Keep Up to Date with Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

The CIOBS has RSS-enabled its site so that you can keep up to date with any important changes that may occur.

RSS is a clever computer language format which enables you to keep up-to-date on news and other information, making you more knowledgeable and productive at work and at home. If you are studying, it can help by keeping you advised of any course updates, revision course information, the availability of support material and much, much more!

Often called News Feeds, RSS will allow you to see when websites have added new content, so when a new article or download is posted, the RSS feed will automatically notify you!

Interested?

Then you need something called a news reader. This piece of software checks the feeds and lets you view any new articles that have been added. Some news readers can be accessed using a browser, and some are downloadable.

For example if you have the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 7, this has a built-in news reader and is free to download from Microsoft. It is however only functional if you have either Windows XP or Vista operating system. If you do, it couldn’t be easier!

If the Feed button in Internet Explorer lights up, then that site offers RSS feeds. Just click the icon to see the feed and, if you want, subscribe to have the feed automatically sent to your PC. When you click the subscribe button , the feed is automatically added to the Favourites Centre and to the Common Feed List for sharing with other programs.

Browser-based news readers allow you to catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, similar to how you download your email using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service, e.g. Hotmail.

Once you have a news reader, all you need to do is to decide on the content you want it to receive. If you want to subscribe to the CIOBS site, (and who wouldn’t?) just click on the orange button on our home page and click on the button. You can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed (http://www.ciobs.org.uk/rss/rssfeed.xml) into your news reader or by cutting and pasting it into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites offering feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link.

There is a wide range of news readers available (many free) and as different news readers work on different operating systems, you need to choose one that will work with your computer.

Whatever operating system you have and whatever RSS method you choose, remember to include the feed for CIOBS!

The CIOBS is not responsible for the content of external internet sites