When I logged in this morning there was a BitTorrent window open and a copy of Free Culture on my hard drive. Simon put this Creatively Licensed work on LegalTorrents, and the Radio plugin did the rest. What a pleasant surprise! I seriously doubt I'll have the patience or motivation to read the whole thing sitting at the computer, but the chances that I'll go out and buy a dead trees copy just went up significantly.

[Andrew Grumet's Weblog]

12:19:44 AM

categories: Radio Fun

 

RSS: Not Just for Bloggers Anymore

The other day, I told someone I'd just met I worked for the publishing division of Jupitermedia. His reaction made me feel I'd stepped back in time. He was bemused a company that operates Web sites and e-mail newsletters would call itself a "publisher." I didn't know anyone thought that way anymore -- and this was a guy at a tech-related trade show.

Well, I hate to break it to this fellow, but it's time to expand the definition of publishing still further. If stories in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal are any indication, RSS -- the XML-based syndication format -- is going mainstream.

Already, the New York Times offers 19 different news feeds, the BBC offers at least 46 (one's entirely dedicated to Harry Potter news), and, of course, ClickZ has feeds for its News and Stats sections (more to come!). Your friendly neighborhood blogger likely has an RSS feed, too. The blogging community has largely driven the renaissance of this nearly decade-old format.

The proliferation of news search sites, such as Google News, Yahoo! News, and MSN's Newsbot, are also driving RSS's popularity. Want your site's headlines indexed on these popular aggregators? RSS is the way to accomplish that. ...
[ClickZ]

12:15:41 AM

categories: Radio Fun