syndication and website content
Post on 06-Jan-2016
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Syndication and Website Content
Suggestions for Blogs, RSS and Internal Syndication
Walter Nelson, RAND Corporation Library Webmaster
RSS: The “I don’t get it” factor
• Very few customers understand RSS
• Third party feed readers are confusing
• You have to meet your customers where they are…
• …Not where you want them to be
Domesticating RSS
• Embed RSS into web pages
• People “get” web pages
• Use RSS without downloading anything
• Use RSS without knowing it is RSS
• Feed is still available for “Power Users”
What is RSS?
• “Feed” is a misnomer -- it doesn’t go anywhere
• It is a static page with a static URL
• It sits on the web and waits for your RSS reader to come and read it
• Readers monitor RSS pages for changes
What is RSS?
• XML file
• Simple HTML-like format
• You update it just like an HTML file--you change something and then post it to the server
• It contains brief text and links to other content
The Code: Bare Bones RSS Feed
The Tools
• Blog: Moveable Typehttp://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/
• RSS Parser: Feed2JShttp://feed2js.org/
• There are others on the market, but I won’t be talking about them
Movable Type – Set Up
• Installation is the hard part, but you only have to do it once
• Installed on your server (not hosted)
• Use “canned formats” or skilled web person can customize it (HTML & CSS)
• Can be formatted to look like your website
Movable Type - Features
• Once installed, it is very easy to use
• Administrators approve authors (login/password)
• Authors add content with web interface – no special software or skills required
• Uses SQL database to build/rebuild static, text based HTML pages or dynamic pages
• Automatically generates RSS feed
• Very “Google Friendly”
Movable Type Plug Ins
• Available on the “SixApart” website
• Provides dozens of additional custom features
• Can make it sort by something other than date
• Can provide structured data input
• Hundreds of options are available
Think Outside the Blog!
• The Blog is a technology with many useful features
• It is a database publishing tool which sorts chronologically and by category
• You don’t have to use a Blog for “Blogging”
• Corporate announcements, event calendar, image database, online newspaper etc. etc. etc….
Feed2JS
• The second piece of the puzzle
• Free ware from Maricopa County College
• You can use their sites or install it on your server
• Generates JavaScript which you can paste into your web page
• Displays RSS feed as a bulleted list of links on a web page
Hosted vs. Installed
• You can use the Feed2JS hosting sites at no charge and without any special preparation
• It’s REALLY easy to do
• Pitfall: your page will only load as fast as the distant server delivers content
• Moral: Install Feed2JS on your server if at all possible
“Announcements” is an RSS Feed
Click headline to get to blog entry
Creates searchable archive
Key Blog Entry Elements
• Title
• Subject categories (you define)
• Main entry (appears on blog home page)
• Extended entry (allows infinite detail - linked from main entry)
• Summary (appears in RSS feed)
• Notification (send emails of new posts)
• Editable date (you can fiddle with display order)
Data Entry Screen
Optional features
• “Comments” allows readers to comment or add additional content
• Comments should be mediated - spam is a HUGE problem
• “Trackback” allows others to link their sites to yours
• “Trackback” not very useful -- widely abused by spammers
Feed2JS Creates RSS Driven Web Content• Open Feed2JS page
• Paste URL of RSS feed
• Select display options
• Generate JavaScript
• Paste the JavaScript into your web pages
The Feed2JS Interface
RSS Feed Additional Uses
• Add external newsfeeds (BBC, CNN, Google News etc.) to your website
• Create static “link list” as an RSS feed
• Use static feeds to maintain resource lists or menus
• Customers can subscribe to your link lists with RSS tools (Firefox, Safari, Sharepoint, IE7)
Example: Library News PageCenter columns are external feeds, right & left columns are static “link list” feeds
Additional Option: Category Feeds
• Parse your RSS feed by category
• One blog creates multiple feeds
• Each category creates separate category home page
• Example: Art Deco Society of Los Angeles
Parsing Feeds by Category
RSS Option--Ditch the Blog!
• With Feed2Js, you can create link list content without a blog
• Custom RSS is more flexible than blog RSS
• You can hand code it if you are comfortable with HTML (it’s XML, but it will look pretty familiar)
• You can use a variety of freeware/cheapware RSS feed editors
• Linked content can be any web page, podcast etc.
Suggested Use of Category Feeds
• Set up branch libraries as “Categories” on your blog
• Display all announcements on the Home Page
• Display branch relevant announcements on each branch page
Quick Note on Podcasts
• Very hip, very cool, very happening, very now
• Easy to do
• Need digital recording hardware and software (standard on new Macs--available for PCs)
• MP3 sound file + RSS feed = Podcast
• Do you have anything to say?
Current Applications
• Corporate Intranet announcements parsed by location and department
• Library announcements
• Library “Hints & Tips” & “Cool websites”
• Meetings and user tests for development projects
• Record conference attendance (I’m blogging this)
Current non-applications
• Like, today I went to the gym--god I’m getting fat. You know, I really think Brittany Spears is cool. Fried twinkies--like what’s that all about blah, blah, blah…
• Clearly this is another attempt by the liberal media to advance the agenda of blah, blah, blah…
In the Pipeline at RAND
• Will be used by RAND Library to create “Subject Resource Pages”
• Subject specialists maintain their subject pages
• Sort by assigned value rating (highest on top)
• Infinite detail under “More information” link
• RSS feed of “New stuff”
In the Pipeline Outside RAND
• Will be used by Art Deco Society of Los Angeles to create database of local architecture
• Will include photographs and “More information” links
• Categories used to create browsable lists
• Multiple authors add to database without risk of “breaking it”
SIRSI Related Uses
• EPS allows you to present a search as an RSS feed - dynamically updated
• Third party tools can squeeze RSS feeds of new accessions and other things from UNICORN - EPS not required
• As RSS tools proliferate, new ways will be suggest themselves for presenting SIRSI content throughout your website
Key Points
• Blog software allows any authorized person to add content to web pages of infinite variety
• Unskilled users won’t mess up your website
• Feed2JS allows you to simultaneously post link list content to everywhere you pasted the JavaScript
• Static feeds simplify list maintenance and also allow patrons to “subscribe” to your resource lists
What’s the downside?
• Moveable Type is cheap
• Feed2JS is free
• Takes a little local labor and skill to set up
• Downside risk: it doesn’t take off
• Budgets aren’t broken, nobody gets fired
• Hey, give it a shot
Proof of Concept on the Cheap
• Use hosted blog like Bloglines
• Use hosted Feed2JS
• See how it works for you (note: it will be slower in a hosted mode)
• No cost, no software installation, no risk
Some Closing Cynicism
• Most “empowered” users don’t use their power
• Blogs languish if bloggers don’t contribute
• Podcasts are useless to those who have nothing to say
• Don’t rely on broad staff participation
• Success or failure will come from a few active loudmouths and not the passive, apathetic majority
Questions?
How to reach me
• Walter Nelson: waltern@rand.org
• walternelson.com
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