lucindigo.com

Regator has launched to the public - check it out. 

The value proposition of this type of service is that it enables you to expand your reading list by seeing what others who are into the same topics or industries are reading. You are only as sharp and informed as the depth and breadth of your reading list. With your own RSS Reader that pulls in only the content you have subscribed to you may not be widening your horizons as much as you could be.

From Regator:
How is Regator different?
Its blogs are hand-selected by real human beings, who choose them based on their good writing, original content, frequent updates, and relevance. But Regator’s editors don’t handle everything (there’s only so much caffeine a person can take). Our users’ actions create top rated, most viewed, and most commented pages. And complex algorithms create the aptly titled What’s Hot List, which keeps you up to date on what the blogosphere’s writing about at any moment. 

Scott of Regator has sent me a log-in to the private beta of their service - a start up blog aggregator. Have had a look around and it looks really good. Nice user interface and interaction design. I think a lot of work has gone into the categorisation of channels, despite the fact I could not find a “New Media Communications” channel to log Lucindigo and had to settle for Occupations –> Media –> Publishing. I may have overlooked this though.

What I like about it is the exposure it provides to fresh, high quality content. A good service to use if you want to work on expanding your reading list.

The What’s Hot function is cool. Shows you what those interested in any particular topic are talking about in the Blogosphere at any one time E.g. Today in SEO… Today in Pop Culture…

I recommend checking it out when it opens up to public, especially if you are new to Blogging and don’t obsessively use and adore a specific RSS Reader. Readwriteweb called it “mainstreaming RSS” which I thought captured the concept well.

Read some coverage on the private Beta of Regator:
Techcrunch

ReadwriteWeb

RSS feeds are a toll for delivering frequently updated content to readers, without them having to search for it. Use of an RSS feed offers great opportunities to publishers who are looking for alternative systems to generate readership and/or revenue from their content, whether that content is written, audio or video.
This graph shows how RSS can impact web traffic.

1. Create Content
For regular, frequent publishing you need to create an RSS feed. The RSS file is just a text file that links to your file and describes the content of the file. This file you create must be a plain text file, created in notepad or text editor. Formatting will break the RSS file.

A feed comprises a channel, which has a title, link, description, and (optional) language, followed by a series of items, each of which have a title, link, and description. RSS feeds are created in XML. Feeds can be created using tags that are enclosed in brackets <> very similar to HTML.

You can create RSS feeds without ANY programming or technical knowledge at all and convert any web page to RSS format with the tools below:

RSSPECT
FeedYes
Feed43
Feedfire
Feedity

I am currently trialling FeedForAll software (for the Mac, but they also have PC) which is incredibly straightforward. I read through how to make an RSS feed manually and believe that with development of software such as FeedforAll it is unnecessary for the vast majority to do so. Although here are some links if you want to have a read. I always think that it is useful to understand how things work if you are working with them. Even if due to great technology there is no need for you to put this understanding fully into practice. With FeedforAll, you can get an RSS creator that offers a variety of useful features such as support for optional tags and capabilities. Seems a much better result than some of the free services I tried.
Making an RSS Feed - SearchEnginewatch

Make RSS Feeds.com

Here is a great post on “how to make RSS your worker bee”, by Marshal Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb. Article called, How to build an RSS and blog news site for your project

2. “Create an RSS Feed”
To enter your item into the RSS file, you’ll need three bits of information. The title and description should be written to describe the content and the link should reference the webpage that contains that actual content.
1) Title
2) Description
3) Link

You can use FeedForAll or any of the services I listed about to create this file.

3. Validate RSS
You can use RSS validation programs, such as Feed Validator mentioned below, but they require the file to be available at a URL.

* FEED Validator for RSS and Atom
* RSS Validator

3. “Upload file to server”
Next you need to add your text (and publish) or upload your MP3 file to your website, as the file must sit on a server.

4. “Provide RSS & subscription detail to users”
This involves adding option for subscription to a number of podcast directories for wider distribution and profile.

A tutorial
Tutorial URL: http://rssgov.com/rssworkshop.html

To watch the news and stay up to date with what is going on in my professional and personal interest areas, I use Google Reader, where I can pick and choose what I want to track. My range of sites that I follow spans new media, journalism, psychology, fitness, economics, perezhilton.com and obviously a whole load more. This enables you to track a much greater number of sites and sources that is possible through an iGoogle page and is a great tool to use as well as these types of personalised page services.

RSS Readers
I have at present 308 sites and sources subscribed to in my Google Reader that I monitor through RSS feeds. View my shared items page here

What is RSS?
The driving purpose of RSS is to regularly update your own interests by receiving dynamic web feeds directly to your screen. It means that you do not have to bookmark a list (in my case of 308 sites) and visit them independently to get an update on any new content or developments. RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary and has revolutionised the way we search for content.

Apparently the adoption of RSS technology is not yet mainstream despite the efficiencies it can deliver for work and home. If you want to learn more about why and how of RSS read this ReadWrite Web post, “An Ode to RSS, on RSS Awareness Day”
This video within the Readwrite Web post from Commoncraft, RSS in plain English, explains it quite well. Watch the video here

In a business setting, this Article below in IR Web Report asked, “What is fundamental on an IR website?”

• Point 1 - Identifying future fundamentals is a big part of our jobs as advisors. We help companies that are planning upgrades for their IR websites identify practices and technologies that are likely t