#8 - Find some feeds

You've got your RSS reader set up (your newly created Bloglines account) and you've added a few RSS feeds. Excellent work. Seriously.

But do you really want to stop there? After you put all that effort into setting up your account? I didn't think so - today's lesson focuses on locating even more RSS feeds for your reading and information seeking pleasure.

First off, a reminder from our last unit. When you visit your favorite websites, look for feed icons - these are the clearest indication that the site offers some form of RSS feed. The feed icons will typically be displayed somewhere in the site navigation.

At KCLS? Right now you'll find RSS feeds in Catalog Explorer but not much else. Our website re-launch (which is just a few months away) will change all of that.

And what about searching for RSS feeds?

There are a number of RSS search tools - these include:

Blogline's Search tool. This 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.

Feedster. This is 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 outlets 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.

Google Blog Search. This one is limited to blogs. Once you find the blog you are looking for, add the main blog URL just as you added those from your co-workers in our previous lesson.

Today's Discovery Exercise is all about finding RSS feeds.

1. Log in to your Bloglines account and keep it to the side until you need it.
   
2. Use one of the above search tools to locate at least 2 RSS feeds on topics that interest you - add these to your Bloglines account.
   
3. Use another of the above search tools to locate at least 2 library-themed blog to your Bloglines account (or cheat and add Stephen's Lighthouse, Tame The Web, Library Bytes, Walking Paper, Librarian.net, or David Lee King.com).

Some things you might want to think about (or even add to this week's blog posting):
- Which method of finding feeds was easiest - going to your favorite sites or searching for them?
- Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing?
- What kind of unusual feeds did you find on your travels?

That's it for today's Discovery Exercise. And just about it for today's unit - just one last piece of feed icon information:

In Febuary of 2006, the adoption of standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began helping to stop 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:


And with that, you're done until next time.

Up next: MySpace...

#7 - Less Stress with RSS (& Newsreaders)

You've heard of RSS? You’ve seen these icons (the ones to the right) on your favorite websites? Well, what will they do for you?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It uses XML (the second icon) and allows you to be notified when content on a website has been updated. With RSS you can track information posted on all kinds of new and familiar online news sources. RSS has revolutionized the way news, media and content creators share information. It is also swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for the particular text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit your favorite 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 podcast focuses on the enabling power of RSS and speculates somewhat on its possible future at KCLS.

Click the Play button above
to hear this week's Podcast (2:38)
Rafe Needleman, editor for CNET.com Business Buying Advice, gives an illustrative 3 1/2 minute introduction to RSS feeds, how they work, and how you use them. Take a look: RSS - Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32). You'll need speakers or headphones to watch this - if these aren't available at your location, take a look instead at a similarly-themed text-based tutorial from Palinet (Palinet is an east coast library cooperative).

Whether you watch Rafe's video or check out the Palinet tutorial, you'll see several references to reader software. This software is the key to keeping track of your preferred RSS feeds. For the purposes of participating in KCLS Learning 2.0, we'd like you to use Bloglines. Why? It's easy to use, it's popular, it's feature-rich and it's free...

Now you get to give it a go in today's Discovery Exercise in which you'll set up a Bloglines account and add a bunch of RSS feeds.

1. Go to Bloglines (link will open in a new window) and set up your personal account.
   
   
2. Subscribe to 2 RSS feeds.
   
   How?
   
   First, find the RSS feed. Look for XML or RSS buttons (the same ones you saw at the start of this lesson) on your favorite websites. And it's not just text-heavy sites - even your Flickr photo pages have RSS feeds (look to the bottom of a Flickr page for the feed icon). Click on the icon and select the resulting URL at the top of your web browser - this is what you'll copy then paste into Bloglines. Second, go back to your Bloglines account and click on the 'Add' link in the left side of the screen.
   
   Looking for more visual instructions? Take a look at this excellent tutorial on preetamrai.com. Just keep in mind that some of the bloglines buttons used in the tutorial have changed.
   
   Curious about the various Bloglines check boxes when you add your RSS feed? Take a look at this descriptive screen shot Helene Blowers created for her library's Learning 2.0 program.
   
