To subscribe to IRRODL RSS, copy and paste the following url to your RSS aggregator: http://www.irrodl.org/miscfiles/irrodl.rss

RSS for Beginners

What is an RSS Feed?

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or alternatively Real Simple Syndication. It was originally designed for newspapers or other publishers to disseminate or syndicate abstracts of their publications. The end user could then easily retire the full article, if they were interested, without having to travel to the site of the publisher, to see what was available. An RSS Feed is then an XML file with only a few fields allowing users to scan the title or headline, author and usually a brief abstract as well as the retrieval address. Although RSS was originally designed for periodical publications, it has been used to deliver updates to web sites, blog articles, new learning objects and a host of other novel applications. In short, anything the owner wants “pushed” to the world.

What is an RSS Reader or Aggregator?

An RSS aggregator is usually a stand alone program (though it may be integrated with a mail or other communications program) that periodically and automatically searches the Web for new additions to any site to which the end user has subscribed. Some systems “pop-up” when new material arrives or on a scheduled basis, others wait until they are checked by the end user. Aggregators can be customized as to frequency of site checking and the ways that selected content is displayed. You can subscribe to as many RSS feeds as you wish and information is displayed and sorted by date and by the publisher of the data. There are open source, freeware and commercial RSS aggregators.

Why Subscribe to an RSS Feed?

Use of an RSS Feed/ aggregator can save time in the finding Net-based information that you are interested in. It allows you to quickly scan titles and only retrieve information that you deem of high value. It reduces the likelihood this type of non-personal information clogging your mailbox.

How Do you Read an RSS feed?

On many sites you visit, you will see an ICON such as

You do not have to worry about the different RSS formats (.92, 1.0, 2.0 etc.) as most modern readers can interpret them all. These icon(s) will link to the location where the RSS feed is published. To reveal or copy this URL, right click on the link and copy it into the “subscribe” form located in the RSS Reader.

How to Install an RSS Reader or Aggregator

From a list of RSS aggregators (such as that found at http://blogspace.com/rss/readers) choose and download one. With luck it should install easily. I had little problem and am quite happy with rssreader from http://www.rssreader.com, but I did have to download Microsoft’s .net tools (but they linked quite easily during the install of RssReader). Then go to the home page of IRRODL at www.irrodl.org and copy the RSS link as describe above. Then choose subscribe and paste in the link and you are done.

You may also want to check out the 130 odd educational feeds listed at Stephen Downes’ Edu_RSS site at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/xml/edu_rss.cgi and subscribe to any of these feeds that interest you. Though be sure not to subscribe to so many that don’t have time to read IRRODL articles.

More Information

Much more detailed instructions and a demonstration of IRRODL RSS feeds is available at http://www.feedpass.com/irrodl as well as specific instructions for subscribing to IRRODL RSS using a host of new RSS aggregators.

That’s it!

Please send any suggestions for improving this page to Terry Anderson at Terrya@athabascau.ca