(Not) Really Simple Syndication

Hi,

To summarize my review of we-based technologies, I explored the use of RSS 'news feeds'.

Firstly, one can subscribe to the feeds in a number of ways:

- Check the website, as there is usually an indication that RSS is available (click on icon possibly)

- Check browser, if icon is shown on address bar, you can add the url to your google reader 'add subscription' bar and the reader will automatically search and subscribe you to their services

- search whether favorite blogs, websites have rss feeds by typing query into 'add subscription' bar

- Explore the 'recommended items' and 'sources' on the sidebar to add feeds that could possibly be of interest.

I feel that the RSS technology and google reader could be compared to a 'personalised newspaper' where you can pick the sources and articles of interest on a specific day and still be able to obtain up-to-date information at your finger tips as it ensures you do not miss out on any important happenings, whether it is local or international news, sports, entertainment and gossip, to technology reviews.

One does not need to go through the tedious process of visiting the parent sites individually, or be distracted by page loading times, advertisements and a barrage of (uninteresting) information.

With the feeds, which can also be accessible to portable devices (as long as one can afford the conection fees) one receives simplified text, with images and links to videos etc, which means faster reading and less storage requirements.

Advantages of Web-based aggregators like google's reader over dedicated software are: It is free, it integrates the search engine capabilities which enables one to search for possible subscriptions and add them efficiently, and it provides the safety of online storage which means the feeds would not be downloaded directly to your device but streamed from the web, which again saves storage costs, which is particularly useful - considering it is possible to receive hundreds if not thousands (depending on your subscription) feeds in a day..which means one must be careful not to oversubscribe!

Good Reading:-)

Don't be such a TWeeT!

#twitterevaluation:

Hi there, again,

On this post I would like to share some thoughts on the microblogging revolution of twitter. Yes, unlike the first blog where I was talking about blogs in general, twitter takes a 'micro' form of blogging where the user is allowed to make short text posts, share photos and links to other media etc through their internet enabled devices.

I personally have had a twitter account for about a year now, but have barely used it as non of my friends were users at the time, and I found that I quickly got bored of the endless and sometimes nonsensical babble and posts that my favourite celebrities and sports stars whom I followed seemed to emit...and I didnt want their brilliance in their occupation to be tarnished by what their personalities were like..

However, I am not surprised by its popularity on this side of the world, compared to my more reserved and less expressive community in East Africa, as the technology is more accessible here and society is more open..

A usefulness I found for twitter though was through following some of the organisations I had interests in such as schools, businesses and teams in order to gain updates on their status.

Though it is still not enough to convince me to become a regular user - YET :-)

Welcome to the BloGGoSphere!!!!

Hi,

as you know this is my first post, therefore I would like to take a moment to share my relatively new experience on blogging.

I first got hooked to the trend some time last year in high school where I was taking the course Information technology in a Global Society. I thought it would be useful to get to know what a 'blog' was as it was a term I frequently heard but never actually got to see until I entered the classroom and the teacher wrote the link down to his course blog.

After typing the URL in the address bar - I was transported to the world of ITGS, as the blog provided tons of resources such as student discussions on current trends and technologies in IT, links to web news sites, informative videos, and even the tasks that we would be doing throughout the course.

This highlights some of the advantages of blogger, a way of organizing your resources in an easy way that enables you to communicate and share information in an appealing and efficient manner.

This is aided by the ability of one to personalize the layout, images and colors and other aesthetics to suit their needs and attract their niche audience, the thousands of gadgets available through blogger itself and other third parties which allows you to share media, integrate other social networking services such as email, facebook, twitter, rss etc.

An example of interesting blogs I came across were:

The Trent Arthur Blog – which was a useful means of keeping up to date with the happenings around campus and Peterborough in an interesting perspective, as well as it serving as a portal to other organisations on campus such as the TCSA and the seasoned spoon.

The Trent African and Carribean Student Union also have their blog which was also a nice way of updating myself of past and upcoming events and announcements.

As a Mac Owner, I was happy to add 9to5 mac to my all-star blog roster as I am always eager to learn about what Steve Jobs and his macGeeks have cooking in their California labs.

The many advantages of blogs over traditional forms such as newspapers and magazines include the fact that they are free (all you need is an internet connection), one can access it from any device and from any location in the world where the connection is available, and that there are more (unique) options and variety of blogs out there (152 million blogs est. in 2010!)