   
3. Subscribe to at least 2 of the RSS feeds from your co-worker's Learning 2.0 blogs. These blogs are linked from our particpants page. All you'll have to do here is type the blog URL (for example, this blog is http://kcls27things.blogspot.com) into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!
   
   Still confused? Never fear - watch this short YouTube video created by our Learning 2.0 guru Helene Blowers .
   
   
4. Make it official - subscribe to the KCLS Learning 2.0 feed via Bloglines. Like in the examples above, paste the blog URL into the subscribe field...
   
   
5. Subscribe to at least 1 of the following news and/or library-themed feeds:
   - Seattle Post Intelligence RSS link (pick one from their list)
   - BBC News Front Page World Edition
   - Google News - Health Section
   - Reader's Club New Review Feeds
   - Unshelved Library Cartoon Feed
   - National Weather Service
   
   
6. Create a blog post about this exercise. 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?
   

That, everyone, is the end of today's Discovery Exercise. And nice work - you've just tackled one of the (if not the) most difficult lessons in all of Learning 2.0...

3/16/07 Postscript - Google Reader

A number of you have asked about using Google Reader instead of Bloglines. Feel free - it's another good product and has the added benefit to tying in with the Google account you set up a few weeks ago for Blogger. The only negative is that we will not provide setup instructions - just don't have the time to write these up...

Google Reader is available at www.google.com/reader.

Up next - searching for feeds and discovering those with a library-theme...

#6 1/2 (unofficial) - Check Your Blog Title

This isn't really a 'thing' but, rather, a request that you check our staff participants page to confirm that your registered blog is listed correctly (and head to the Learning 2.0 Progress log if you haven't registered yet). The blogs are now arranged alphabetically by blog title - please make sure your blog is there. If it isn't, and you have already registered, send email to 27things@kcls.org with your blog URL.

Can't remember what your blog title is? Or, seeing it displayed, do you want to change it? Here's how you check it and/or change it:

1. Log in to your blog (go to www.blogger.com and log in to the 'New Blogger' link in the top right corner of the page).
   
2. Click on the 'Settings' tab that is towards the top of the resulting page.
3. The 'Title' is the first thing you'll see.
   
4. And if you decide to change your title? Make sure you click 'save' at the bottom of the screen...

Some good news (at least for me) - the new participants page is semi-automated - any change you make to the title of your blog will be reflected on the participants page shortly after you make the change.

#4 - Keeping track & more about blogging

If you’ve made it this far, you already have 3 items or “things” completed of the 27 that are required to earn a USB MP3 player.

But how do you qualify? You'll need to register your blog and, each week, record your progress on each of the 27 things.

Where? How?

A Learning 2.0 Progress Log is on the KCLS intranet - you'll submit your information to the Learning 2.0 Team and will receive confirmation emails.

Many many thanks to Lisa at Web Services for setting this up.

The log is extremely easy to use - go the the main log page (this is a staff-only link - it's also been added to the right as part of the Learning 2.0 Link Box), enter your information, check off the 'things' that you've completed, add the URL for your weekly blog posting, and click submit.

Weekly blog posting?

That's right - starting next week you also need to include the URL for the permanent link to your weekly blog posts. Your blog postings should capture your thoughts about what you're learning and responses to any specific questions we ask about the 'things' we'll be looking at.

Permanent link?

Each blog posting has a distinct URL that displays that posting alone (without the rest of your blog postings). Depending upon the Blogger template that you selected, the permanent link for each individual post can be found either through the post’s title or through a link in the post's footer area the contains the date.

For example: The image below shows where you would find the permanent link for this earlier Learning 2.0 blog post - click on the time of posting (but in a real-life blog post, not in the image):

This is the link that you want to use when recording your progress in the Learning 2.0 Progress Log.

You can also, in most blog interfaces, click on the posting title for the permanent URL.

Here's how you would record your blog URLs in the Learning 2.0 Progress Log:


The Learning 2.0 Team will be reading your blog postings and, on occasion, giving you feedback via your blog entry's comments field.

