Really Simple Syndication. RSS.
The concept behind RSS is really quite simple: users, on their own timetable, download an XML file that contains headlines and/or stories on a particular topic. For instance, I subscribe to a RSS feed that is created based on the Blog of J.D. Meier. He is the Project Manager for "security and performance on the patterns & practices team". His blog contains a variety of interesting topics, but I never actually have to visit his web site to get the latest from him. I have an RSS reader (in this case Outlook 2007, but there are hundreds of others) that periodically goes out and checks his RSS feed to see if there are any changes. If there is new stuff it shows up in Outlook. I subscribe to a variety of blogs and web sites this way:
- Electronic Freedom Foundation
- Mark Russinovich's technical blog covering topics such as Windows troubleshooting, technologies and security.
- MSDN: Canada featured articles
- Scott Berkun, author of The Art of Project Management has a feed talking about innovation and creativity.
While RSS feeds are not new, their use in business environments is relatively new. There are some businesses that have an RSS feed per major application and they post outages, tips, tricks and, most importantly, changes that are or have occurred to the application. This way their business area is not surprised Tuesday morning when a completely new version of their favorite application shows up. Larger project teams can create an RSS feed that contains status reports, meeting updates or even updates on when the implementation party is occurring.
RSS feeds can solve a number of issues, but it is not a hammer that can be used on every nail. It has specific benefits in specific situations. Like everything else, it is a tool that you have in your toolbox, but it is not necessarily a tool that you need to use.
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