RSS

Apr 30 2008   6:03PM GMT

May 1st is RSS Awareness Day. Have you checked your feeds today?

Posted by: Alexander Howard
Web 2.0, video, YouTube, new media, Internet, podcasting, blog, cool, learning, free, feeds, event, creativity, screencast, tracking, tool, howto, blogging, RSS, fundamentals, communications, demonstration

Are you hip to Really Simple Syndication? If you’re still behind on the adoption curve, May 1st is RSS Awareness Day.

Daniel Socco of DailyBlogTips offers a detailed explanation of where the idea for RSS Awareness Day came from and what it was intended to accomplish. Check out RSSDay.org for more information.

In honor of the occasion, we’ve made RSS our Word of the Day to help get out the word, so to speak.

For more information, check out:

• Dan Bricklin’s article, What is RSS?
• our RSS glossary
• our podcast explaining what you can do with RSS
• our definition for RSS reader
• Google Reader
• WhatIs.com’s RSS feeds, including the Word of the Day, the feed for this blog, the enterprise IT tips feed and the enterprise IT newsfeed
• The video embedded below from Common Cause, RSS in plain English

UPDATE: Dave Winer wished everyone Happy RSS Awareness Day. I’m glad I tweeted him about it, as he hadn’t heard the news.

UPDATE II: Marshall Kirkpatrick blogged up a storm over at ReadWriteWeb, writing an epic Ode to RSS to honor the day and the technology itself. It’s the best blog post on the subject that I’ve read and will, I suspect, a canonical post about RSS for some time to come. As Marshall points out, blogging and podcasting as we know it simply wouldn’t be possible without RSS.

A hearty thanks to the pioneers and early adopters whose dedication, hard work and dogged advocacy have brought the technology to its present state!

Jul 23 2007   11:24AM GMT

News rivers: Dave Winer makes mobile feed browsing brilliantly easy

Posted by: Alexander Howard
Mobile, Technology, XML, Internet, aggregator, cool, hacks, free, feeds, lifehack, tool, information, trend, RSS, buzzword

Dave Winer, generally considered the father of RSS, has been playing with different ways of organizing, aggregating and displaying feeds for years. OPML was a meaningful contribution (and, for once, a less controversial one) to the syndication world, allowing users to share, import and export lists of feeds, all using free tools at opmlmanager.com.

Recently, with the launch of the iPhone, an RSS hack that Winer created two years ago has been getting much more attention. Essentially, he’s optimized all of the content that a news site makes available through RSS so that it’s ideal for viewing on a mobile device, removing formatting, images (read: advertising) and all other content extraneous to the simple - and potent - combination of headline, link and summary.

For Dave’s definition of a “river of news,” refer to ReallySimpleSyndication.org, where he uses a “conveyor belt sushi” metaphor to explain the concept further.

Mmm. Sushi.

[Photo credit: Biohabit.org)

To use the newsriver, just point your browser, mobile or otherwise, to bbcriver.com for the BBC or nytimesriver.com for the New York Times. To see how it works, view this video of a BlackBerry user browsing a newsriver:

.MOV

Critics of the technique and technology point out that Avantgo and other clipping services have provided similar functions to early adopters using wireless Palm Pilots or Pocket PCs years ago. That being said, the explosion of smartphones like the BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile devices and now the iPhone has made quick-loading, mobile optimized news content much more compelling than the graphically-clogged homepages of many providers. Of course, the iPhone’s ability to browse the “full Internet” makes it quite possible, even pleasant, to surf through the different major newspaper and online media sites, but if you’re stuck on the EDGE network as you browse, it’s quite possible that a newsriver may be preferable.

I’m not sure whether Dave deserves credit for something entirely new. I do know that what he’s created makes it easier for me to access the news on the go, and for that I thank him. I’m not alone in that. A-list bloggers like Jeff Jarvis, Dan Farber, Read/Write Web, Scoble and Dave Winer himself have all held up newsrivers as something revolutionary. Steve Rubel, over at MicroPersuasion, recently pointed out that Megite, which aggregates blog posts like TechMeme, now provides a newsriver.

