RSS Explained

RSS - or 'Really Simple Syndication' - is an alternative means of accessing the vast amount of information that now exists on the world wide web.

Instead of the user browsing websites for information of interest, the information is sent directly to the user.

There are two halves to the RSS system that allows this to happen.

The first is that the user needs to have an 'RSS reader' (sometimes called an aggregator). This is a program which collects the raw XML news feeds from websites that are RSS-compatible and turns them into text and links that a user can browse at his or her leisure.

The beauty of this is that a user can take feeds only from websites that are of interest to them, and that it allows you to scan the latest information from a range of sources without having to visit half a dozen different websites.

The second half of the RSS system is that a website must have a feed specially set up to work with the news reader. Most big news websites now have such systems - and the links are highlighted with the orange 'RSS' boxes as seen below.

These feeds list the latest news stories in a programming language known as XML. The user sets the URLs for these feeds into the news reader, and hey presto - the website comes to the user, rather than the user coming to the site.

Some news readers can also be set to notify you of any new content - almost like receiving an email. You need never miss that vital piece of information again (hopefully).

There are a range of news reading programs now available, many of which are free for personal use. A selection of these includes:

Windows:SharpReader

Web:Bloglines

Mac OS X:NetNewsWire

You can also look at the many others available on Google.

Once installed, follow the program's instructions to get your RSS feeds up and running.

Most packages are very simple and all you will need to do is add the RSS URLs as new feeds.

ePolitix offers the following RSS feeds which will enable you to stay up-to-date with UK politics:

 

	News
	Blogs
	Legislation
	Interviews
	Stakeholder Interviews
	Stakeholder Press Releases
	MPs Press Releases
	Policy Consultations

 

These feeds are free for non-commercial use. ePolitix.com can also supply content in NITF format. For more information please contact us at rss@ePolitix.com