managing blogs the reader’s perspective ralf stoltze
TRANSCRIPT
Managing Blogs
The Reader’s Perspective
Ralf Stoltze
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 2
Managing Blogs: Outline
• Repetition – Definition of a Blog
• The Problem – Monitoring Blogs
• The Solution – RSS/Feeds
• Implementations
• Conclusion
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 3
Repetition: What is a Blog?
• Web page with regularly published articles, displayed in a reverse chronological order
• Provides online forms to write articles and to publish them
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 4
The Problem: Monitoring Blogs
New articles/
updates
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 5
The Solution: RSS/Feeds
“Explaining RSS
is like explaining sex.
You just don't get it
until you do it.”(George Siemens)
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 6
The Solution: RSS/Feeds
• Family of XML file formats (structured data)
• Includes web content (articles, images, …) and a link to the original resource
• Can be processed automatically
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 7
RSS: An example Feed<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/“> <channel> <title>Umea International Blog</title> <link>http://sverige.2meter3.de/blog</link> <item> <title>The Lofoten Islands & Abisko Gallery</title> <link>http://sverige.2meter3.de/blog/index.php/2005/04/23/the-lofoten-islands-abisko-
gallery/</link> <pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:40:37 +0000</pubDate> <category>On the Road</category> <description>Wow, it took 25 days after our return from the Easter trip to create the
gallery! Altogether, we three “digital” photographers shot more than 666 pictures. An adequate selection had to be made, while obtaining the chronological order and adding comments. Lofoten Islands have definitely been the most impressive place ...</description>
</item> <item> … </item> </channel></rss>
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 8
RSS-Readers: Managing Feeds
• Feeds are usually offered by blogs
Piece of software
• Manage feeds
• Add/remove subscriptions
• Update feeds
RSS-Reader
XML Feed
Subscribe
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RSS-Readers: Overview
Implemen-
tations
Stand-alone
software
Online
services
Browser
integration
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 10
RSS-Readers: Implementations
• Installation on local computer
• Wide range of products
• Examples: BottomFeeder, RSS Bandit, Feedreader
Stand-alone
software
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Feedreader: Overview
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 12
Feedreader: Overview
Same content –
displayed in
different ways
Browser vs.
Feedreader
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RSS-readers: Implementations
• No installation required
• Run in a normal browser
• Examples: shortWIRE, Waggr, Bloglines
Web-based
services
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 14
Bloglines: Overview
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 15
RSS-readers: Implementations
• Using existing software
• Not yet fully developed
• Examples: Firefox, Opera
• MS Internet Explorer has no RSS support!
Browser
integration
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 16
Firefox: Live Bookmarks
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Firefox: Live Bookmarks
2005-04-28 Ralf Stoltze 18
Opera: Newsfeeds
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Conclusion
• Different implementations of RSS (benefits and drawbacks)
• RSS helps to manage blogs and informs you automatically about new articles
• RSS as a standard tool like E-Mail
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Bicyclemark on RSS in HUMlab
“There is a problem in the world:
There are people who know about RSS
and there are people who don't and are
scared.
I don't know how we're gonna come
together.”