RSS (really simple syndication) is an easy way to distribute simple
metadata, it is lightweight and easy to create and use, usable with
standard tools such as browsers and aggregators.
What sort of RSS
Please use either RSS 1.0 or RSS 2.0 (depending on which suits your
production environment best). It is important to include the Dublin
Core and Creative Commons extensions to hold additional metadata which
will be used by search aggregators as discussed below.
We use the Dublin Core extension because it is a simple
metadata structure with wide acceptance and with predefined
specifications for use in RSS.
A tag name on its own is standard to RSS. dc: before a tag name
means this is a Dublin Core extension tag. cc: before a tag name means
this is a Creative Commons extension tag.
Channel tags
Mandatory fields
Title - descriptive title for the feed
Link - URL to the site home page or to the relevant course list
Description - a brief description of feed content
Items - the table of contents for the courses listed in the feed
dc:date - the date the feed was published
dc:publisher - the name of the OCW site publishing the feed
dc:language - the language of the feed
Optional fields
cc:license
dc:rights
Item tags
Mandatory fields
Title - Course title
Link - Course URL
Description - brief abstract of the course
dc:subject - topic or keywords, can be repeating
dc:creator - person or entity primarily responsible for creating the course content
dc:publisher - name of OCW site publishing the feed
dc:date - date the course was published
Optional fields
dc:contributor - person or entity making a contribution to creation of the course content
dc:relation - a related course
dc:type - type of content, e.g. Course
dc:format - file format, e.g. text/html
cc:license - to denote a Creative Commons license
dc:rights - information about the copyright
How to publicise your feeds
While at the Utah Interoperability sprint in February 2008 we talked
about who you need to tell about your feed, because there are now a
number of different tools harvesting feeds (some of which have been
mentioned above. This list may not be exhaustive.
Consider using multiple feeds if your feed is large, but still offer a single consolidated feed
Market your feed
Think about how to preserve your brand within your feed
Realize that your feed may be presented out of context and may be displayed alongside content from other sites
What about OPML
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for
outlines. It is commonly used to exchange lists of feeds between feed
aggregators. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML.
If you have a large site it can be helpful to break down your
course materials into several RSS feeds, rather than (or as well as)
offering a single massive list of everything on your site. An OPML feed
can then be used to aggregate all these feeds back together again for
those users who really do want everything so that they don't have to
subscribe to all the different feeds individually. They also benefit if
you restructure your site, or add new feeds, because you will include
these in the OPML and so they obtain the new information automatically
without having to visit your site again and notice the new feeds now
available.
Consider for example breaking down your RSS feeds into
different faculty and subject areas. You could even add feeds for all
the video or audio content on your site, or static feeds for the
content within a single course. Or if your site offers discussion
forums, you could offer a single OPML feed aggregating RSS feeds from
each discussion area.
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