Thing 9: Finding feeds

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Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:

• When visiting your favorite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
• Use Bloglines' Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
• Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
• Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
• Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
• Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
• Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
• Additonal Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog

Discovery Exercise

1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about ...

• Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
• Which Search tool was the easiest for you?
• Which was more confusing?
• What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
• What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

EXTRA STUFF -- Feed icon information:

In February 2006, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by many websites and browsers, including Opera and FireFox, where it displays in the address bar:




The next release of Internet Explorer is suppose to have this as well. For more information about this emerging new standard, see Feedicons.com

Thing 8: Make life "really simple" with RSS and a newsreader

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You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalising the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources

• CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.


• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative.


• Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc).


• Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that I created showing how to add feeds.
  
• Additional Bloglines news feed subcription information (screenshot image).


• Your co-workers - tap into their knowledge or work through your discovery process together. Seek out people who already use RSS feeds and ask them to show you what they know.
  

Discovery Exercise

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.
3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise. Optional: If you're up to the challenge, you can provide the URL address to your public Bloglines account (find where to find this below).


• Newsfeeds


• L2 participant blog feeds - Subscribe to several of your co-workers' feeds. This is as easy as typing the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!
• Then try adding a few other types of news feeds from news sources (select at least 3 from the list below to subscribe to)
• The Learning 2.0 blog feed
• ABC RSS feeds (lots to choose from)
• Canberra Times newsfeeds
• Reader’s Club new review feeds
• Unshelved - Library cartoon feed

Don’t know what to blog about?
Think about these questions: What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life? How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

How to find your public Bloglines URL:

1. Click on the Share tab within your Bloglines account. Scroll down the right screen pane and locate the public URL (see screenshot)


2. Be sure to add this as part of your post to demonstrate your completion of this activity.

In conclusion ... here is link to my public Blogline's account:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/hb

Why have a public account? To share blog rolls with others, of course. That's how the L2 participants list is updated; it's powered through a public blogroll. :)



PS: Once you tackle this discovery exercise, you've tackled the most difficult one of the whole 23. :)

Thing 7: Blog about technology

Hello Canberra Learning 2.0 participants.

Here's a simple message regarding this discovery activity:

For this thing, simply blog about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! You just need to share a few thoughts.

PS: Also see if you can add at least one comment to another participant's blog. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication :)

Thing 6: More Flickr fun

Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here is a sample of just a few …

• Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map


• Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color


• Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise

Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to:

1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.


2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you.

Personally one of my very favorite tools is FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. And there’s a ton of librarians out there that have created their own Librarian Trading Card.

So have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. And if you're up to the challenge while you’re at it, why not create a trading card of your own. :)

* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map). In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com).

PS: Learning 2.0 image created by Spell with Flickr.

Thing 5: Discover Flickr

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Photo sharing websites have been around since the '90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. In 2006, Flickr became the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other libraries (list also here) are using Flickr for.

Discovery Resources

• Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)


• Flickr: Popular tags and Interesting - Last 7 Days tags


• Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups) and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr

Discovery Exercise

In this discovery exercise, you have two options…

A. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or, if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use Blogger's photo upload tool.

OR

B. If you're up to an easy challenge ... create a free account in Flickr and use a digital camera to capture a few pictures of something (it might be something in your library or maybe something from home). Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images "Canberralearning2" (all one word) and mark it public. Then create a post in your blog about your photo and experience. Be sure to include the image in your post. Once you have a Flickr account, you have two options for doing this: through Flickr's blogging tool or using Blogger's photo upload feature.

So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun and if you're interested in looking at some photo hosting sites, then why not check out Jamie's recommendations & this Wired story. (Thanks Jamie for the link).

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.