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RSS: What Every Legal Aider Should Know. What is RSS?. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication RSS allows websites to syndicate content to other websites and other XML-enabled applications like RSS feed readers/aggregators
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What is RSS? • RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication • RSS allows websites to syndicate content to other websites and other XML-enabled applications like RSS feed readers/aggregators • Atom is a very similar standard originally used by Blogs. Most feed readers support both RSS and Atom.
What RSS Can Do For You • RSS makes keeping up with web-based resources easier • Through the use of feed aggregators, an advocate can select any available feed of interest and have it automatically updated and available on a single web page.
Different Uses of RSS • RSS allows an individual to gather news items and view them either online or within email. • Why? More efficient than surfing the web – consolidates relevant content. You can also use RSS to send alerts to email or “watch a webpage” • RSS can also be used to pull content into a website. Example: Statewide websites may display RSS news feeds
Focus of Today’s Training • RSS use by individual advocates within legal aid. • To learn more about RSS use on statewide websites see: • http://www.lstnap.org/node/1645 • http://www.lstnap.org/legalAidtech_xml_RSS
How Advocates use RSS • Keep current on national trends through RSS news feeds from national support centers or other legal experts.
Examples of Substantive Feeds: • Substantive Feeds • Center on Budget & Policy Priorities • CLASP Feeds (several feeds on various topics) • Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law • National Health Law Program • US Government Feed Library • Legal Services of Northern California Advocate Feed
Stay up to date on tech issues • Get updates on technology: trainings, articles, new tools and more. • Legal Aid & Technology • LSNTAP.org: Latest News & Views • LSNTAP.org: LSTech Library Content • Law.com Legal Technology Feed • ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center feed • Probono.net Statewide Website Feed
Receive National Legal Aid News • General Legal Services & Legal Feeds • NLADA’s Equal Justice News • CNN Law Feed • Law.com Newswire • LSC Announcements • LSC Updates
Other Ideas • Google News (use Google News to create custom news feeds and then get an RSS feed for that) • Example: • Google News Alert for “HUD Litigation” • “Legal Aid Technology” • Add a feed with the name of your own organization
Discussion: • How do you use RSS feeds: • Are advocates in your organization using RSS feeds? • What of these examples would be of most interest? • What are some of your favorite feeds?
What Do I Need To Use RSS? • Feed aggregator (aka feed reader) • Web browsers: Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox • Email Applications: Outlook (through third-party plugin, except Outlook 2007) and Thunderbird • Third-party websites that provide RSS aggregation • URL of RSS feeds
Feed Aggregators • MyYahoo.com: ability to control number of items per feed, move up/move down. • Google Reader: folders, personalized home page, feeds integrated • Live Bookmarks (Firefox) • Internet Explorer 7
How To Add A Feed To A Feed Reader (run through live demos of adding feeds in each of the 4 options)
Finding Feeds • Look for the RSS logo: • Both Google Reader & MyYahoo have built-in feed searches • RSS.LStech.org maintains a list of many feeds with the additional ability to get these feeds in javascript for websites.
Additional Resources RSS for Advocates: Everything You Need to Know RSS section of the LSNTAP Tech Library Great Resources for Poverty Law Related RSS