RSS - Really Simple Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication / Rich Site Summary) is a standardized format used to publish frequently updated web-based content such as news-feeds, podcasts, webcasts or blogs.

You can ‘subscribe' to an RSS Feed, so that information is delivered to you as it is released instead of you having to return to the site to look for changes.

CUDA's “Hot Topic” for example is a regularly updated ‘news feed' so next month, when our RSS link is activated, you will be able to ‘receive' a summary of these articles as they are released.

Subscribing to and reading RSS Feed data is done from your RSS Reader (Internet Explorer 7.0 is just one example of an RSS Reader, iTunes is another. We'll show you a bigger list later on…)

Once you've found a worth-wile source of information, (and if it supports RSS syndication) subscribing is as easy as clicking on the RSS Icon for that source.

If you are using an RSS ‘aware' reader (like Internet Explorer 7.0) you will notice that the icon is part of the software itself, and is highlighted when an RSS Feed is detected.

From that point on, your RSS Reader will show you if new content is available and provide you with summary information so that you don't have to return to the site unless you would like to see the full article. RSS Readers even play the Podcast (audio file) as part of the summary.

One of the key differences between subscribing to an RSS feed and subscribing to a Newsletter for example, is that it is anonymous , and controlled entirely by you!

• To subscribe to a newsletter, you need to provide your email address to the site that hosts the newsletter.
• To subscribe to an RSS Feed, you tell your RSS Reader what web-site to visit to fetch the information.
• To un-subscribe from a newsletter, you generally need to ‘ask' the service to stop sending you a newsletter.
• To un-subscribe from an RSS Feed, you simply tell your RSS Reader to stop looking for updates, or remove the datasource entirely. It's instant.

Another difference when comparing RSS to traditional subscription to newsletters, is that the RSS standards dictate what type of data and links can be sent through as well as the format of this data. The benefit here is that all of your ‘Feeds' from various sites (CUDA, Microsoft, CIO as well as peoples Blogs) all look the same in your reader, and you can then opt to go and view the full article on the original site). With a newsletter, the publisher controls the look and feel and layout and so while they may be ‘prettier' the essence of the content may be more difficult to extract through all of the associated ‘marketing material' that traditionally comes with newsletters.

How would this technology apply to the Learning and Performing space?

Picture this:

Your Learning and Development team are subscribed to the RSS Feeds for key content vendors and technology websites. They are always kept in the loop regarding newly released content or newly released upgrades to their LMS. (Even if they don't have time to surf the web for updates, and even though they have un-subscribed from every bulky newsletter because IT has sent out warning letters in this regard.)

Because they are at the cutting edge, they get their hands on some great new content and load in into their LMS, but the bulk email that they send to learners gets ignored. (learners have long since learned the art of automatically deleted bulk emails that clutter their mailbox!)

This is no problem, when they next log into your RSS enabled LMS (like CUDA) relevant learners are notified via RSS that an informative new course targeted at their Job Profile is now available, with a link to launch the course information page.

While this might sound too good to be true, LMS's typically already store information about what a learner might be interested in, and RSS is not a new product, it is simply a technology that can be merged with your existing LMS to syndicate data automatically to your learners. Contact us for more information.