digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

RSS in plain English

commoncraft.com — A video tutorial explaining the basics of RSS, as simple and elegant as Common Craft's inimitable paper-and-marker technique.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • johnkeyes, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I think that's a great resource and I love the paperwork process.
    • civperc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4agreed
    • drewhenson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3so common craft's technique is impossible to imitate? because that is the meaning of "inimitable"
    • sobpanic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6they should make one for OpenID
    • speechpoet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I dugg it at one in the morning, during my kid's nth wakeup of the night where n was a VERY HIGH NUMBER. So kindly forgive the "inimitable" - it was all my brain was willing to crank out at that point.
  • pogfreak, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3Praise Christ for RSS!
    • jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19"Praise Christ for RSS! "

      Christ invented RSS? Wow...didn't know that. What can that guy not do?
    • arbulus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25I thought everyone knew that "WWJD" means "What Would Jesus Develop?"
    • JamesWilson, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2@jaycliche (#6323214)
      Rise from the dead?
    • Wonderkind, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Hallelujah! Lordy Lordy Praise His Name.
      Or something along those lines...

      Seriously, this was a great little vid.
  • wild, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Its a good presentation, but they need to get some professional on camera talent. Like the UPS guy. He would kick ass at this.
    • xjimtx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1They should have gotten John Madden (Frank Caliendo, Mad TV) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1v52f1TrWg
    • surfing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why do people like that UPS commercial where they guy draws on the whiteboard?

      On a side note, it looks like it will take about an hour before I can watch the entire video... s l o w i n g d o w n.
  • deviouskoopa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I liked it, I wish teachers did transparency pages just like that :-)
  • hiltinuts2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Excellent. Not too preachy but great for noobs wanting more.
    If you're new to RSS, I suggest starting out with NetVibes.
  • mlfoley, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I second Netvibes. Netvibes + Google Reader = Good times had by all.
  • joecritch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8RSS would be even more "plain english" if it wasn't referred to as RSS in the first place. The general public call webpages "webpages", not "HTML pages". Any form of abbreviation puts newbies off straight away.

    Mind you, there's always Web Feed.
    • SiRwhilms, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I agree. Whenever I explain RSS to someone, I only use the term "RSS" *once*, after that it's "news feed". I mean, it's not even like AJAX or something where you can fluidly pronounce it- it's just an acronym. Nobody likes acronyms.
  • Zombi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Wow, very helpful. I saw a point to RSS, but I never thought to start using it until now.
  • popothebright, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6This may be an unpopular thing to say because everyone talks about RSS like its the greatest thing on Earth, but I've gone back to the *old* way, of actually going to sites. My big problem with RSS is that I felt I wasn't getting a lot of the flavor of the originating site, and I was missing out on lots of rich media.

    RSS is nice, but frankly -- I *like* browsing. I find the process to be enjoyable in the same way that I find bookstores enjoyable. I like exploring the web, and I like the variety of presentation.

    My 2 cents...

    • ernieoporto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sounds like you have an order of magnitude more time on your hands than I do.
    • Klinky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've yet to really find RSS as saving me a whole lot of time. Usually an RSS feed just has a snippet of the article I am interested in available. I still have to go to the site to read the whole story. I have my Google home page setup for RSS from Digg, Slashdot & Arstechnica, even though I get a summary of what's available I usually end up visiting each page individually.
  • gerriediaz, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2LOOKS LIKE THE UPS COMMERCIALS!! HAHA
  • fuxjoey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2plain and simple. i kinda like this approach.
  • daemon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Printing slides that explains a web concept, make a video out of it, post it on the interweb.
    vs.
    Printing emails about real life, fax it to friends that talks over it over instant messaging.
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2RSS is stupid simple. It's just an XML document with links and a description for each. It's the kind of junk a B student in a CS Data Structures class might come up with for a mid-term project. "Look, perfessor, I useded a linkey list and that XML stuff I read about on your handout!"
  • tekz0r, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2here it is in plain english:


    really simple syndication.

    there.
  • DarthTurducken, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2This is great, but how about a similar video on *setting up* an RSS feed?
    • ernieoporto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Why? These days every piece of blog software does it for you out of the box. Are you trying to do something else with RSS that a blogging system can't give you?
  • thripper, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0Who the ***** hangs on digg and needs to have RSS explained to him/her in "Plain English" ?
    • rhyno2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Not many.
      But most diggers do have people who they know and/or love who just don't get it. And this might help.
  • gcod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Really cool, I hope my boss will understand now...
  • abstraxion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What's so inimitable about markers and paper?
  • ahmadazwa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Well, the video is good but lacking a bit. There are 2 ways of subscribing to news sites or blogs. One, is by using RSS reader on the web like Google Reader. Using this method, you need to subscribe first to Google Reader, and everytime you want to read new feeds, you have to login. That is still slow. The faster way to do it (hence the second way) is to download any free RSS Reader application onto your computer. I use Vienna on the mac, and keep it running on the dock. All new feeds are automatically downloaded, ready for me to read.
  • Hidekatsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They should call this RSRSS: Really Simple RSS
  • thuriam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Google & RSS - made for each other - check out here
    www.vmarketics.com/google-RSS-and-DIGG-IT.html
  • realrobinson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pure Class
  • withoutborders, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Very nice introduction to RSS feeds! I forwarded it to some completely noob friends around.

    BTW, technically speaking, RSS does not reverse the information flow. Using RSS feeds only converts the manual process of checking for new content into an automated process. The source still does not notify its users of its updates as the drawings seem to indicate in the video.

    Noobs do not need to know that but some professionals seem to get confused with this ; )
  • HorsepowerHeels, on 01/17/2008, -0/+0Love it! This is THE best thing to give to friends that don't "get" it very easily.
  • ghoch, on 02/08/2008, -0/+0Good!!!
    ________________
    http://www.rsschannelwriter.com
  • crossers, on 02/25/2008, -0/+0Very nice and useful presentation. There is a similar one at http://www.newworkspaces.net and http://www.emergencysoft.com
  • clearwaterhomes, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1I really loved this video and hope to see more of yours in the future
  • nepttako, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1really love the series!!
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.