What is RSS? (Rich Site Summary>
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like
sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community
sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for
news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items
can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a
changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once
information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can
check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.
RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the
weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A
news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by
checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them.
What is RDF? RDF stands for Resource Description Framework.
Resource Description Framework, as its name implies, is a framework for describing and
interchanging metadata. It is built on the following rules:
- A Resource is anything that can have a URI; this includes
all the Web's pages, as well as individual elements of an XML
document. An example of a resource is a draft of the document you
are now reading and its URL is
http://www.textuality.com/RDF/Why.html
- A Property is a Resource that has a name and can be used as
a property, for example Author or Title. In
many cases, all we really care about is the name; but a Property needs
to be a resource so that it can have its own properties.
- A Statement consists of the combination of a Resource, a
Property, and a value. These parts are known as the 'subject',
'predicate' and 'object' of a Statement. An example Statement is "The
Author of http://www.textuality.com/RDF/Why.html is Tim
Bray." The value can just be a string, for example "Tim Bray" in the
previous example, or it can be another resource, for example "The
Home-Page of http://www.textuality.com/RDF/Why.html is
http://www.textuality.com."
- There is a straightforward method for expressing these abstract
Properties in XML, for example:
<rdf:Description about='http://www.textuality.com/RDF/Why-RDF.html'>
<Author>Tim Bray</Author>
<Home-Page rdf:resource='http://www.textuality.com' />
</rdf:Description>
How do I start using RSS feeds?In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.
Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.
If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their websites.
http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.bloglines.com/blog/erugh/rss
How To Create Your Own RSS FeedSyndicating your content via an RSS feed makes your site much easier for people to find, remember, and follow – given the speed with which a typical Web user’s list of bookmarks becomes unwieldy. Plus, RSS is far more effective and reliable than e-mail announcements in terms of alerting your readers about fresh content – because let’s face it, the overwhelming proliferation of spam and viruses is killing e-mail publishing.
Here are some options for creating your own RSS feed…
FIRST STEP: GET SOME EXPERIENCE USING RSS
Before you leap into creating your own feed, it helps to know what feeds are like and how people use them.
If you haven’t done so already, download and install some feed reader software,
http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2004/02/04/feed-readers-an-update-and-a-resource
or open a free Bloglines account.
FeedDemon software
Once you’ve done that, subscribe to a few feeds that interest you. Syndic8, Feedster, and NewsIsFree are all great places to find feeds.
How do I start using RSS feeds?BBC News - RSS FeedsIn general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.
Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.
If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their websites.
