RSS Syndication: What, Why and How?

I use newsgator for my Cambodian feeds because I could easily use it generate a RSS feed in feedburner to streamline the headlines from various blogs. I'm using two different readers with different content to keep two different parts of my life organized.

If you follow all the links in this topic, you will uncover a wealth of information regarding RSS. In summary, RSS is simply a set of protocols that allow you to share information.

Most of the discussion has centered on how we as individuals use and choose RSS Readers to access information available in the form of RSS feeds. Cool. We need to know how to do that.

But our NPO have, I believe, a different set of needs: ie, they need to know how and why to implement RSS techniques and protocols in order to share information to accomplish very specific goals. True, some within those organizations will be consumers of RSS Feed delivered information, but the perspective, in this case, should be on how and why they deploy RSS feeds.

I hear all the time: We do not use RSS feeds to share information because RSS penetration isn't very high and no one is demanding to receive the information through that channel.

Let's build the case for an organization to use RSS feed. Let's say that NPO "Feed the Children" publishes a weekly eNewsletter to a growing list of constituents who are interested in news from them.

Studies show that 30 - 40% of email is unopened and/or undelivered -- even with opt-in lists. Why? False positives from Spam filters and overflowing email boxes. This does not even count the number of interested people who do not provide their email address because the fear they will be spammed and those who will give you a secondary or worse email account that they hardly ever check.

Feed the Childeren needs to improve those stats because they rely on their eNewsletter recipients for donations of food and time and money.

A consultant suggests: why not give your eNewsletter readers the option to receive your information via RSS instead of email? You already have a "landing page" where constituents opt to sign up for the eNewsletter; why not add the option of RSS feed?

To successfully implement, you must understand that you will probably have to educate some as to what RSS is and why it might be a viable option for them. That can be done very easily; in the materials on this thread there are a number of primers on RSS-- just point to them.

There is some work you have to do to handle the subscriptions. Basically, since you are already producing html-based articles for your eNewsletter, it is a simple matter to use the same materials for your feeds (or to create brief summaries for the feeds that link back to the same articles that your newsletter links to).

What's in it for the constituent: No spam; no additions to overflowing email boxes; full control over subscription; anonomous (you don't have to give up an email address to subscribe to a general RSS feed.

The incremental cost of adding RSS feeds is very low; the benefits can be rather considerable: remember those 30-40% undelivered/unopened emails? It doesn't take much to show huge gains.

So this is the story on the production side of RSS: NPOs need to look at their communications objectives and see if this approach fits. Then find someone to help them implement.

I've been using Bloglines for quite a while to gather and track feeds. But now that I'm up to more than 100 (which apparently still makes me a lightweight, according to Marnie "300 feeds before breakfast" Webb) I find the chore of checking my feeds to be utterly overwhelming. I'm so afriad to look at all those unread feeds that I avoid Bloglines altogether.

Instead, I'm using the new customizable Google homepage to subscribe to the most essential feeds: 4 media feeds (2 national newspapers, 1 national broadcaster, 1 local alternative blogzine); my del.icio.us "for" tag (more on that below); a pubsub search on my name and my organization's name; and the latest popular links on del.icio.us.

I've decided that it's more useful to actually stay on top of a few essential feeds than to fall behind on a large number of them. This would work especially well if more people used the del.icio.us "for" tag, which allows you to direct people to specific web sites by using their del.icio.us usernames. All you have to do is tag a del.icio.us entry with "for:username" and it will appear on the page http://del.icio.us/tag/for:username -- a page that is only viewable by that user.

I don't know if I missed this some where, but what do I use to submit feeds to be read by others?

Technically, you don't "submit feeds to be read by others." What you do, essentially, is include a method for constituents to "subscribe" to your "feed" (which simply is a collection of articles). If that collection of articles happens to be a blog, there is usually an automatic procedure that will create this subscription code.

If you happen to produce this collection on a portion of your website (not a blog), you will have to add the routines yourself. There are tools that will help you to create these feeds and it isn't that difficult to do but probably beyond the interests and capabilities of most.

When someone subscribes to your feed using an aggregator/reader, that piece of software will periodically scan your site to see if there is anything new and, if there is, add that to the feed. When the subscriber loads the reader, the new items are indicated. (Note: in some cases, feeds are set up to send notifications to an email box -- so some are using a combination of RSS and Email.)

There is a process called "pinging," that your software might use to notify aggregators and others that something new has been published. Let's say that the aggregator is set up to check for new information once a day -- but you have a site where new information is added 10 times a day. You could send out a "ping" with each submission -- which, if the aggregator is set to accept, will cause it to update immediately instead of waiting for its scheduled update.

Sorry that some of this is technical and involved, but it is the easiest way to answer the question.

In summary:
If you use a blog package to create the information for your feeds, you don't have to worry about any of this detail: you just activate the RSS subscription process and the rest is handled by the software.

If you want to syndicate information and not use a blog, you still can but you have to handle the subscripton and notification (pinging) yourself.

