What does RSS stand for?
It stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' or 'Rich Site Summary' as some people/sites call it. I think the first is more meaningfull in the way that we use it on the University website.
What is it?
RSS is a format, which allows sites which have content that updates regularly to almost instantly notify RSS subscribers that new content has been added to the site. Most of the time the content will be something like news, vacancies, events, blog entries, flickr photos.
How do I know if a site has an RSS feed?
Most blogs will have a link, which says something like ‘Subscribe to ….’ or you will see an orange button like the one on this blog
. Internet Explorer 7 (see image below) and Firefox (and other browsers) will display a very similar orange button in one of their toolbars at the top the window.
How do I use RSS? (How do I subscribe to a RSS feed?)
Firstly, you will need a RSS reader. There are many different types of readers. Some are desktop applications and other web based applications.
Modern internet browsers like Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Firefox will both have their own readers built in.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a built-in RSS reader, which is very easy to use. Here is a simple tutorial on how to use Outlook 2007 as a RSS reader.
The two best web based RSS readers in my opinion and I use both is Google Reader and Netvibes. You will need to signup to those two sites to be able to use them, but that is a very simple process.
Next you will need to get a RSS feed from a site and tell your reader that you would like to subscribe to that specific feed. You can just copy the RSS url (e.g. http://cccuwebteam.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml) and paste it into your reader.
There are many different ways for subscribing to feeds and I am not going to explain them all in detail, but if you need some assistance please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.
Current and future use of RSS feeds on the University’s website
Currently the only University site that allows users to subscribe to content is the News site. We’ve got plans to make feeds available for events, staff vacancies and sales & wants in the near future. I will publish a message here on the blog when they become available and if you subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed you will be notified as soon as they are available.
Please leave a comment if you can think of any other possible uses.
Additional information
BBC’s explanation on what RSS news feeds is - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm
Introduction to RSS - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA012304631033.aspx
What Is RSS? RSS Explained - http://www.whatisrss.com/
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