June 25: RSS: Making connections

*Pre-class blogtalk* How to change the CSS for MT blogs. *Lecture* Content management and research blogs *Exploration* RSS and newsreaders *Pre-class blogtalk* How to change the CSS for this blog. Please test and tell me if this is right! 3 files comprise what you see in the blog: CSS, HTML content, and background. View source code for the root blog (www.relativepath.org/875): styles-site.css in the head of the document is the stylesheet. Cut and paste to direct your browser to: relativepath.org/875/styles-site.css (poundsign) in CSS means it's an id. For example, anything with an id = banner has the given attributes. Download and edit a local copy of the CSS: Save file to desktop as index.html Open this local file in browser The absolute path in your browser location window should now read like a filepath: C:Documents and Settings ... etc Open the local file in a text editor (notepad) to edit and change one line in the header: Change this: link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.relativepath.org/875/styles-site.css" type="text/css" / to this: link rel="stylesheet" href="styles-site.css" type="text/css" / Use a text editor or to play with the styles. Tinker, tinker, tinker. Try a find and replace with color codes. Save. Reload. Viola! Important! Upload as custom.css. *Lecture* Postponement of Topic Maps until later, a little too deep for now. But check out ontopia, via Kate's blog. Content management The technology curve: if a specification can't get the momentum together to pass the chasm, it dies. RSS is in danger of failing because of this. There is some animosity towards Dave Winer as a result of his "milking of change" Readings: Hackos brings the expertise of librarianship to the IT world. Content management systems are important in any context where information is used. Prism as a way of marking up large amounts of news data. For use in a content management system. Uses Dublin Core and RDF to create a robust system. Research blogs jill/txt/ Runs a research blog from a humanities perspective See also UMinn blog collective "Marx's illusion of (?)" : have blogs been around forever? Blogs are at the early pragmatist stage. Wither blogging? There has been an exponential increase in the number of blogs. Why? It makes it much easier to update web sites, and lubricates the transition of info from RL to the web. Emerging technologies: photo blogging. Narcissistic but cool. Embedded technology (thinking toasters and smart houses) Why does reproduction drive technology, and why is food always the example in creating content management systems? *Exploration* Deeper into RSS and newsreaders In the beginning was MCF=meta content framework, under the auspices of Apple. "Hotsauce" looked out for new web content. Tim Brey and friends developed RDF. Netscape developed RSS .90 Attempt at transcribing what was on the whiteboard: RSS .90 evolved into .91 using XML .91 features (XML) Channel=newspaper or media source; a container for news. title, link, description language, copyright, managing editor, web master, rating, pub date, last build date, docs skip days - days skip hours - hours image text input (search box) items (the most important part. Without these three elements, it is invalid): title, link, description .92 features (when Dave Winer took over) (XML) Channel: (same metadata) skip days skip hours cloud=(Winerism) describes a collection of RSS feeds. Contains MD that allows software to request that the cloud notify it when changes are made to the feed. image text image item: title, link, description; source, enclosure (make references to media files), category (belongs to item) 2.0 features -- released a couple weeks before 1.0 (XML) Channel (same metadata) plus title, generator, category skip hours, skip days image (optional) text input item: (same as 9.2) author, guid (global unique identifier), pubdate 1.0 features (XML and RDF) Channel title, link, desription, items, image image textinput item (title, link, description) The root of all these models is a single channel. Cris: How is this different from Yahoo? J: Yahoo is a portal, not so much a channel. There is no central site--Yahoo directs away from itself. Discussion of handout in RSS code Download Newzcrawler -- try it at home! One can blog from this interface as well -- neat! Syndic8.org -- master of the feeds Summary: there are several ways to make the most of RSS, including desktop clients like newzcrawler & their kin.