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It's an RSS Thang
So recently the majority of my time spent behind a computer consists of the activity known as, 'Feed Reading.' For those of you not familiar with what a feed is, I'm sure the terms RSS and Aggregator are pretty dang foreign as well. Let me try to break it down real quick like, then I'll go into why I think these new technologies are so dang cool, and potentially valuable to the future of the information age.
First off, RSS, most commonly translated as Really-Simple-Syndication, is common (standardized) way that information is formatted, distributed, and interpreted. This standardization is very important to the entire process. It's important in the same way proper grammar is important in language, so that communication can exist with little room for error. There is currently a lot of chatter about possible other ways this formalization should be brought about, but RSS is by far the most popular, however sometimes you might see terms like RDF, XML, or ATOM thrown about but this really has little value to someone just getting into this mess.
Now we have a formal way to present information in RSS. Next you will have to figure out what the heck to do with it. This is where it gets interesting, because there are literately new 'things' to do with RSS being discovered every day. But we'll start with the basics, then work into the abstract.
The most common use for RSS is to read news headlines. This is done in programs called Aggregators. NewsGator and FeedReader are examples of popular aggregators. They are software programs you download and install on your computer and are normally separate from your internet browser. The way they work is by contacting on a regular basis all the news sources that you 'subscribe' too, and checking for new content. If it finds new content it will then download that onto your computer, and make it available for you to read. In most cases however you can't read the entire article (the sources normally have advertising on their site that they really want you to click on, which wouldn't show up in the RSS feed) so in most cases you just get a headline and maybe if your lucky a nice lead paragraph. Most corporate sites will only give you headline and a sentence long lead.
So that's the basic process, a nice way to get headlines from CNN, New York Times, Wired, and Slashdot without going to a single webpage. This is why this is called Syndication technology, and I hope you're also starting to grasp the 'really simple' part of the equation as well. But there's more to it! People syndicate their blogs, Craigslist is syndicated (i.e. Jobs), Flickr (the popular new photo sharing service), Sports scores (ESPN has a feed for any professional team in the US), Upcoming.org has feeds per city (an event listing service), even GMail (Google Mail) will syndicate your emails! Anyway, you can see that RSS has the potential to distribute lots of info, very fast, to whoever has the gumption to subscribe to a particular feed. This is a slightly more involved approach to syndication technology, but it gets deeper, and more socially/culturally relevant as well.
So everyone has an iPod these days right? At least they want one, don't try to be cool and deny it, you want one too. What could possibly link iPods with RSS you ask? PodCasting. There, I said it. You might have heard this new buzz around your local hipster joints, NPR stations, or geekmeets galore, but I think it's time you start to take notice because this buzz word has the potential to change the way we think about media distribution as a whole.
A podcast is a pre-recorded audio file, that is syndicated via RSS through a slightly more sophisticated Aggregator (iPodder is a popular one). These aggregators will spot an mp3 file in the RSS feed, download it, then load it onto your iPod, all this with you not lifting a finger. Cool right? Right now most of these podcasts are total nerd-fest meets radio-broadcasters amateur hour. But the corporate world is starting to get in on the game, and very soon the entertainment industry will follow suit. Independent (pre-recorded) radio is what this is, and the potential for indie rock stardom is ripe. A well done podcast with interesting commentary, good music and laughs galore would rock around the 'blog-o-sphere' in seconds. Get out your GarageBand kiddies, it's serious. Corporate sponsorship, which means subscription cost will SOON FOLLOW SUIT. Let's beat them too it.
Moving on to Bit-Torrent! TV and Movie automated downloading service. I'll be brief, mainly because I don't really endorse this, partly because it's illegal, and partly because I only have like 20 megs of space left on my antiquated laptop, and I can't say I participate in this much. Anyway, just like the fancy ipod aggregators, there are fancy aggregators that search for Bit Torrent files (you're gonna have to search that one on your own). This is cool because you could set it up something like this: titlequery="The Simpsons" and every time a new file that has, you guessed it, "The Simpsons" in it's title, it is then downloaded onto your computer. Now, doing Network TV shows, Fox, Nbc, Cbs etc... for the most part is still legal (of course the lawsuits are pending), but for SURE cable broadcasts are absolutely illegal, same with movies and copyrighted music and software and games and so on and so on. Anyways, just another way that RSS is being used in combination with other technologies of today that is pretty dang cool.
So that's the nitty gritty of what can be done, and is done, with RSS, lets get into the abstract here. How will/Can RSS change the way we access/process information? What effect does RSS have on the spread/propagation/proliferation of information? RSS, the new world order? Ok, I'm getting ridiculous. Let me go ahead and give my two cents on some of these questions.
RSS I believe has the capacity to change the way we access information. Not only the physical process, but also the ideological process, i.e. expectations that are involved in the way we seek/absorb/interpret information in today's world. For instance, today people tend to get their information in a very categorical way. If I want to read liberal politics, I know where to go get it. If I want to read geek-stuff, I have a set source in mind that will feed me that information. Because obtaining and processing information, even in today's internet world, is still for the most part cumbersome, I believe that people have adopted this categorical, single source, self-satisfactory outlook on information seeking as a direct result of these burdens. If we make the ability to obtain information on particular topics easier, from several different sources, and if we have the foresight to construct a system that is designed to readily facilitate that, I believe, by doing so, we will increase the value of the end result of the information being spread. If people have a wide perspective on a particular piece of information, I believe the choices they make as a result of that broad perspective, will ultimately set the stage for input/feedback/output that can positively contribute to the active/global communication process.
How does RSS effect the spread of information? I believe that RSS makes the spread of information more attainable, and specifically it offers a consilient solution to the integration of ideas across a very field/category specific medium. What I have noticed on my particular feed reading sessions is that the same story, or event, will come up several times, but it will be covered by multiple news sources. It is very common that the coverage emanated from one particular, very specialized source, that may or may not have a RSS feed itself. I have found that reading the original source, then reading the several different interpretations of that source can be an enlightening experience in itself, as referred to in the preceding paragraph, but what I find more interesting is the ability of this one little bump on this 'super-highway' of information that is the internet, could be turned into a tidal wave of in-depth coverage and analysis. On top of that, there now exist services that help speed this process up. Using posting, ranking and linking service such as del.icio.us, trackback and feedburner, this process of upward-exponential, analytical reverberation grows at an even faster rate.
The Revolution will be Syndicated. This catch phrase is on the tips of the tongues of the people who are & will be shaping the future of the next generation of the way we access, process and interpret information. Remember, information is really all we have as humans to communicate. We can touch and feel, but I doubt this is how we'll learn about world events, keep up with the latest indie recording artists, or experience new pieces of art in the near/or far future. Digital information was a revolution. It is young, and it is being shaped right now by a very exclusive community. This is not the intent, but it is the reality. The barrier is knowledge, and so far the gap has not been addressed in a way that I personally see as a tangible solution to creating the great information community that this technology can help achieve. It is elitist and it's not supposed to be. This is a problem, lets solve it. Get in on the communication. Express your needs, wants, and expectations that you have for the way you want to access/process information in the future. The ball, for now, is in our court, lets play.
5.31.2005
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