Making RSS work in your Institution [B1]

Abstract

In this workshop session, we explore how to make RSS work in your institution.
Recently, the University of Oxford has risen to this challenge: it has delivered a devolved institutional newsfeed system. This workshop session will discuss how this system was produced and will demonstrate how easy it is to produce news items and get them displayed on a Web page or delivered through RSS.
The session will look at:

  • how to deliver a devolved institutional newsfeed system;
  • the benefits to departments of doing this;
  • how to succeed in attracting customers to the newsfeed system;
  • some of the interesting issues when providing a newsfeed system;
    • authentication and authorisation;
    • support for multiple newsfeed formats;
    • support for utf-8;
    • support for aggregation and categories;
    • handling events and delivering iCalendar.

Participants will be able to explore these ideas during a hands-on session that uses the University of Oxford’s newsfeed system.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the session participants will:

  • have understood how newsfeeds fit into their institution;
  • have grasped how easy it is to build a newsfeed system;
  • be aware of some of the issues involved in delivering a newsfeed system;
  • have hands-on experience of producing news items, delivering RSS and producing news on a Web page;
  • be in a position to sell these ideas to their own institution.