The point that Dave makes in the post that reintroduced the concept of the river - and defends it against critics - is much the same as the one I just made above. While it’s been possible to do this sort of thing on a PDA or BlackBerry for some time, no one has made it as easy as simply pointing your mobile browser to a URL.

Now, in the wake of losing my MDA on a fishing trip last weekend (RIP), my next challenge to decide which mobile device I’ll be using to paddle down the newsriver.

Jun 14 2007   11:19AM GMT

Lexiblographing: On the many flavors of blogging

Posted by: Alexander Howard
Web 2.0, Technology, new media, Internet, podcasting, blog, commentary, culture, social publishing, social, interactive media, information, trend, blogging, RSS

In honor of International Weblog Day today, the Word of the Day from WhatIs.com is Pepys’ diary. A weblog, put most simply, is a series of entries arranged in reverse chronological order on a Web page. The term itself is related to Web log, a shortened form of Web server log or access log, the list of all the requests for individual files that people have requested from a Web site.

To learn more about the history of weblogging, make sure to review Rebecca Blood’s excellent essay exploring the origins and early forays into the form and Wikipedia’s entry for blog, which has a timeline of the evolution of the form.

Now, of course, weblogging, or its far more common synonym, blogging, is an international occupation shared by tens of millions. In fact, these days more blogs are in Chinese and Japanese than in English, reflecting the shifting demographics online. Language, of course, isn’t the only way that blogs are now differentiated.

There are photoblogs, videoblogs, podcast blogs for syndication, kittyblogs, moblogs updated from cell phones and laptop-toting coffeehouse workers, anonoblogs that become online phenomena (like PostSecret), CEOblogs (see Jonathan Schwartz) and faux-CEOblogs (like the infamous and hilarious Fake Steve Jobs). Political blogs, of course, dominate the landscape, though sportblogs can incite similar passions (way to go, Curt!), along with milblogs, until recent DoD decisions to curtail that portion of the blogosphere.

The list, in many ways, defies categorization. Of course, we’ve tried anyway. You can find all of WhatIs.com’s favorite technology blogs here. As the weeks go by, look for all of them to show up in our blogroll, categorized according to the focus of the blogger or bloggers.

We also compiled a comprehensive glossary of blogging terms you’ll find online, which we debuted last year. We add to our “bloglossary” every now and again, especially when you write in to let us know about new or missing terms.

While most of the more than 71 million blogs that Technorati is currently tracking are personal, as the various blogging platforms have matured and become both easier and more professionally rewarding, technology professionals have entered the blogosphere seriously.

These days, you can read about what’s happening with wikis from Ross, online video with Jeremy, SEO with Matt, fine hypertext products from Jason, tech PR from Steve, productivity from Merlin, marketing from Seth, Web 2.O from Mike, storage from Jon, security from Bruce, a little bit of everything from Scoble and, of course, endless wonderful things from Xeni, Cory, John, Mark and David.

For a list of many other blogs that focus on data centers, storage, enterprise Linux, Oracle, security, the channel, interoperability, virtualization, SAP, VoIP and other topics of interest to IT professionals, make sure to visit our complete list of tech blogs.

In a world where a poorly-sourced post on Engadget can move Apple’s stock down $4 billion dollars in an episode instantly dubbed “Applegate,” books about the power of the “new influencers” are well worth reading. While the stock recovered, the highest traffic blogs now share mindspace with the Web sites of major mainstream media outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN, with no signs of that influence disappearing anytime soon, save perhaps behind the “Great Firewall of China.”

With that thought, I can’t help but wonder what flavor of blogger are you? Do you blog at all? Do you have any favorite tech bloggers that you just can’t miss, even for a day? Which blogs (like, say, Lifehacker) help you do your job more efficiently or easily?

Whether you’re new to technology, a technological maven or just an unrepentant blogaholic, we always love hear from you. Happy surfing!

