RSS and Podcasts
What is RSS?
Lets suppose, you visit 5 websites a number of times per day to check for updated news. Every time you will have to open all 5 websites to check for new articles. If you do this 10 times per day then you have to open websites 50 times per day.
Now lets say you need to keep track of 50 different news sources on the web. It becomes impossible to go to each individual websites to check for updated content.
Enter RSS.
Wikipedia defines RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
In summary, RSS is a technology which enables an application (RSS reader) to pull updated articles from any number of websites specified by the user. All the user has to do is open up this single application and it automatically connects to all the websites auto-updating itself with new articles.
This is very similar to email. When an email client is opened, it connects to the server and updates itself with any new emails.
Think of RSS as special emails from websites.
But then - Why not use email instead? Almost all websites have email subscriptions which send email updates at specified intervals.
There are mainly 2 reasons why RSS is preferred to email:
1. Avoids clutter in your regular email inbox with irrelevant articles.
2. RSS readers provide a number of advantages over conventional email such as saving articles only of interest (rather than the whole email with a number of articles), better search for individual articles, better filtering for relevant content from subscribed RSS feeds etc.
The full advantage of RSS readers becomes evident once we start to use them.
Video - RSS in Plain English
What use is this technology for medical professionals?
Probable uses include:
1. Many journals have RSS feeds. They auto update with each new publication allowing us to stay up to date with the current literature.
2. Websites such as Journal watch, medscape, eMedicine also offer RSS feeds for CME and other medicine related news.
How to use RSS?
To use RSS, an RSS reader is needed. This application connects to individual websites, looks for updated articles and pulls them into one place.
There are number of free RSS readers available on the internet. Here is partial list:
| Windows | Mac | Web based |
| FeedReader | NetNewswire | Google Reader |
| SharpReader | Newsfire | Bloglines |
| Awasu | Vienna | NewsGator |
Google Reader
Introduction of Google Reader - Video
My personal favorite is Google reader. The advantages of using Google Reader are:
1. It is web-based so it can be accessed anywhere. It is not limited to a particular computer.
2. Audio and video is embedded in the reader so the user does not have to go to another website to view multimedia content. (E.g. Youtube videos can be viewed within Google reader itself saving time to open the YouTube website)
3. It has excellent saving, searching and sharing options.
Google Reader Tutorial
Screencast Online has an excellent video tutorial on Google reader demonstrating its functions.
How to subscribe to RSS feeds?
Websites which offer RSS feeds will have one of the following icons on their web page (Tip - look at the end of the sidebar or at the end of the web page).
Right click on these images, copy the link and paste it in the subscription panel of your RSS reader. Here is how the Subscription panel of Google Reader looks like:
Which Websites have RSS feeds?
Many popular journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, British Medical Journal etc offer RSS feeds. All health blogs and almost all news websites offer RSS feeds.
Podcasts
Podcasts are basically multimedia files (audio or video) which are distributed using RSS technology. To play podcasts a software music jukebox is needed which supports RSS subscription of podcasts. Both Windows Media Player 11 and iTunes support podcasts.iTunes store has an enormous collection of podcasts which can be subscribed with a single mouse click. Other sources of podcasts include:-
1. Yahoo Podcasts
2. PodCast Alley
Video Demonstration of subscribing to podcasts in iTunes
Are any medical podcasts available?
New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, British Medical Journal and JAMA have audio podcasts. Besides these a number of other podcasts are available on the internet.
A more comprehensive list can be found at New Media Medicine.
What is the advantage of Podcasts?
Podcasts can be synchronized with iPods or any portable media players and the user can listen to them at his/her convenience. A computer is not necessary to listen (or watch) them.
Can google reader be used for both RSS and podcasts?
No. Although google reader does have some multimedia features but it is not a full fledged media player. A separate software such as iTunes is needed.