TheFuss

1. Intro
2. Why the fuss?
3. What is RSS?
4. Viewing RSS Content
5. Cookie Time
6. Connecting Learning Objects via RSS
7. Implementations
8. Q&A

Intros: (all)

• Brian Lamb, Office of Learning Technology, [University of British Columbia]
  • blogs @ [Object Learning]
  • [loves RSS]
• Alan Levine, Instructional Technologist @ [Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction] Maricopa Community Colleges
  • blogs @ [cogdogblog]
  • [Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX)] virtual warehouse of "packages" representing anything developed for or applied to learning at Maricopa (more than LOs); each represented by ["packing slip"] ([about MLX...])
  • Two demo blog scenarios for connection of LOs/RSS/ and Weblogs: [Lora] blogging on using LOs in Geology and [Boris] blogging LOs in Humanities. (neither are real blogs or people ;-)
• D'Arcy Norman, Developer, [Learning Commons], [The University of Calgary]. [CAREO] Project, and other things Learning Object.
  • blogs @ [D'Arcy Norman Dot Net]

Why the fuss? (Brian) The exisiting emphasis in LO management has been the building of repositories (metadata, tagging, central organization), with less thought to the use of LOs. The metadata and repository paradigm is daunting, complex and expensive. The exhaustive efforts of standards bodies notwithstanding, functionally most repositories are silos - XML-RPC and SOAP protocols have yet to cohere into a viable network.

Common problems:

• "I need a way to find relevant learning resources from several available sources"
• "It needs to be dynamic, and up to date."
• "I don't have much programming resources to draw on, for development or maintenance."

Cheap, simple, existing tools and standards point to an approach that:

• can assemble dynamic collections of LOs (from RSS-supported repositories, etc...)
• can alert users to resources as they are made available, set by specific criteria, subject or keyword (ie: "literature", "geothermal animation").
  • (see for example, [EdNa's model]: Sutherland, Brian)
  • Following headings will be used to categorize RSS channels for the [Ontario Education Portal Prototype]: Adult/Continuing? Education Programs, Art Galleries, Boards of Education, Board of Education Associations, Canada-wide Educational Organizations, Commercial Education Sites, Community Colleges, Conferences and Events, Databases, Clearinghouses & Directories, Distance Education, Education Journals, Education Libraries, Education Networks, Educational News Organizations, Eduontario, Elementary & Secondary Schools, Educational Employment Sources, Faculties of Education, Federal Education Authorities, Independent Institutions, Information/Learning? Technology Organizations, International Education Learning Object Repositories (peer reviewed), Ministries of Education, Museums, Private School Organizations, Provincial Educational Organizations, RSS Feed Lists, Standards Organizations, Student Organizations, Teacher Organizations, Universities & Colleges (Julie Hannaford)
• can support the deployment of LOs in course management systems, or any other web page.
• can describe and link to contexts in which learning resources are being used elsewhere (by metadata, weblog discussion, or trackback).
  • buzzword-laden version: "decentralized contextualization of aggregations of distributed learning objects."
• foster communities of practice (if COP = group of people who form based on shared a set of goals, use a common set of resources), and integrate the "product" with the process. Why? Because the tools, techniques and standards emerge from existing and growing use of "social software." COP's working with this model are not a theoretical construct... they are a reality.

What is RSS? (D'Arcy)

