Stay updated with RSS

What is RSS?
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, videos, online educational resources and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. It enables you to remain updated in certain domains or about certain topics. The most important benefit of RSS is that it can be used aggregate information streams from different resources into one place: any online or offline RSS reader or RSS/feed aggregator.

The course about Social Media, described here, contains more information about new media and the use of web technologies.

How can I use RSS?
As mentioned above, people can aggregate RSS feeds (resources) using online or offline aggregators. A widely used aggregator is Google Reader. With a (free) Google account anyone can use this service and add different RSS feeds to it. These resources are maintained and updated continuously by the author(s) of the feed. Other aggregators include Netvibes, Bloglines, News Gator and many more. The number of RSS feeds aggregated in aggregators depends on the user. Some will have hundreds of RSS feeds to skim through daily, some only have 10 or 20 resources. The majority of online news resources currently have adopted RSS as a standard way to distribute their news and updates.

And now...
On this blog, we will post different posts with recommendations for RSS feeds or people to follow. Including these weblogs and RSS feeds on your Feed reader is only the start. When you spend time online, finding information and people, you will see the RSS icon very often. Not just news-feeds and weblogs as the above can be seen or read through RSS, but almost any resource. Photos of your friends and family, updates in your social or professional network, changes and additions on wiki-pages. In an Enterprise 2.0, this service is offered internally as well, enabling people from within the organization to remain updated about strategy changes, new practices and ideas, problems and issues that have surfaced, and more.