The following excerpt is from OnLine Learning Habersham.
8. What is The RSS feed?
OLHG753 Lesson 3: Publishing to the Internet using iWeb Objective 8: The learner will define “RSS” and explain the importance of “RSS” linking to the web page. The learner will email this explanation and definition to the Learning Manager. Reference: See the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) The above listed reading sounds like a bunch of “techno-ese” or language that might get the casual Internet publisher “mixed up” or frustrated. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a type of language that some computer applications communicate with. These applications, which receive the messages, are called “RSS readers” and are used to communicate information via the Internet. RSS capable devices include computer screen savers with RSS reading capabilities, iTunes programs, iPods, Black Berries, and newer cell phones. RSS device users don’t have to open web browsers such as Safari or Internet Explorer each time the user wants to see if a new message is put “out there” on the Internet by some favorite Internet publishing author. So this means frequent viewers can use browsers to go to web pages; however, RSS enabled web pages can also communicate without the viewer having to use a web browser… or for that matter… a computer. RSS viewers may use the normal Internet or the RSS subscriber devices as the RSS users choose for speed and convenience. RSS “feeds” (the automatically downloaded information from the “RSS enabled” web site) can alert the “subscriber” (the person who is a frequent viewer of the information from a particular Internet publisher, author or web site operator). Again the subscriber is automatically alerted with messages from the RSS web site via the subscriber’s computer, iPod, iTunes, RSS enabled cell phone or “Black Berry” type device.
Most of the time, subscribers to RSS feeds don’t have to pay any money, as would subscribers to newspapers or magazines. Subscribers are simply viewers of web sites who select (click on) buttons that “subscribe” to messages generated from “subscribable” web pages. Great! So after that wordy explanation, what good is this to a teacher? iWeb is an application which adapts beautifully and simply to the RSS process. When using iWeb, the web page creator automatically has the RSS feed buttons built into their blog or pod cast web page templates. The audience members or web page visitors make the decision as to whether the visitor wishes to subscribe to the web page’s RSS feeds. There is nothing more the iWeb web page author has to do as long as the author has entered the correct URL in the “publish to a folder” preferences (We did this in OLHG753 Objective #2). RSS feeds are already included in iWeb templates. RSS feeds can be subscribed to by, let’s say, students and parents so that messages (like “next week’s project” or “school picture day is…”) will automatically go to the parent’s or students’ screen savers, ipods, iTunes or future devices (maybe even cell phones and “black berries’).
In other words, it takes about 3 to five minutes to change the iWeb web site of a HCBOE staff member with an account on the HCBOE web server so that the message from the staff member to the public can be automatically downloaded to many communication devices available to the staff member’s target audience.