RSS for Advocates: Everything You Need to Know
There is much in the way of information about RSS. This article gives you an overview, and shows you some resources of where to begin and how to do it.
What is RSS?
Before we define it, let's just say: RSS will be a core technology you will be using (just like email now is), and it's simply a matter of time. RSS is a simple technology that anyone can use to bring the power of the Internet (research, news, and other content) to you directly -- rather than combing through sites and searches. Knowing a simple skill of using RSS will change your work life.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is technology that is easy-to-use and brings the power of the net to your desktop. By allowing you to bring online news and blogs directly to your browser or email, RSS will revolutionize your internet experience and bring you in touch with a larger online community.
Why Do You Need It? Let's use this analogy. Say, John and Jane both have some content you want and they write about it. For some of you, you'd have to go to John's house (aka website) and find that letter. Much more, you'd have to KNOW John wrote about it. So, instead of going to John or Jane or Jim's house (website) for content, you use RSS to bring it to you -- to your browser, to your email, or to a website you create (Netvibes is a good example). Even better: you don't have to even know about John's website, you can use RSS aggregators to help you find content that some John has written.
What is RSS-able? News, blogs, podcasts, video... any content online. Even your email can be (like Gmail). Look for the orange broadcast symbol or orange XML or RSS symbol in an address bar on your browser or on a site. This means you can subscribe to (RSS) that content to you directly.
Suggested Resources
1. NTAP Trainings on RSS for Advocates. View the recorded training if you are new to RSS.
2. Top Ten Reasons to Explore RSS (TechSoup article reprinted on NTAP)
3. RSS to Keep Up with News and Information (Online article by Shriver Center)
4. Great RSS Sources for Legal Service Advocates Check out this article on our site for recommendations of what news you should feed yourself as a legal aid advocate. (Plus read about feeds related to Intellectual Property courtesy of the ABA: http://meetings.abanet.org/ltrc/index.cfm?data=20061006)
5. Getting Started with RSS This gives you a the overview of how you'll get started and preface the decisions you'll need to make.
6. Tutorial: Using Feedreader This Shriver Center tutorial demonstrates how to use Feedreader, a free, open source application, to read RSS newsfeeds.
7. Tutorial: Using GoogleReader This Shriver Center tutorial demonstrates how to use Google Reader, a web-based RSS aggregator, to read RSS newsfeeds.
8. Easy Ways to Publish Your Own RSS Feeds: TechSoup article, for the more advanced user.
9. All About RSS (Fagan Finder) This article is not pretty, but there are some good overview explanations about RSS and worth a looksee.
10. National Legal Services RSS Server: This service provides a central repository of many RSS feeds (including not only news, but calendar and job feeds as well) created by the legal services community. Individuals can use this resource as a place to find feeds within the legal services community, or to create custom topic-based news feeds. Currently, the server is home to feeds from NLADA, LSC, CLASP, MIE, Illinois Legal Aid Online, Massachussetts Legal Services.
