Week 4: RSS and Aggregators

During Week 4, which begins October 20, we'll be exploring the use of RSS and Aggregators.

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How do most people keep track of the growing amount of information that they receive? With Web 2.0 tools growing like weeds, it's a challenge, as is evident on our ever-expanding forum discussions .

One of the best tools for managing information flow is an RSS Aggregator, also known as a "feed reader." With an aggregator, you can "subscribe" to your favorite sites, including blogs, wikis, news sites, etc. and be notified when new information has been added to those sites via the RSS protocol. If the terms RSS/Aggregators/Feed Readers are completely new to you, we once again recommend a CommonCraft Video RSS in Plain English. It explains what RSS is and how to use an aggregator to be updated when new information is posted on the sites to which you subscribe.

There are many aggregators available, both Web and desktop based, and The Ultimate RSS Site describes many of these--but don't go there unless you are already familiar with RSS.

Here we will discuss how to get started with a popular web-based aggregator called Bloglines. Like most other aggregators, Bloglines is a web application that allows you to view any site via a "feed" seen within the Bloglines window without having to go to the actual site. A major advantage of aggregators is that you can see what has changed since the last time you looked at a site, and you can preview a post without having to go to the site. This saves a lot of time and allows you to quickly scan many sources. Harold monitors about 150 feeds and most of these are visible to the public.

Aggregators and Social Bookmarks are two of the primary tools that can be used to manage the enormous information flow of the Internet Age - RSS aggregators to track blogs & news; and tagging to keep track of interesting things you find on the Net. These are the basic tools for self-directed learning on the Web, suitable for students, teachers, trainers, professionals and life-long learners. With Bloglines, for example, you can invite someone to join and mark which of your feeds that you recommend. Once that person creates an account, your feeds will automayically be added. In this way, you can pre-load the aggregatros of your students or colleagues.

Assignment

Spectators

Read a few of the articles listed below. Take a look at the public aggregators of Harold or Michele  or anyone else and follow some links to sites that are new to you. Read through the comments in the related forums and come to your own conclusions about using an aggregator. If you want, ask Harold to invite you to Bloglines and tell him what interests you. He will send you an invitation (but needs an e-mail address) with a few recommended feeds included.

Joiners

If you don't have an aggregator, then get one. Start with Bloglines. If you use Google's services, you may prefer Google Reader. Two others to consider are Netvibes (which Michele uses) and PageFlakes.  Add the feeds of some blogs that you read regularly or ones that you have discovered on this course. Add in any news sites that you use. Do they all have RSS feeds?

Creators

Let's assume that you have an aggregator, and if not, you'll have up in about 10 minutes. Now take a look at another aggregator and test it out. How is it different from your current one? Would you switch? Post your experience on your blog (Ning or otherwise). You might also want to try one or more things from the 100 Cool Things You Can Do With RSS.

Forums

RSS Basics - post any questions on getting started or any resources that may be helpful to others. This is also where we'll have some links for getting started with the Aggregators we've discussed here.

Creating a Bloglines Account

A Step-by-Step Guide to Google Reader

Netvibes Tutorial

Pageflakes Tutorial (screencast)

RSS Advanced - this is for discussions on how to optimize your aggregators or the subtle differences between various aggregators.

RSS for Learning - let's talk about how we have used aggregators for formal or informal learning and in various settings. Are these learning tools?

Setting Up Feeds for Podcasts, etc.--At Brian Allen's request we set up this forum to share resources on setting up feeds for your own content, such as podcasts. This is where we'll discuss issues related to using feeds as a content delivery system for your learners.

 Articles

In the Know: Stay on Top of Your Field with Feeds

7 Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Feeds

Become a Knowledge Ninja with Google Reader

12 Filtering Tips for Better Information in Half the Time