j's scratchpad

Feeding Frenzy!!!

j Baumgart

j’s scratchpad

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

j gave this presentation for the Special Libraries Association Wisconsin Chapter on Wednesday, October 19, 2005.

Raise Your Hand If You …

[About twenty library and information science professionals and students were in the audience.]

• Know what XML feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) are [about half of the room]

• Receive feeds [a few hands]
• Use an aggregator or news reader [same few hands]
• Are here because you personally want to learn more [most hands]
• Are here because your employer is considering or already using the technology [about the same number]
• Have coded your own XML feed [no hands]

Feeds

• Powerful way to distribute and receive content

• XML file on a server
• Usually distributed when there’s new content
• Most people use software to read them
• Possible to route feeds to Web sites

Why Should Librarians Care?

• Feeds are great and powerful

• Librarians have not only a role in using feeds, but also encouraging their clients to use feeds.
• If we drive technology in our organizations, we probably have a role in encouraging others to use feeds.

XML Feed Headers, 1

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<!– RSS generated by UserLand Frontier v9.0 on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:53:25 GMT –>

<rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>

<channel>

<title>j's scratchpad</title>

XML Feed Headers, 2

<link>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/</link>

<description>A blog about news librarianship and related topics, like blogging, feeds, wikis, copyright law, and journalism.</description>

<language>en-us</language>

<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

<lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:51:07 GMT</lastBuildDate>

XML Feed Headers, 3

<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs>

<generator>UserLand Frontier v9.0</generator>

<category domain=”http://www.weblogs.com/rssUpdates/changes.xml”>rssUpdates</category> <managingEditor>jkbaumga @ [e-mail address]</managingEditor>

<webMaster>jkbaumga @ [e-mail address] (j Baumgart)</webMaster>

Blog Post in XML, 1

<item>

<title>Reminder: Feeding Frenzy in Wisconsin, Registration Deadline Monday (10/17)</title> <link>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2005/09/30#a4003</link>

<description>There's way too much space at my upcoming talk in Madison, Wisconsin. […]</description>

Blog Post in XML, 2

<dc:creator>j Baumgart</dc:creator>

<category>Professional Development</category> <guid>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2005/10/12#a4054</guid> <comments>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/comments?u=jkbaumga&p=4054&link=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.law.harvard.edu%2Fjkbaumga%2F2005%2F10%2F12%23a4054</comments> </item>

Create a Feed

• Bug the content creators until they get a feed

• Write your own
• Third-party solutions
  • Like Feed Burner: http://www.feedburner.com/ and many others
• Keep copyright and licensing issues in mind

Feeds are Easy

• Let’s put one online!

Feed Examples: Web sites and Weblogs

• ResourceShelf: http://www.resourceshelf.com/resourceshe…

• Librarians’ Index to the Internet: http://lii.org/ntw.rss
• j’s scratchpad: http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/rss_pro…

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/rss/
• The New York Times: http://www.gomoos.org/rss/hourly-buoy-da…

• Weather: http://www.weather.gov/alerts/wi.php
• Traffic alerts: http://www.flightview.com/TravelTools/

• the World as a Blog: http://www.brainoff.com/geoblog/
• Portals:
  • http://my.harvard.edu/

2 Main Kinds of Feeds

• RSS: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss

• Atom: http://atomenabled.org/
• Both are XML feeds
• Differences: http://bokardo.com/archives/interface-el… [Who knows? It depends on many factors.]

Differences between Reading a Feed and a Site

• Lose niceities of the Web site

• Stream of content with no distractions
• Easy to find what’s new
• Lose links on sidebar, etc.

Aggregators

• Aggregators read feeds

• Many kinds
• Good aggregators should handle various feeds and files
• Public vs. private aggregators

Desktop Aggregators

• Come in all flavors

• NetNewsWire: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
• Pluck: http://www.pluck.com/
• BlogBridge: http://www.blogbridge.com/
• MSN screensaver can be aggregator: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/ aggregator/

• Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
• My Yahoo!: http://my.yahoo.com/
• Google Reader: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printabl…

• Review of Mac aggregators: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/20…
• Six readers: http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Arti…
• List of aggregators via Wikipedia: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

• iPodder: http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/
• Some news readers

Library/Librarian Podcasts

• List from Open Stack’s Greg Schwartz, who also podcasts: http://getfireant.com/

• Mefeedia: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTAC…

• An Introduction to RSS Feeds: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/20…
• The scratchpad’s Feeds department: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/ne…
• RSS4Lib: http://www.feedster.com/

• Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/
• Daypop: http://www.daypop.com/
• Share Your OPML: http://feeds.scripting.com/
• NewsIsFree: http://www.blogwise.com/

• Open Directory Project’s list of LIS weblogs: http://www.dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/…
• SciencePORT: http://www.scienceport.org/
• Syndic8: http://www.ipodder.org/

• Podcast Alley: http://www.podcastalley.com/
• Podcast Directory: http://www.podcast.net/
• Odeo: http://www.kbcafe.com/rmail.aspx

• rss2email: http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/rss2email/
• GmailRSS:  http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~karu/gmailrss/
• RSSFwd: http://www.rssfwd.com/rssfwd/index
• Bloglet (for site owners only): http://www.bloglet.com/
• Feedblitz: http://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom

• Yahoo! Groups: 

  ” title=”http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2005/05/20/re-syndication-sidebar-updates-and-more/

” target=”_blank”>http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2005/05…

[j added this slide after the talk.]

Use of Feeds by Libraries

• The Northwestern University Library has a blog  http://www.library.northwestern.edu/news…), which appears on the library’s homepage  http://www.library.northwestern.edu/)

• Yale’s Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library  http://www.med.yale.edu/library/) provides a feed for its newsletter

Use of Feeds by Libraries, 2

• University of Alabama RSS Feeds for Recently Cataloged Titles: http://library.ua.edu/rss/

• University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page has a feed for the New Listings page: 

  ” title=”http://directory.edufeeds.com/index.php?c=4

” target=”_blank”>http://directory.edufeeds.com/index.php?…

Events via Feed

• RSS Calendar: http://www.rsscalendar.com/

• PHP iCalendar: 

  ” title=”http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2005/10/16#a4065

” target=”_blank”>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/20…

Search Results via Feed

• Feedster: http://www.feedster.com/search.php?hl=en…

• Google News: http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_f…
• Kebberfegg: http://www.researchbuzz.org/tools/kebber…
• PubSub: http://fce.factiva.com/rss/marketing.htm

• Proquest: http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/rss/
  • Business feeds by topic: http://library.usask.ca/ejournals/rss_fe…
  • RSS creator: 

    ” title=”http://frankenfeed.com/

  ” target=”_blank”>http://frankenfeed.com/