Food Delivery

What Is This RSS XML RDF and Atom Business
By: Meryl K. Evans

Its been a long day at work and youre in no mood to cook dinner or go out. Time to count on the reliable pizza delivery guy. The order is called in and he promptly arrives with smokin hot pizza within 30 minutes as promised. If it were only that easy with a picky family where no one can agree on the same restaurant for dinner. One wants Mexican another wants Chinese and another wants a burger and Mexican. Instead of running to three different places you call a delivery service that goes to all of them and brings it to you. What could be easier in getting a meal without cooking it or fetching it

RSS XML RDF and Atom are the food delivery guy of the Internet. The content they deliver is mixed and cooked elsewhere on the Internet just like the meal isnt made on your door step and the acronym fellows bring the content to you via software or an online application. Instead of trying to remember all the places where you like to go to get the latest news it all comes to you once you order your food.

Click on any of those orange or blue RSS XML or RDF buttons and you see unreadable text. Some of it is readable but reading between the is slow and difficult. In this case youve got the raw ingredients of the content known as a feed. To make it easily readable download a feed reader that can interpret (aggregate) the ingredients or sign up for an online service that can do the same.

When the software or application is ready to go click on the orange or blue button (or Syndicate This Page or whatever is along these lines) and copy the resulting URL from the address box. Paste it into the application to cook the ingredients where its delivered to you ready for your enjoyment.

Syndication is a not a new concept on the Internet but its growing in popularity as more Web sites and newsletters are churning content to turn it into syndicated files which are fed into an aggregator. Think of it as the content thats ready to travel anywhere it needs to go. Grab the feed and feed it to the aggregator another way of bookmarking (or creating a favorite) a site because you wish to come back again another time. But how often did you go back to the site through your bookmarks / favorites

Instead of schlepping from site to site in search of information I have it all in front of me via the aggregator. The feeds are sorted in folders by topic for easy finding. If Im writing about the latest virus or worm then I open the security folder with the securityrelated feeds and scan them. Scanning content through aggregators is easier than on a Web site because its in one folder with headlines and maybe a short summary. On a Web site youre only getting the benefit of that sites news and no where else. The folder has news from over ten resources including blogs news sites and newsletters.

Any content can be syndicated. Its a matter of having

the backend process in place which is dependent on the application used for managing the content. If a site doesnt have such resources then there is software for entering content to create a file with the feed for posting on the site.

Most aggregators have exporting capabilities so the feed can be shared with others interested in the same topic. If youre interested in my security feeds I can export them into in most cases an OPML file and you can import it into your aggregator.

Spam filters are preventing readers from getting newsletters or they get lost in the spam pool. Offering a feed for the newsletter is a compromise. Readers can get the content only instead of it coming to the emailbox it comes through the aggregator. Its a way around spam. Like everything else it has its advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

Filters cant stop the newsletter from reaching its destination.

The recipient will get it if the server is down itll download next time and email can get lost.

The feed can be syndicated providing more exposure for your content.

Disadvantages:

Rely on readers to open aggregators like they open email client but some aggregators are builtin with an email client like NewsGator and there are online aggregators like Bloglines which can be your home page.

Metrics wont be as complete but its still there through the links.

Not as pretty as HTMLbased newsletters.

If the feed is automatically created what have you got to lose Youre providing another way for your readers to get your content just like you can get pizza in different ways: go to the restaurant have it delivered or make it at home. More applications are adding syndication capabilities which make the process effortless. Some have said they wont read something unless it has a feed.

Syndication works better than bookmarks. With bookmarks you click on a site that might have the security information and arrive there to find it doesnt. So back to the bookmarks to click on another site. Lather rinse repeat. With aggregators there is no jumping from site to site. Scan the headlines right there until you find what you need.

There was a time when we didnt have the option to have pizza delivered to our doorstep. When were too tired we know we can rely on the delivery guy. In term of content expect to see it show up at your doorstep more often than the pizza guy plus its cheaper with the cost only coming from the software though there are many free options available. Syndication is here to stay and should be added to a companys communication toolbox rather than as a replacement. Witness it by watching for RSS XML RDF and Atom out there.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net who increases conversion rates by writing and editing content so organization can focus on their core business. She is the editorinchief of the eNewsletter Journal and Shavliks The Remediator Security Digest. Visit her Web site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.