Web Content Syndication For E-government

The popularity of blogs and podcasting is partly driven by the simple concept of web content syndication and aggregation using RSS and ATOM feeds. Yet, a study by Yahoo suggests that RSS is still not widely adopted. The study reports: "...27% of users actually consume RSS on personalized start pages without realizing that it's the underlying technology enabling what they read. Sites such as MyYahoo, MyMSN, and the Firefox browser with its active bookmarks provide easy access to regularly updated RSS feeds with little or no effort from users."

1 minute read

December 15, 2005, 4:43 PM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @legalaidtech

Tennessee.gov RSS Feeds

The popularity of blogs and podcasting is partly driven by the simple concept of web content syndication and aggregation using RSS and ATOM feeds. Yet, a study by Yahoo suggests that RSS is still not widely adopted. The study reports:

"...27% of users actually consume RSS on personalized start pages without realizing that it's the underlying technology enabling what they read. Sites such as MyYahoo, MyMSN, and the Firefox browser with its active bookmarks provide easy access to regularly updated RSS feeds with little or no effort from users."

Regarding the use of RSS in egovernment, law librarian Diane Murley says that mosts states are not yet taking full advantage of RSS feeds to distribute government information. She writes:

"As with previous uses of the internet to distribute state government information, some states are far ahead in their use of RSS technology, but the others will catch up soon. By this time next year, states that are not using RSS feeds to distribute a significant amount of government information will probably be in the minority."

At the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) annual conference in Kansas City in October 2005, I presented an "Introduction to Web Content Syndication for E-government". I discussed how web content syndication is being used in e-government.

Abhijeet Chavan

Abhijeet Chavan is the co-founder and former co-editor-in-chief of Planetizen and the executive producer of Planetizen Courses. He was also the chief technology officer of Urban Insight, Inc., the technology consulting firm that operates Planetizen. Abhijeet Chavan has over 20 years of technology consulting experience working with government, higher education, legal services, and non-profit clients.

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