(Via Jenny) From the American Press Institute, more on the RSS movement:
It’s emergent. RSS feeds and news aggregators are today what Web browsers were in 1996. It’s a new publishing platform, and it’s already the de-facto format used by the Web’s early adopters. It’s effortless. Any database-publishing system that can output Web pages can output RSS feeds. No staff time beyond creating a basic template equals very little expense. It’s migrating. RSS feeds now find their way onto Web pages and news aggregators. Apple’s new calendar application, iCal, allows users to syndicate events-ranging from personal get-togethers to DVD release dates and sporting events. Headlines are not far behind. It’s multi-platform. News aggregators are a much better fit for low-bandwidth browsers on mobile phones, PDAs and tablets. It’s the Classifieds, stupid. Most of the RSS community is focused on content. That’s great; so was the early Web. But feeding classified ads to aggregators is the next obvious step, and will prove to be hugely profitable for newspapers-or whoever decides to do it first. Fear Factor. Let’s face it: Fear is why most newspapers first went online-afraid Microsoft, AOL or Joe Blow was going to steal market share. Not having your content available in a medium that is growing in popularity rather than waning may not have immediate ROI, but the long-term prognosis for such ignorance is death.
I’ve been thinking more and more about this and my brain just explodes with the potential. I am seriously starting to wonder if there is any reason to use paper any longer. We can read on screen, we can write on screen, we can take notes on screen, we can share and transmit information on screen…think about the potential to include MANY other audiences into the educational process using RSS. Parents, guidance counselors, mentors, friends, siblings and distant relatives, anyone with a nurturing interest in a student and his or her education could easily participate in some structured way, whether as audience or as collaborator in some form. I’m not saying we set loose the hounds here, but with some thoughtful planning…whew.
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