As you visit various web sites you may notice links and badges that point to something called RSS. In fact, this column has one. If you haven't discovered this valuable tool, you may want to dig a bit deeper. Basically RSS is a web format that takes the content of a web site and syndicates it in a file format that can be read by various applications called News Feed Readers. There is a variety of these types of tools, both desktop-based and web-based. Two of the more popular are Bloglines and Google Reader. These readers allow you to subscribe to content from your favorite web sites and have the latest content from those sites come to you in your RSS reader. So rather than bounce from site to site to see if anything new has been added, you can visit your RSS reader, and let the content come to you. Last week I shared a video from the folks at Common Craft about Wikis. They have also done another video that explains RSS in Plain English. This is a great introduction to RSS and a good way to introduce the concept to your staff, students and community.
Next Tip: Social Bookmarking
