The Incredible Lightness of RSS

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a pre twitter tool that really transformed how I consumed information from the web. My RSS reader of choice is Google Reader, mainly because it loads in iGoogle. Now that iGoogle is going away, I’m not sure how I’ll get to it. I might just have to open it in a new tab along with gmail and calendar. Of course I mainly access Reader on my phone these days and Flipboard on the iPad is taking over that role more and more. However while I find flipboard good for browsing the most current entries, when I really want to dig more in-depth into the 1000+ outstanding unread items, the Reader interface is still the best for me. Adapting is part of this new Web 2.0 world. Tools are created, we use them for a while and then they die and new ones sprout up with more features or better functionality. It’s the cycle of life at hyper speed.

There is another side to RSS. One perhaps hidden from everyday web use but still critically important none the less. RSS connects my podcast’s web site to iTunes and allows my co-host and I to post a link to a new episode in a blog and have it automatically available in iTunes and the world. RSS made publishing easy for the masses. It made subscribing possible before there was Like and Follow and + and it still is key to putting the 2.0 in web 2.0 today. That’s why it is important for current and future Education Administrators to understand what the Orange icon means and how they can use it to start building connections.

This post is part of the Leading Edge Certification for Administrators Bootcamp program I am currently participating in. Hope you enjoyed it.