Syndication: content that can be received in different ways and reused

RSS

• 2 sides to RSS:  a "broadcaster" and a receiver

• Think of it like radio -- someone is broadcasting a signal and you receive it in your car
• "Broadcasters" are sites or software that create something that is known as a "feed"

• Many of the things we're talking about make feeds
  • blogs
  • podcasts
  • vodcasts
  • wikis

Aggregators

• An aggregator is a like the radio in your car -- it's a way to receive the syndicated content

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• Examples:
  • Bloglines
  • Google Reader
• What's so great about an aggregator?  It can suck together all the "news" you want in one place.....and not just news.
• Warning:  you can easily give yourself self-induced information overload with an aggregator.  Start small!

Feeding tools for your web site

• The syndicated content can be "picked up" with special tools and added to your website
• Example:  Carpe Hootem is a separate blog that is "fed"' into the OWLSweb homepage using a feed tool

  

• feed2js is a great tool to pull feeds into your web site, and it's FREE