What's the big deal?
You're hearing more and more about "RSS," "news feeds," "XML," "add
this to bloglines," or other buzz words that all refer to the
same, relatively simple idea:
More and more web sites, from the New York Times to several
members of NC Women United, are "syndicating" their
content.
What this means
is that in addition to publishing their content on the web,
they also make availble a description of the content (particularly
their "news") that allows the "headlines" to be republished in several ways.
Ok. So what's the big deal???
Well, once those headlines are available, they can be "aggregated" by
tools that either
- Produce "personal web newspapers," or
- Redisplay the headlines on other, partner sites
As an individual, this means that you can quickly scan headlines from several
sites by using an "aggregator". (Most readers of "blogs" don't "check
back often" to look for new content -- they use aggregators.) There are
dozens of aggregators available. Ask the person who normally helps you with
computer questions, or check out
As an advocate, check to see if the content on your website
is being syndicated. If it is, and you are an NCWU member, be sure to forward
the feed address to webmaster@ncwu.org, so we can add the information to our
pages.
Ok, really. Please cut to the chase!
Check out
Or, if you are using an aggregator/feed reader, add these feeds "by URL" to
your tool. [The addresses below are not meant to be read by "humans" --
simply copy and paste the address from this page into the box in your feed
reader where it asks for the address of a news feed. If you're not using a
feed reader, feel free to skip this section.]
- Updates to Women's Agenda Assembly Info:
http://ncwu.org/rss/waa.xml
- Choices
on updates to NCWU Calendar
- Combined news feed for NCWU members:
http://feedjumbler.com/users/ncwu/ncwurss/rss.xml
The news headlines page also has "feed" information for all the individual
sites so if you want to follow information for just a couple of NCWU members
use those feeds instead of the feedjumbler above.
Other references
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