Web Feeds

A Web feed is a method for subscribing to frequently updated content, which is published by a website. If a website has a “feed”, it means that you can subscribe to it and receive the updates, whenever that content is updated. The phrase “syndication” refers to the fact that users can subscribe to it. Web feeds give us a new method of publishing and accessing content online. You need a feed reader to view the content.


Using a Web feed, you can subscribe to a Web page and receive updates whenever the administrator for that page made any changes. With Web 1.0, you needed to go to the Web page each time, to see if there was new content.

What type of content can a feed display?
Web feeds can display links to existing Web pages or files, or display text, images, and embeded videos. Since blogs automatically generate a feed, all of the information on the post is displayed. Podcasts (to be covered later) use feeds, but they usually only bring in the audio or video file.


Really Simple Syndication - RSS

A web feed is a text file that is written in the XML language and saved with a .xml extension. A feed uses either the RSS or Atom specification, also technically XML languages. Since most feeds use RSS, the term "feed" and "RSS" have become synonymous.

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is an an online application that is accessible from any computer. It allows you to save and organize Web resources by using "tags" which are searchable and shareable .



In this class we will explore the many uses of Social Bookmaking, using the popular application
"Delicious". We will look at the many facets of sharing using the URLS, tags and the users' contributions.

Folksonomies and Tagging

Folksonomies
Folksonomies are used to categorize Web pages, photographs, links and other Web content by using labels, called "tags," which are chosen by the user. The information can be retrieved later on by using these tags.

Tagging
Tagging is giving a search term(s) or key word to a web page, photo, video, blog entry, or other Web content in order to make it easier to find. Tags are labels that allow users to associate information with particular topics

video - 7 min

What is Web 2.0?

The Beginning of Web 2.0

The History of the Web - part 1 (10 minute video)

Although the Internet has its roots in 1969's ARPANET, it was not until 1990, that the World Wide Web was developed. The below videos show the history of the browsers, how the Web became a source for information, and ultimalely how we came to use it for

Web 2.0 arrives - part 2 (10 minute video)