Week 1: Blogs and RSS (June 23-29)

Welcome to the Week 1 of Web 2.0: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools.

In this week’s assignment, we’ll cover blogs and RSS.

“These 1,000 or so science blogs provide authoritative opinions about pressing issues in science, such as evolution or climate change, or aim to engage other scientists in open and frank discussions about the scientific literature or science policy. Because of their freewheeling nature, these blogs take scientific communication to a different level.”
Bonetta, L. Scientists Enter the Blogosphere. Cell. 2007;129(3):443-445. PMID: 17482534

Watch this brief video for an introduction to blogs:

RSS

You’ve heard of RSS? It stands for Really Simple Syndication. Perhaps you’ve seen those small funny buttons on websites. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionizing the way news media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information. It is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the Web. Just think about the Web sites 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. Watch this brief video to learn more about RSS.

Discovery Exercise:

• Step 1: Create a blog. (Note: You do not have to create a blog using your own name–if you want an anonymous or pseudonymous blog, feel free.
• Step 2: Set up an RSS reader (also called an aggregator).
• Step 3: Subscribe to 5 RSS feeds, including at least one journal’s table of contents feed.
• Step 4: How do you think you could use RSS feeds in your job? How do you think RSS feeds could make you more efficient? Write a brief response on your blog.
• Step 5: Submit the link to your post to the instructors using the activity tracking report.

Discovery Exercise Resources:

Step 1

Though there are dozens of places on the web where you can set up a free blog, Blogger.com and WordPress.com are your best bets, especially if you’ve never created a blog before. Both Blogger and WordPress make the blog creation process easy–register for an account, pick your blog’s web address, and go from there. If you need a little more help with the process, here are some great resources:

• Blogger: How to Start a Blog – a very brief video tutorial demonstrating the basics of setting up a blog in Blogger.
• Blogging in WordPress (PDF) – a 15 page handout detailing the basics of using WordPress from creating the account to managing spam and creating links.
• WordPress – a video tutorial about posting to a WordPress blog.
• WordPress Tutorial: Signing Up with WordPress.com – covers the basic steps to creating a WordPress account.
• Blogger Help – Blogger.com’s official help web site.

Step 2

As with blogging tools, there are dozens of RSS readers available. There are three major types of RSS reader: web-based readers, personalized home pages, and stand-alone readers installed on one computer.

Web-based readers are useful for people who have a lot of RSS feeds to read–they have powerful features like searching, folders, clip blogging (creating a link blog directly from your RSS reader), and more. Stand-alone readers tend to have even more features, but are limited by being accessible from only one computer. Personalized home pages have the portability of web-based readers (you can access them from anywhere), but are best for people with fewer RSS feeds to manage.

Which type of RSS reader you choose depends completely on your personal style, but the most commonly used type is a web-based reader. Of the web-based readers, Bloglines and Google Reader are the most popular.

Below are some helpful links that will help you set up an RSS reader of your choice.

• Google Reader: Getting Started – A 10 minute video tutorial.
• RSS Tutorial for Law Librarians – Part 2: Using an Aggregator (NewsGator Online) – A video tutorial covering signing up for a NewsGator Online account and adding feeds.
• Make Your Own Medical Journal with iGoogle Personalized Page
• Bloglines Video Tutorials – A set of 4 videos explaining how to set up a Bloglines account and how to use the major Bloglines features.

Step 3

Some resources to get you started:

• RSS Journal and News Feeds from the Ebling Library for Health Sciences, UW Madison
• A good spot to go for help creating a PubMed search feed is David Rothman’s tutorial, How to Generate a Custom RSS feed from PubMed
• National Institutes of Health Listing of RSS Feeds
• Medworm: The Latest News by Medical Specialty and more
• FierceHealthcare.com – daily news for healthcare executives.
• ScanGrants – a service that lists healthcare grants from Samaritan Health Services (SHS) Center for Health Research and Quality.

Some of the tutorials above will be helpful to you in completing this step. Remember, to subscribe to a feed, look for the RSS icon or a link to an RSS feed. Depending on your browser and your reader, the steps you take after that will be different.

Do Steps 4 and 5 above. Don’ forget to track your activity.

For Reflection

Okay, but how will this help me in my professional life?

1. Why blog?

Blogs are timely, opinionated, accessible, and omnipresent. Blogs are easy to use and have few rules. A blog can help you to keep track of ideas, projects and professional development. Blogging is a great way to generate “idea seedlings.” Get your ideas out there for consumption and commentary in an informal format. Blogs allow you to network quickly and disseminate new information. Start a blog if you have something to say.

2. Why use RSS readers and feeds?

RSS helps you keep up with new and revised Web-based information. RSS readers or aggregators look for new content and notify you when new information has been posted. That way, all the news, politics, tables of contents, and fun stuff is collected in one place so you don’t have to go out and visit lots of different Web sites searching for the latest updates. If you use a Web-based feed reader you can access it from any computer so you don’t have to worry about not having bookmarks or favorites.

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