Behavioral Ecology Blog

I’m constantly reminded that this concept of RSS/ATOM feeds, and their associated aggregators/readers are really new.. and while I use and understand their concept- there are many people- even otherwise tech savvy folks that don’t understand. ***I’m thinking of a lab member that has something from a tree in her last name*** I bet that the percent of people that use RSS or RSS aggregator drops precipitously with age….

So an RSS- from Wikipedia is:

RSS (which, in its latest format, stands for “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.

RSS content can be read using software called a “feed reader” or an “aggregator.” The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

RSS feeds are generally identified by the “orange Box”, pictured on the right. Clicking on it will get you to the RSS feed for my blog… Every time I write something, the feed is updated so that it is always up to date. The feed itself is not what is so cool…

Blogs and news places have RSS feeds. More interesting is, that most scientific journals now have RSS feeds.. So remember when you had to go to each journal homepage- then leave disappointed that there weren’t any new papers? Noyt anymore- when a new paper is published- they send it to you..

What is so cool is the RSS/Feed aggregator. You give the program a list of sites you want to watch via their RSS feeds, and it automatically grabs those posts and gives them to you- to read whenever you want. If there are 40 sites you want to stay current with- you can do it 2 ways:

1. Visit every site every day- hoping that there is new content that you are interested in. This is a waste of time.
2. Set up a RSS aggregator, check this one program daily (or as many times as you want). There, the any new stuff from any of your sites will be there, ready and waiting..

Where do I get one of these FEED READERS??? Well thankfully, there are many many options… I use GOOGLE READER- a google product that you can check from anywhere in the world- even Bariloche I suspect… You need a google acct. but who doesn’t have one of those these days.. Don’t like Google, there Yahoo, you can do it in Firefox, Thunderbird, ect… A list of the “10 best” can be found here. They are free- and easy to use…

OK, so here is a small example of the RSS feeds available…

Scientific Journals?

• PLOS One
• PLOS Biology
• Science
• Nature
• Evolution
• Molecular Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology

Blogs?

• PLOS One Blog
• Greg Laden
• Wonkette
• Blog Around the Clock

News?

• ScienceDaily
• CNN
• BBC

The possibilities are endless