Apr 25 2007   2:09PM GMT

Technorati placeholder post

Posted by: Alexander Howard
tracking, blogging, RSS

While you could view our Technorati Profile, you’d find very little there of interest regarding Alex. Of course, we look forward to seeing that change! If you find our posts interesting, funny or useful, we’d love your link.

While this post primarily serves to claim this blog on Technorati, you can also “favorite us” on Technorati:

And, as long as you’re here, we might as well point out that you can subscribe to this blog’s feed using RSS and a feed reader. Just click on the feed icon below and use one of the subscription options provided by Feedburner. Happy surfing!

Apr 23 2007   3:24PM GMT

Democracy Player: An easier way to watch IPTV, video podcasts, .torrents and more

Posted by: Alexander Howard
open source, Web 2.0, video, YouTube, new media, Internet, podcasting, innovation, aggregator, cool, feeds, portal, interesting, downloads, IPTV, interactive media, blogging, RSS, directory

Democracy Player is a free, open source IPTV platform. That may sound a bit vanilla, but Wired Magazine called it “the future of Net video.” Though the vlogosphere may still be in its infancy, the explosion of Internet video over the past two years has made it challenging for even the savviest netizens to keep abreast of new feeds and shows.

Using Democracy, a user can search within YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video and others video aggregators. Democracy also works as a BitTorrent client, so users can search, download and watch torrents from within the same interface. The application plays most video formats, including Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI and XVID.
In fact, the Democracy platform’s engineers state that they have created a new approach to building a cross-platform application using open source technologies like Mozilla, XUL Runner, VLC and Python. The player runs on OS X, Windows XP/2000, Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu and Debian platforms.

The code for the Democracy platform is released under the GPL by the Participatory Culture Foundation , a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Using the fluid GUI, you can subscribe to more than 1000 video RSS feeds using a built-in channel guide. Popular vlogs like Rocketboom, Ask a Ninja and Ze Frank sit next to lesser-known vloggers, geeky screencasts, MSM netcasts, independent warvloggers and YouTube auteurs. While both Google Reader and of course iTunes can be configured quite easily to subcribe to video Web feeds, Democracy has a number of alluring features.

For instance, the Democracy player supports full screen playback, including HD support for those lucky enough to have a PC hooked up to a HD screen, and has been translated into more than 40 languages. GetDemocracy.com, where Democracy is available for free download, has been translated into more than 18.

Apr 17 2007   10:16PM GMT

Video: Web 2.0 Explained

Posted by: Alexander Howard
Web 2.0, YouTube, new media, Internet, podcasting, cool, education, social bookmarking, social publishing, interesting, creativity, participation, wiki, visual, interactive media, personalization, social networking, RSS

If you’re looking for buzzwords, you’d be hard pressed to find one more over-used than “Web 2.0.” The hype and marketing, unfortunately, obscure the rapid growth of social media and the associated technologies. Fortunately, a brilliant little video popped up online last week and was immediately hailed as a much-need breath of sanity and clarity by BoingBoing, Kottke and many others.
We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. Watch the “Web2.0 Explained” video here.

Apr 16 2007   9:50PM GMT

Podlinez: Podcasting brought to a phone near you

Posted by: Alexander Howard
Mobile, new media, podcasting, Audio, feeds, RSS

Podlinez allows users to listen to podcasts on a phone. Simple, a tad brilliant and free, other than any charges you might incur in calling.

All you have to do is enter an RSS feed on the Podlinez Web site to retrieve the specific phone number to call to hear a podcast. You can simply browse the site to find numbers for popular shows as well.
Once you’ve called in, just use the # and * keys on the numeric keypad of your cell phone to reverse or fast forward through podcasts in one minute increments.

If, for instance, you’d like to listen to our podcast, Tech Buzzwords from WhatIs.com, just call +1 (281) 739-0443 or click “Listen By Phone.”

Many thanks to John C. Havens, About.com’s Guide to Podcasting, for the link.