven't yet actually tried to organize my own topic-specific RSS, I can see how powerful an application it could be. Thank you to Matthew for a great presentation and for lighting a fire under even a rank beginner like me.
Just found this cool little video from a comment on Marshall Kirkpatrick's blog: [1]
If you are ready to start using an RSS reader, you may want to check out AideRss (http://www.aiderss.com) which allows you to set up priorities or filters on the feeds. For example, if you wanted to subscribe to the your local newspaper's online page, but you didn't want EVERY story to come to your reader, you could choose to just get the stories that are popular or about a certain topic, etc. Check it out! (It is free, too). http://www.aiderss.com
- Amy Sample Ward
So sorry I missed this.