• [Lockergnome's RSS Resource]
• [l o g os RSS Links]
• [Next Killer App for Education] overstated? [1] [2] [3]
• [What is RSS?] - A detailed introduction to RSS, explained in the simplest manner.
• [RSS What is It?] 3 articles in b/ITE Bulletin of the Information Technology Division of SLA (Nov-Dec 2003)
• [Pssss. Have You Heard About RSS?] mcli Forum (Fall 2003)
• [What Are Webfeeds (RSS), and Why Should You Care?] a 12-part tutorial by Amy Gahran
• [What is RSS?] Explanation of RSS and history.
• [RSS: Grassroots Support Leads to Mass Appeal] Stephen Downes, LearningCircuits
• [RSS Articles] Articles related to RSS, promotion, benefits and uses.
• [Friday Feast #42: The World of RSS Feeds] Brainstorms & Raves (May 2, 2003)
• [Publish and Syndicate Your News to the Web] RSS Workshop (Utah State Library System)
• [RSS For Non-Techie Librarians] (June 2003 Steven M. Cohen)
• [RSS A Primer for Publishers & Content Providers] from EEVL
• [An introduction to RSS news feeds] (Nov 2000, IBM developerWorks)
• [Content Feeds with RSS 2.0] (Dec 2003, IBM developerWorks)
• [RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters] (2002, Mark Nottingham)
• [O'Reilly RSS DevCenter]
• [RSS: A Learning Technology] Eva Kaplan-Leiserson (Learning Circuits May 2004)
• [Introduction to RSS] [Evolution of RSS] (Andy King, Webreference)
• [RSS Info] "News and information on the RSS format"
• [RSS FAQ] Julian Bond
• [Fagan Finder] "This page is about using RSS, from a non-technical standpoint."
• [Jon Udell's Conversation with "Mr Safe"] whimiscal overview of RSS and recent fracas of its future (Echo, PIE) "So it's not about the format, and it's not about the tools. It's about a new way of communicating, one that's defined by personal publishing and subscribing, and that empowers writers and readers as never before."
• [Blown Away by RSS Feeds & Blogs: July 25th, 2003] (Paul Stacey)
• [Blogs-RSS-Wikis], A collaborative compilation of Web resources on blogging, RSS, and wikis by David Mattison et al
• David Mattison, "So You Want to Start a Syndicated Revolution: RSS News Blogging for Searchers." Searcher, v. 11, no. 2 (February 2003): 38-48. Online via FindArticles.com [1] and in full-text databases such as EBSCOhost.
• A fuzzy acronym with a [convoluted history] / [troubled past]. Who cares [what it stands for] or [who invented it]? or arguing the standard [0.91]? [1.0]? [2.0]? [Echo]? Focus on what it can do!
  • A [gossipy overview of the battle between Winer and Bray [Battle of the blog]
    • [Tim Bray's response]
• Early vision: [A Bright Future for Syndication] by Dave Winer (September 1999)
• A metaphor - news headline, the news ticker on CNN, sidebar on other news sites (like Yahoo!) with wire service reports.
• What RSS looks like (XML not made for human eyes).
  • [RSS Parts diagram]
    • channel information (describes the site providing the information/content, last update, contacts)
    • item information- the simplest of meta tags (title, link, blurb)
  • [XML source]
• Mechanism for sharing sets of resources (including learning objects).
• Not just for newest content, it can be used to find old stuff, customized content, as long as it's relevant to me/you/whoever.
• Creating RSS feeds:
  • [Making an RSS Feed] (Apr 2003, Search Engine Watch)
  • [Software to Easily Create RSS Feeds] Built in wizard makes feed creation easy
  • [Step by Step RSS Feed Creation]
  • [Writing RSS 1.0] (Aug 2000, Rael Dornfest , O'Reilly Network)
  • [Writing RSS 1-2-3] (June 2003, cogdogblog)
  • [How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer] (July 2003, Stephen Downes)
  • [Stapler] RSS extractor tool for Radio
  • [myRSS] - "Build your own custom channel" RSS "scraping" for sites w/o feeds **this site no longer offers free scraping
  • [RSS in depth] (Sept 2003) - element by element details on what it takes to produce a successful feed
• Validators:
  • [Feedvalidator] - This is a validator for syndicated feeds. It works with RSS 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, and 2.0. It also validates Atom feeds.
• [George Siemens]: "Explaining RSS is like explaining sex. You just don't get it until you do it."
  • RSS Book[RSS and Atom: Understanding and Implementing Content Feeds and Syndication]

Publishing RSS Feeds

• [RapidFeeds] - New Free online service which allows anyone to create, edit, publish and track their RSS feeds in 3 easy steps!
• [RSS2HTML] - Free service to display RSS feeds as HTML

Viewing RSS Content (Alan)

• Viewing RSS in eMail (new)
  • [IzyNews] (Outlook Express, Outlook, Outlook Express / Outlook / Pocket PC / Mozilla / Thunderbird / Eudora / Entourage / Mulberry / and others)

