Thing #6: Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those 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 survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionizing 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 every day. 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 Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:

• RSS in Plain English (3:43) - a great introduction from the folks at Common Craft.
  
• Getting Started with Bloglines (We will use this in the exercise.)
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
   
2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself. Follow the steps in the Getting Started with Bloglines tutorial.
3. Now let's add a few more feeds to your Bloglines account.
   
   • Subscribe to at least three of your co-participants' feeds. This is as easy as putting the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!
     
     Do you want to subscribe to all of your co-workers' feeds? There is an easy way to do this. See the Extra Stuff section below to learn how.
     
     
   • Then try adding a few other feeds from the list below.
     
     • Nebraska Library Commission
       
     • News
       • Lincoln Journal Star
       • North Platte Telegraph
       • Omaha World-Herald
       • Scottsbluff Star Herald
       • The Grand Island Independent
   • Unshelved - Library cartoon feed
   
   
4. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.
   Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:
   • What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
   • How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
   • How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
   • Try another reader. How does it compare to Bloglines. What features do you like or dislike?

EXTRA STUFF:

It’s easy to add everyone’s RSS feeds to your reader using what is called an OMPL file. An OMPL file allows users to easily copy RSS feed lists from one newsreader to another. We’ve created an OMPL file that contains a list of recommended blogs and feeds so all you’ll have to do is import the file. Here is what you need to do if you are using Bloglines.

1. Save the OMPL file to your computer. Right click on the link below and select Save Target As in IE or Save Link As in Firefox.
   
2. Save the file to your computer. It doesn’t matter where on your computer you save it; just make sure you can find it again!
3. Go to Bloglines and log on if needed.
4. Click on the Feeds tab on the left hand side of the screen.
5. Click on Edit.
6. At the bottom of the left hand column will be a link labeled Import Subscriptions. You may need to scroll down the page to see this link. Click on the link.
7. Click Browse and locate the OMPL file that you saved in step number 1.
8. Click Import.
9. When it’s done it should tell you how many feeds have been imported.
   

Bloglines is just one of many readers available. If it doesn't meet your needs here are a few others you might want to try.

• Internet Explorer 7 & Outlook 2007 come with a built in readers.
• Google Reader
• netvibes (more then just a newsreader)
• PageFlakes (more then just a newsreader)

It's easy to try different readers if they allow users to import OMPL files. All you need to do is export your subscriptions from Bloglines and then import them into another reader.

To export your subscriptions in Bloglines follow the above steps 2-6 except select export instead of import. Save the file to your computer. Go to the new reader you would like to try and import the file.