Really Simple Syndication
RSS is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web… RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes. Skrenta calls this "the incremental web." Others call it the "live web".
- Tim O'Reilly, "What is Web 2.0?"
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool created to ease the review of blogs (weblogs) or news by automating the update and presentation of the content through a web feed. Syndication through an RSS Feed is an XML web page that connects to an RSS Reader on the end-user's machine in order to automatically update a list of recent posts of content. Some common RSS readers are: SharpReader, NewsGator, NetNewsWire, Mozilla (built into the browser), FeedDemon, RssBandit, Shrook, and Feedreader. The current version of RSS 2.0 is copyrighted by Harvard University.
Sample Application: BLOGS
Weblogs aren't just the next generation of personal home pages, representing a return to text over design and, lightweight content management systems. They are also a platform for experimentation with the way the Web works: collective bookmarking, virtual communities, tools for syndication, referral, and Web services.
- Tim O'Reilly, "Inventing the Future"
A blog (weblog) is a web-based publication or journal. Blogs can vary greatly in content, ranging from the very personal to corporate or political topics. Many blogs have the capability of readers to post reactionary comments to the blog. The general community of blogs is often called the blogsphere. The term “blog” is said to be first used by Peter Merholz in 1999 when he separated the word weblog into “we blog”, which then caught on as a noun and verb in usage. A blog provides a web interface for creating and editing blog entries. Blogger is a well-known web service blogging tool and there are many others that can be used as installed, server-side applications, such as Movable Type, WordPress, and b2evolution. Blogging technology is supported by PHP, Perl, or ColdFusion programming.
Some important features that blogs use to increase the dynamics of the “live web” are links and trackbacks. When a blogger links , or makes a hyperlink connection, to another site or blog entry the web of information grows and the links of information can be considered similar to a “global brain” of thoughts and relationships. A trackback is a method in the web that sends a small message – a “ping” – back to the original blog in order to create a list of entries of other blogs that have referred to that particular post. It is a self-monitoring, blog-referential tool. The strength and value of that particular piece of information is increased with each link and trackback. The web of dynamic, updating links grows each time and the network of connections become stronger and stronger.
Technical Aspects
Here is an example of RSS (borrowed from the Wikipedia, “Really Simple Syndication”:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Birthday Bash Interviews</title>
<link>http://kccnfm100.com/</link>
<description>Natural Vibrations.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
<managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
<item>
<title>Star City</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</link>
<description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the
International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language
and protocol at Russia's Star City.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573</guid>
</item>
<item>
<description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada
will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31st.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>The Engine That Does More</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</link>
<description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines
that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed
VASIMR engine would do that.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Astronauts' Dirty Laundry</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</link>
<description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space
Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them.
Instead, astronauts have other options.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570</guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Atom is also a common syndication feed language based on XML. It was created to compete with RSS and was first launched in 2003.
Here is a sample of an Atom Feed document (borrowed from Wikipedia, “Atom”:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <title>Example Feed</title> <subtitle>Insert witty or insightful remark here</subtitle> <link href="http://example.org/"/> <updated>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated> <author> <name>John Doe</name> <email>johndoe@example.com</email> </author> <id>urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b91C-0003939e0af6</id> <entry> <title>Atom-Powered Robots Run Amok</title> <link href="http://example.org/2003/12/13/atom03"/> <id>urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a</id> <updated>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated> <summary>Some text.</summary> </entry> </feed>
The most common use of RSS and Atom are for publishing blog or news information to RSS readers or aggregators . An aggregator is a type of computer program, or online program that collects syndicated web content. Syndicated web content is content delivered simultaneously to various sources. RSS creates a great efficiency in receiving multiple highlights from various blogs or news feeds for further reading.
Further…
About RSS Feeds from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm
Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/start
RSS 2.0 (Harvard) – http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Atom – http://www.atomenabled.org/
More about Atom: http://www.atomenabled.org/
A comparison of RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0: http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/Rss20AndAtom10Compared
How Blogs Work: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm
Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com/