What's This XML Tag For?
The little orange xml tag that is popping up around the internet
and on our site indicates the availability of an RSS/XML Newsfeed
that you can subscribe to. An RSS file is basically a list
of headlines or article titles or events encoded so that it
can be easily used by another program or website. RSS is usually
said to stand for "Really Simple Syndication" and it is relatively
easy to implement and use. RSS is a form of XML (eXtensible
Markup Language), which means that each piece of data in the
list — a headline, a description of a story — is
coded separately so that a program will know exactly what
to do with it.
Programs that know what to do with RSS files are called "news
aggregators" or "news readers." They let you read
headlines from dozens or hundreds of news sites at one time.
You simply plug in the addresses of the RSS files you want,
such as the ones available via our site.
News aggregators have been proliferating lately. A nice web-based reader is called BlogLines. Bill Warters has a Bloglines Reading List here. Some popular desktop
ones are Awasu
(for Windows), Amphetadesk
(for Windows, Linux, or Mac), Radio
(for Windows or Mac), NetNewsWire
(for Mac), KlipFolio,
NewzCrawler
(for Windows), and FeedReader
(a bare-bones Estonian PC version). Four aggregators that
require a bit more technical knowledge are Syndirella,
Aggie,
NewsGator,
and SharpReader
(all require Microsoft's .NET to be installed on your PC).
A Java installation is required for nntp//rss,
a program which lets you read RSS files in Outlook Express
or any other newsgroup-reading software. Or if you'd like
your RSS headlines in a news ticker, try wTicker
(for Windows). For more info on available readers visit RSS
Info.
Once you have one of these aggregators installed you can
copy the URL attached to the little orange XML logos, and
add it to your aggregator manually. This process will let
you "subscribe" to a news feed, which will then
always be available to you for review in your news reader,
updated as changes occur. This subscription process (free)
is a slightly different process for each aggregator, so look
to the help files that come with it. If you want to read more about how RSS works and its use in Education, a good place to start is the article "Pssss... Have You Heard About RSS?" by Alan Levine from Maricopa Community College.
The Campus Conflict Resolution Resources website (the parent
site of the Conflict Management in Higher Education Report)
currently provides several distinct news feeds that you can
add to your reader/aggregator and then monitor easily for
changes and new items. The feeds are currently refreshed daily
and will change whenever new items are added. For the technically-minded,
we are using the RSS 1.0 standard. The available feeds include:
Feature Articles in the CMHER Report
http://www.campus-adr.org/CMHER/ArticlesRSS1Feed.html
View this online
Higher Ed ADR Events Calendar Listings
http://www.campus-adr.org/Information/EventsRSS1Feed.html
View this online
Higher Ed ADR Opportunities Calendar Listings
http://www.campus-adr.org/Information/OppsRSS1Feed.html
View this online
Resources Recently Added to Campus-adr.org Site
http://www.campus-adr.org/Information/NewAssetsRSS1Feed.html
Bill Warters' Tech-oriented Weblog
http://www.campus-adr.net/index.xml
View this online
Campus-adr Podcast Feed
http://www.campus-adr.net/podcast/podcast.php
There are thousands of other XML newsfeeds available. You
can find listings of them at services like Fagan Finder, Syndic8
and NewsIsFree if
you catch the news reader bug.
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