• Desktop aggregators (lists of RSS Readers at [Abbe Normal ] (oops wiki seems to be OOC( [Weblogs Compendium] , [RSS Info])
  • [Amphetadesk] (Unix/Linux, Mac, PC)
  • [Awasu] (PC)
  • [FeedDemon] (PC)
  • [MyWireService] (Web)
  • [NetNewsWire] (Mac) [screenshot]
  • [Newsgator] - RSS reader for Microsoft Outlook (PC)
  • [NewzCrawler] - inexpensive, robust RSS aggregator (RSS reader)/syndicator (RSS editor), and blog client for Windows; highly recommended by [David Mattison]
  • [Nutshell] (PC) - Freeware
  • [SharpReader] (PC)
  • [Shrook] (Mac)
  • [Syndirella] (PC)
  • [BlogLines] (Web)
  • [VoxLite] (Windows)
  • [Wildgrape NewsDesk] (Windows, free)
  • [BlogChatter] (Web) realtime blog aggregator
  • [Feeds on Feeds] Magpie-based server-side aggregator by Steve Minutillo
  • [Hyperdig] (Web) An experimental web-based aggregator by Tony Hursh. Lets you create custom feed collections and make them available to the public.

• integrating into web sites (parse XML? who wants to do that? heavy lifting required)
  • [rss2html.php] - Free PHP script to display RSS feeds as html
  • [Using RSS News Feeds] perl script (Webreference)
  • [Displaying RSS with PHP] (Matt Wade, Zend)
• [Building an RSS Aggregator with Macromedia Firefly Components]
• integrating into web sites (scripts to convert XML to linked Javascript source, cut and paste one line of code)
  • [cogdogblog RSS to Javascript] Note: updated May 2004 to [new version] that supports Atom
  • [Adam Curry's JavaScript RSS-Box Viewer]
  • [Infinite Penguins RSS Viewer]
  • [FeedSplitter]
  • [FeedRoll]
  • [FeedSweep]
  • [Jawfish]
  • [RSS-to-JavaScript.com]
  • [Wytheville Community College News Service]
  • [RSS-xpress Lite from UKOLN at the University of Bath]
  • [Free perl script converts RSS to JSMsg, a flexible JavaScript display convention]
• [RSS is Only the Beginning] (July 2003, Raymond Yee) transforming XML with XLST to RSS from Amazon.com and California Digital Library
• [Amazon RSS Feed Builder] (onfocus.com)
• integrating into Course Management Systems (no different)
  • [How to get a news feed into your WebCT course] see Brian's [example]
  • [RSS Feeds into Blackboard] see Lora's [example]

• Finding RSS Feeds:
  • Search: [Feedster] [Daypop] [BlogStreet] [Blogdigger] [RSS Network]
  • Syndication Collections [News is Free] [Sindic8] [BlogStreet] [MyWireService Category Directory]
  • Listed categorized collections [OPML Directory]
  • Tools [RSSExplorer]
  • Word of mouth/blog- built-in feature of blog tools [MovableType] [Radio UserLand] Look for orange/blue XML, RSS, RDF icons
    • 
  • Other Collections
    • [Edu-RSS] An RSS of other RSS feeds
    • [open-education.org feeds]

Connecting Learning Objects via RSS (D'Arcy, Alan) see [Connecting Learning Objects with RSS and Trackback] our presentation at MERLOT 2003 conference and [Connecting Learning Objects with RSS, Trackback, and Weblogs] for the NMC Fall 2003 Online Conference.

• [RSS for Educators] (Nov 2002, Stephen Downes)
• [DLORN] Distributed Learning Object Repository Network

• [Open Education: Moving From Concept to Reality] (Apr 2003, 2nd half on DLORN)
• "headlines" about LOs can be published elsewhere
• Not just newest items - RSS by discipline, keywords
  • MLX: [Biology]
  • CAREO: [Biology]
• Not just newest items- saving custom query results as RSS
  • MLX: Newest 5 with "math" (discipline) from Scottsdale Community College [RSS Feed] [Search Results View]
• aggregate sub-collections from multiple sources
  • [browse with RSS aggregator] (screenshot)
  • [Lora] includes MLX, CAREO, HUMBUL, ITPapers, About.com, Google, "faux" Merlot
  • [Boris] includes MLX, CAREO, HUMBUL, About.com, "faux" Merlot
  • [RSS feeds from Learning Object Repositories - Known Examples] (Scott Leslie, Edtech Post)
  • [MedWeb Scripting and XML Demonstrator] several working applications accessing multiple RSS sources, [first example] of RSS/LO integration (David Davies)
  • [MERLOT]

