1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Dont Do It Yourself Content Syndication on the Web Pete Cliff UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY Email p.d.cliff@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Workshop Structure Overview of Syndication Concepts History Standards Exercise One - Thinking about why… Exercise Two - Thinking about how…

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Aims The workshop aims to provide: An understanding of syndication An awareness of an emerging standard - RSS An understanding of the benefits and the potential problems of sharing content

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Acknowledgement Thanks to Brian Kelly for the templates, Web site layout and advice on giving this workshop.

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Syndication …Websites that publish new content regularly usually provide a list of news headline style links to their latest content. In addition to displaying these headlines on their websites, it is very common for the publishers to make them available for syndication, so that other websites or applications can also use their headlines…

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Syndication - advantages Decentralized maintenance You maintain how your content looks on other sites Wide, simple, automated distribution to: Desktops Web sites Intranets Some very simple implementation options See http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/lite/include/

7. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Syndication - disadvantages Decentralized maintenance Third party input to your site Requires some technical input to do properly Existing feeds predominantly US oriented Existing feeds not always relevant Standards wars may become a problem

8. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk The Bad Old Days Proprietary formats Web only Reliance on JavaScript Interfaces can change - breaking your site!

9. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS 1.0 Widely adopted syndication format XML/RDF based (dont panic!) The basic format consists of: Channels Items An Image Extensible Many software tools Other flavours - RSS 0.9x / 2.0 0.9x versions simpler but not extensible

10. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the RDN

11. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the RDN

12. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the RDN

13. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the RDN

14. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the desktop

15. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the desktop

16. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the desktop

17. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the portal

18. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk RSS In Use - the portal

19. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Exercise 1 - Why? Is syndication useful to you? If not, why? Will it be in the future? What content do you want to use? From who? Local / Regional / National / International Where would you use that content? What content can you create for others?

20. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Exercise 1 - Report

21. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Exercise 2 - How? A) Management Issues What structure does your organization need to support information sharing in this way? New ways of working? Support for your staff? Any issues using third party content? Editorial and other policies? Planning for it in future site development

22. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Exercise 2 - How? B) Technical Issues What support do you need to make this happen? New ways of working? Support for staff? What software/hardware are you currently using? Do they support RSS already? Planning for it in future site development

23. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Exercise 2 - Report

24. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Dont Do It Yourself Content Syndication on the Web UKOLN is supported by: Pete Cliff UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY Email p.d.cliff@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/