Using a feature called RSS feeds, we can write blog entries that are syndicated for others to read. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it really is simple.
The URL to subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed is feed://helpdesk.project.dyc.edu/feed/. If your web browser supports RSS feeds, you can bookmark that link, and whenever this blog is updated, you’ll know, because your bookmark will indicate there’s a new entry.
Here’s a short description from wikipedia:
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.
RSS is also widely used for podcasting:
A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like ‘radio’, can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term “podcast” is a portmanteau of the name of Apple’s portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast[1]; a “pod” refers to a container of some sort, and “cast” to the idea of broadcasting.
All of these developments in time-delayed news and entertainment reminds me of a concept I first read in a novel by David Foster Wallace called Infinite Jest. It takes place in the near future, and in a way that is not a little like science fiction, posits a replacement technology for television. In this future, no one watches TV anymore, they just watch programs that were previously made and available through a network, kind of like our Internet.
In contrast with the standard type of entertainment, there are also “spontaneous disseminations” that are broadcast in real time or near-real time. Those broadcasts are rare enough that they get considerable attention in the story.
(The book is a little prophetic–it came out in 1996, is over a thousand pages long, so it took a while to write–don’t imagine that the Internet of 1996 had much of an influence on the way this story plays out. Click here for the New York Times review of the book.)
Recent Comments