8. Learn about RSS feeds

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Here's a video that introduces RSS and RSS feed readers: RSS in Plain English.

Exercise:

1. The Gmail account that you used to create your blog will also work for setting up Google Reader. Here's the starting page. If you're not currently logged on with your Google account, use the Sign In link in the upper right. Watch the video, take the tour, and/or start adding subscriptions.

2. Subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds:

• Choose one or more of our library blogs
• Read one or more of your fellow Learning 2.0 participants' blogs
• Add one or more of the blogs that you looked at in Week 1, Thing #2

3. Write a blog post about how this went. Any problems? Which feeds did you choose?

4. Figure out how you going to remember to check your Google Reader. Create a bookmark? Bring it up first thing in the morning with your email? Check it while you working at a service desk?