Yes, comments. That's the beauty of blogging - your readers get to respond to what you've written. The Learning 2.0 Team will be commenting for sure, though you never know what your co-workers will have to say - everyone's blog will be posted to the Learning 2.0 KCLS Staff Participants page (but don't worry - we'll be listing these by your anonymous blog name). And don't forget - you can respond to a comment with a comment of your own. Me, I'm not yet sure how to respond to this one...


Comments are all about interacting and collaborating. Leave us a comment today or, better yet, start reading your co-worker's blogs next week and leave comments for them.

But first things first - it's time to take care of today's Discovery Exercise.

Discovery Exercise - record your first 4 completed things.

1. Head over to the Learning 2.0 Progress Log
   
2. Record your first 4 completed things (including filling out the log for the first time).
   
3. Click submit.
   

And with that you have just 23 more things to go...

Next up: Flickr...

#3 - Hey you (yes YOU), start a Blog

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and learned some more about our emphasis on Lifelong Learning, it’s time to start messing around with these web 2.0 technologies. Today you'll set up your very own personal blog - this is where you'll record your thoughts on Learning 2.0 discoveries and the exercises you take part in.

Your Learning 2.0 Blog should be set up using Blogger, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. How easy? It's so easy that the Learning 2.0 Team figured it out - this blog you're looking at is also on Blogger (look at the blog URL - it starts with http://kcls27things.blogspot.com).

Now to the big question - what possible use could a blog be in the KCLS work environment? Listen to this week's podcast for one great idea - David talks to Zina Stockinger about her blogging experience at the Woodinville Library.

Click the Play button above
to hear this week's Podcast (2:49)
Now get to it...

Discovery Exercise: Get yourself a blog and start blogging

1. Go to the Blogger website: www.blogger.com
   (this will open in a separate window).
   
   
2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on
   'Create Your Blog Now'
   
   
3. This is what you'll see:
   
   
   

   
   You'll need to set up a Google Account to use Blogger - follow the instructions and click 'continue.'
   
   Some notes:
   - Feel free to use your KCLS email address for this sign-up.
   - Your display name does not have to be your real name - yes, you can go anonymous. The Learning 2.0 Team are the only staff members who need to know your true identity (and we'll ask for it later this week).
   
   

4. Name your blog.
   
   This is what you'll see:
   
   
   
   Your blog title? Be as creative as you like - remember, noone but the Learning 2.0 Team will know who you are.
   
   Your blog URL? The easier to remember, the better. And WRITE THIS DOWN...
   
   
5. Select a Template.
   
   This is what you'll see:
   
   
   
   There are plenty of options - go for the look that's right (yes, I'm quoting an 80's Jordache Jeans slogan). The blog you're reading now is using the Thisaway template.
   
   
6. Author and publish your first blog posting. This is the fun part - just click on the 'start posting' link and go...
   
   
   
   What do you write about? Try something on the theme of Learning 2.0. What do you hope to learn from the program? What do you think about Lifelong Learning? What's more likely - you completing all 27 Things to earn an MP3 player or the Mariners making the playoffs?
   
   The Learning 2.0 Team will be reading your blogs regularly and we'll ask you to send us your blog URL in tomorrow's lesson.
   

That, everyone, is the end of the Discovery Exercise.

But how do you get back to your blog, to add future postings?

1. Go to your blog
   (we, for example, go to http://kcls27things.blogspot.com)
   
2. Look to the top right corner of the screen and click on the 'Sign In' link
   (If you've forgotten your blog URL, head to www.blogger.com and continue with the next step)
   
3. Look to the top right corner of the screen and click on the 'New Blogger' link
   
4. Log in with your Username and Password (these will be tied to the Google account you set up a few minutes ago)
   
5. Find your blog on the 'Dashboard' and click on it's 'New Post' link
   
6. Blog away...
   

Once you've logged in you'll also be able to change your blog settings - there's a series of 'Manage' links in your 'Dashboard.'

Should you run into problems and/or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger , take a look at Blogger’s Quick Tutorial - just keep clicking on the 'continue' buttons at the end of next screen to keep going...

Next up: Tracking your progress, permanent blog URLs and comments