Blog & RSS Basics Resources

What's a Blog | How to Comment | What's RSS | Set up an RSS feed | Subscribe to the Blog by Email

Quick Hits

What's a Blog?

Weblog (Blog) n: A website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings. ¹
Blog v: To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog.²

Blog (Wikipedia entry)

From Wikipedia:
Weblog software(also called blog software or blogware) is a category of software which consists of a specialized form of content management systems specifically designed for creating and maintaining weblogs.
Features:

Title, the main title, or headline, of the post.
Body, main content of the post.
Permalink, the URL of the full, individual article.
Post Date, date and time the post was published.
Comments are a way to provide discussion on blog entries. Readers can leave a comment on a post, which can correct errors or contain their opinion on the post or the post's subject. Services like coComment aim to ease discussion through comments, by allowing tracking of them.
Categories (or tags) - subjects that the entry discusses
Trackback and or pingback - links to other sites that refer to the entry
This excerpt is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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How to Comment to the New Directions Blog

Comment Etiquette

Video Tutorial on How to Comment

http://screencast.com/t/fDGRGulASu

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What's RSS (Syndication)

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a file format used on frequently updated websites (blogs). It makes it possible for users to automatically aggregate and read (or scan) content from multiple sites rather than manually visit each site.

RSS Feed Icon (Chicklet) - Industry standard way for indicating a feed is available - IE 7 & Mozilla Firefox

Also look for these icons on blog pages:

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Setting up a Feed Reader

What's a Feed Reader

Feed reader or feed aggregator: "is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing." ³

Step 1: Get an account with a web-based feed reader service or download a client

Bloglines
Google Reader
Netvibes (start page)
Others (including desktop clients)
NOTE: We did not cover client software because systems does not currently support one and some staff cannot install client software.

Step 2: Look for , the 'add to' (e.g. ), or the icons.

NOTE: is now standard but only supported on IE 7 & firefox. Firefox has the easiest interaction for setting up feeds.

Step 3: Click on the 'add to' icon for your reader (in this case )

Step 4: Read the New Directions Blog content in your reader

Video Tutorial of Setting Up Feed Reader

http://screencast.com/t/9FaFglydO8

See also: Good tutorial on Using An "Aggregator" To Capture RSS Feeds by Steven Bell

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Subscribe to the Blog by Email

Step 1: Go to the New Directions blog and look for on the right sidebar:

Step 2: Add your email address & subscribe

Step 3: Verify your subscription in your email account

Step 4: What it looks like in my mail client (gmail)

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References

"weblog." The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 16 Oct. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/weblog>.
"blog." The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 16 Oct. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blog>.
"Aggregator." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Oct 2007, 21:39 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Oct 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aggregator&oldid=164365786>.