Notes from NTC blog session

NTC 2005

Blogs and RSS… what the heck do I care?

Presenters: Marnie Webb, John Kenyon

These notes are from the opening of the session in which participants were asked:

What are you here to find
out about blogs and RSS?

• How they work/
  how they are being used
• How to get
  started – vendors, etc.
• What they look
  like
• Blogging as a
  movement, sector
• Building
  membership/advocacy/political action
• RSS for
  non-technical people; how to get people on the bandwagon
• Possibilities
• Newsreaders,
  narrowing focus
• Community
  building
• Providing blog
  services, recommending services to clients
• Keeping blog momentum
  going

Blog characteristics

• Easily Published
• Authenticity,
  Personal Voice, multiple authors
• Spontaneous –
  not edited/ editorially processed
• Informal
• Frequent
• Links – currency
  of weblogs
• Viral
  characteristics
• Authors
  ownership
• Comments and Archives
• Easy to read

RSS/webfeeds

• Blogs= speaking;
  RSS= listening
• Notification
  System, provides:
• headline
• summary
• full text
• Republishing
• Easy to add to
  blog (check a box)
• Blogs more
  mature than RSS
• Subset of XML