What is RSS and why should NGOs care

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What is RSS and why should NGOs care?
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Objectives of this session

• To introduce participants to the basics of RSS
• What is RSS?
• How does RSS work?
• To explain why NGOs should care about RSS
• How can NGOs use RSS?
• How can RSS benefit us in our work?

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The basics what is RSS?

• RSS is Really Simple Syndication
• It is the syndication (or publishing) of web
  content that
• involves 2 things
• RSS feeds
• RSS aggregators (or readers)

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The basics RSS feeds

• RSS feeds are XML files generated by web
  publishing software
• (XML is a generic specification for data formats)
• RSS feeds provide users (or machines) with new
  or updated
• web content

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The basics RSS aggregators (or readers)

• RSS aggregators request and display RSS feeds
• RSS aggregators can be
• Desktop software
• (e.g. Feedreader - http//feedreader.com)
• Web-based software
• (e.g. Google Reader - http//google.com/reader)
• Other websites

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The basics how does RSS work?

• Website managers make content updates available
  as feeds on
• CMS-driven websites
• Blogs
• Wikis
• End users subscribe to those feeds through feed
  readers
• Other website managers syndicate the same feeds
  on their own
• sites

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Why should we care how can we use RSS?

• Do two things
• Choose an aggregator/reader
• Subscribe to feeds
• You can subscribe to web feeds for
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Wikis
• and more!

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Why should we care what are the benefits?

• RSS makes it easier to read the Web
• We can use it to get information efficiently
• RSS saves you time - you don't go to sites that
  haven't been updated
• RSS makes online collaboration easier and
  cheaper
• You can actually get the information you need
• About the issues you're interested in
• About your profession
• About your organisation

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Why should we care what are the benefits?

• You can "search the future"
• You can track mentions of your organisation
• In the news media
• On blogs
• You can track issues you're interested in
• You can create "team tags" on sites like
  del.icio.us and then have team members subscribe
  to them to share resources
• By making your content available via RSS, you're
  allowing other people to discover you
• You can find people
• You avoid being a spammer
• You can collaborate more effectively with wikis!

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Great resources

• RSS-related articles and blog posts from Alex
  Samuel
• http//www.alexandrasamuel.com/categories/rss
• http//www.alexandrasamuel.com/rsstocracy/10steps
• Video RSS in Plain English
• http//www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
• Why Nonprofit Managers Must Use RSS ... And How
  to Start
• http//www2.democracyinaction.org/node/418
• My site
• http//importantprojects.co.uk

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Thank you!