Implementations (all)

• How to Measure Quality of News Radars? White Paper by ITDynamo at: http://www.itdynamo.com/VirtualPractices/RSS/RSSResearch/newsFWzryPwlYf20060214.html
• ITDynamo launches another News Radar dedicated to Newsmastering/RSS Radars at: http://www.itdynamo.com/VirtualPractices/RSS/NewsmasteringRadar/index.html
• "RSS in Enterprise" News Radar is implemented by ITDynamo Associates [2]
• takes little effort for databased content (less than a few hours each for both D'Arcy (CAREO) and Alan (Maricopa) to implement
• Implementation at Maricopa Learning eXchange (Alan) [Backtrack to Trackback]
  • First ideas for "syndication" of content (Dec 2002) to have college web sites include dynamic displays of contributed MLX content.
  • Discussed ideas with Brian Lamb at EDUCAUSE/NLII meeting (Jan 2003).
  • Inspired by Downes' [Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers] created first RSS feeds from MLX in Feb 2003 [MLX Feeds].
  • Mention on [OLDaily] made connection with D'Arcy Norman at CAREO and we developed first RSS feeds in parallel.
  • [Wiley's paper] inspired notion of using blogs to provide context for LOs, and developed first iterations (April 2003) of [Trackbacks with MLX content].
  • Developed script for [Javascript linked source to include RSS] into any web page/CMS site (May 2003).
  • [TrackBack Summary tool] provides overview across MLX, June 2003 ([details])
  • [Web Tool for adding TrackBack ping] attahced to all MLX items, June 2003
• Implementation at CAREO [3] [4] (D'Arcy)
  • Was in the process of building a new interface management utility for CAREO, and wanted to test with something radically different (looking) than traditional HTML. RSS is just machine-readable XML, and should be able to be handled by the CAREO interface manager (theme engine)
  • The only technical hurdles were in the way the theme engine was built (XML fragments processed using XSLT, requiring specific management of XML namespaces and entities). The RSS portion of the equation was absolutely trivial, and didn't require the addition of any new code to CAREO.
  • The result of this experiment in CAREO will lead to various data export modules in the next version of the repository software. One of these modules will be RSS, and will allow syndication of any page or component within the application. (other various modules, like QuickTime or Keynote... will follow)
  • Current RSS implementation in CAREO provides syndication feeds for:
    • Top Objects (most viewed)
    • Recent Objects (newest objects in repository)
    • Search Results (syndicate any simple search)
• Implementation at UBC [LOs @ UBC Applied Science]
  • Locally developed repository built on Alan and D'Arcy's work. (We are also installing an instance of [CAREO here at UBC].)
  • Current RSS functionality of Applied Science repository provides syndication feeds for (links are RSS):
    • [100 most recent objects]
    • [By keyword] ie: "java"
    • [By discipline and subdiscipline] ie: "Applied Science" and "Engineering"
  • These seem to be down 03-Nov-04 (Sutherland, Brian)

• --[Trackback]

How About Some Trackback? (A post-script for the hard-core participants)

• [Beginners Guide to Trackback] (MovableType)
• Phillip D. Long, Syllabus [TrackBack: Where Blogs Learn Their Places]
• [How Trackback Works] (Cruft)
• What is Trackback? [google onTrackback] (Google)
  • [Notes on the Background of Back-Links] or TrackBack (Seth Gordon)
  • [Trackback Module for RSS 1.0/2.0] Tech specs
  • [Educational Uses of Trackback] (Tim Lauer)
• Avoiding Trackback and Commenting Spam [Six Apart Guide]
• David Wiley [paper] on blogs, LOS, and context
• Each object has a unique Trackback ID [MLX example]
• [LO/Trackback scenario]
  • Bloggers ([Lora] and [Boris]) autodiscover the same