A meandering mind…

RSS, what is it? A translation for the lay person, or indeed technophile is Really Simple Syndication, which probably makes the process no clearer!

To equate it… what Facebook does in it’s ‘Home’ Page and what Twitter does. But RSS is for entire websites, updating you with everything that is updated on the website. While Facebook and Twitter allow you to follow individuals and sometimes websites as well, RSS is generally in place for those which do not operate on the medium that is Facebook and Twitter.

Essentially this is what this blog post will examine. Is there a place for RSS now, while I would issue a tentative yes it is very much a conditional one. As it seems to me RSS is on the way out. As most companies that operate websites also have a presence on Twitter and Facebook now, and that companies are at last getting in on the act means that it has come a long way, or rather that is how I see it. It is a free medium to advertise to. While RSS has a practical application, one which I use myself as not everyone has a presence on Twitter and Facebook.

While I am very much a fan of Twitter and Facebook because of the easy way one can stay in touch, RSS does much the same. It seems in a way that RSS has become the uncool brother of keeping up to date with the online world. I said that not everyone, and understandably so, has a presence on Facebook and Twitter. RSS is therefore still very necessary to keep abreast of what is happening on certain websites I personally follow, some in particular church related ones have not engaged yet fully with the wider digital media that is available to them. The Church of Ireland and the Church of England for example are very much in touch with Facebook and Twitter but RSS is still available. I think the difference is that Facebook and Twitter in contrast to RSS provides a face or interaction which RSS doesn’t have.

In a practical sense with RSS, it may be the uncool brother but only because in my opinion is that it is a simple functionary. It does what it is supposed to and doesn’t try to be anything else. It feeds information straight to my computer to keep me informed of the things that interests me. While there is a place for Twitter more so then Facebook for a similar role it is one that is still fully evolving as many of those who share the unnecessary too much information undermine it. But in saying that just like RSS you can choose who and what you follow. You can make Twitter your functional RSS feed or your personal RSS feed where you keep abreast of everything your friends are up to. Facebook then takes that to the next level. Which provides some very interesting alternatives to both an easy way to filter your interests/hobbies and personal life. Then of course, where does one draw the line.

I am very much an advocate of all three, and as for digital tools for this, I have mentioned before that Tweetie is my application of choice for my MacBook, and the iMail client has everything I want in an RSS application, it allows me categorise and filter as I need, I only know this from searching for bigger better things and realising I didn’t really need such bigger and better things that the iMail did everything more, it was very much a case of look at the material you have and see what it can do before looking for something to fix or replace it, our computers and software will often surprise us! and well Facebook is Facebook. It really is for an individual to explore and look into.