In a posting yesterday, I presented the case for where an NPO might want to include an RSS feed option as an alternative to receive information pubilished in their eNewsletter -- for those who want to remain anonymous, want to avoid email box clutter, and who want complete control of their subscriptions.

There are other ways you can use RSS feeds: one that is becoming more popular is the personalized, individualized RSS feed. As the name suggests, you would collect some information regarding the constituent and then tailor the feed specifically to his/her interests.

The advantage of this sort of implementation is tracking and statistics: you can track clickthroughs and decisions made by this individual and provide them with even more customized information -- depending on their interests and preferences.

Some might have some privacy concerns about this technique: but remember, the user can still terminate the subscription at any time with a click of a button and the information provided is voluntary. They have to see a benefit or they will not subscribe.

This form of RSS feed use is almost identical to the personalized eNewsletters we already subscribe to where the topics are geared to information we supplied the organization.

I've put together a simple animation that shows several different approaches to RSS implementation. I also show an actual application of a personalized feed. The form, btw, tests for a properly formed email address so use a fake address if you have any concerns. I can assure you that none of the data collected in this demo is used but feel free to use information you make up. The key here is you can select the kind of information you recieve.

Go to: RSS Simulations and Test for these demonstrations.

Our first RSS Feed that is fully automated & uses a php based script that connects to our database! SLICK!!


www.vote-smart.org/rss.htm
www.vote-smart.org/rss/recent_keyvotes.php

Please feel free to email me about code, examples, etc.

My organization would like to set up an RSS feed for our website. We often have new programs added to the calendar of events, new articles, new visiting hours, etc.

There's been a lot of discussions about why RSS is a good thing and how a reader subscribes and uses an RSS, but how exactly does one create these RSS? Is there a software program that can generate these RSS feeds? How does an organization create a feed? Our content is not on a database and our site using ColdFusion. Ideas?

Thanks.

This might sound a bit curmudgeonly, but I just deleted all my RSS Agregator software, because with only a handful of feeds I was beginning to fall under the same spell that makes email become disruptive in working life. What am I talking about? The percieved need to read all this information that is coming my way.

Ok - that is my choice. I found myself almost obsessed with checking my feeds and reading all the news that came through. It reached a point where I was spending more time reading the information than I could possibly spend acting upon it. So I took the radical decision to opt out of it all.

RSS is a simple way to subscribe to regularly delivered information such as newsletters and, most dangerously, blogs. Whilst recieving a monthly or weekly email newsletter is within anyone's control, many blogs are updated daily, or more often. You would never subscribe to a newsletter that came out this frequently, but for many RSS feeds this is what you are effectively doing by subscribing. When you install a shiny new RSS aggregator app like RSS Bandit, you are going to want to fill it up with plenty of feeds. And that is when it can start to seem like a black hole. You've decided to subscribe to all these feeds - your half way to deciding to READING all of them!

I think what I am trying to say here is that be careful what you do with your RSS feed. Quality is more important than quantity. Start hitting your subscribers too frequently, and they will start to value their subscription less. Let them know how frequently they can expect updates. Point out the benefits of subscription via RSS vs email (e.g. very private, unsubscribing instant and easy) rather than emphasising the whizzy newness of it all.

When subscribing consider whether you really need this or that feed intruding into your life. If your RSS aggregator supports storing feeds in folders, try organising them by how important they are to you rather than by subject. This way each time you check your aggregator you are reminded that whilst your organisation's feed might need reading as frequently as it comes out, KittenWars or Engadget are really only for dead time.

Back here after a long time away! I'd agree that information overload can be a very real danger of RSS feeds - but, if you offer it and someone does like your information - then it's of use! Just have to make sure that they find it worthwhile keeping, when others get ditched.

As to bloglines vs. others - I prefer bloglines myself, because it is so simple & basic interface. I'll agree editing feeds etc is a bit of a pain, and I'm sure it could be simplified, but it's easy. Like others, I like a web based solution - as I'm at home, at work (University - so my office, central labs) have PC & laptop in both locations - so easiest to have it centralised (www.ikeepbookmarks.com is useful for the same sort of reasons!).

To the original question of explaining rss feeds - the BBC now has a very straightforward explantion - http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedfactory/index.shtml for those who are total novices, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/3223484.stm for those who know a bit more!

Talking of reading feeds across multiple computers, [URL http://www.newsgator.com/]Newsgator[/URL] offers a paid for service which keeps track of which articles you have read across multiple computers. I find Newsgator's integration of RSS with email adds to the distraction factor.

[URL http://www.rssbandit.org/]RSS Bandit[/URL] seems to be the best open source RSS aggregator. It can be used with an FTP or WebDAV account to synch your feeds across multiple computers, although you have to manually upload/download (as easy as CTRL+U/CTRL+D).

Both have dedicated interfaces which IMHO just work better than anything websites offer, plus web based aggregators track what you read, inject ads and other stuff that might detract from your FeedReading Enjoyment.