IE 7 ruined my Keeping Up to Date, database alerts/RSS class. It was the only browser available on the computers in the library training room, and the fact that it automatically, neatly handles RSS feeds and displays them in a nice readable manner meant that I couldn’t make my point that (for non-IE 7 users) RSS feeds display as almost unreadable, very off-putting gibberish. I shouldn’t grumble too much, as this just shows that I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been.
I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what online RSS reader to show the class – I ended up showing them both Google Reader and Bloglines. Of course I pointed out IE 7’s built-in reader – but I left it at that. None of the attendees were already using IE 7. (I could have asked about Firefox, I suppose, I don’t know why I didn’t.) Although this class was different in that four of the sixteen attendees had actually heard of RSS (usually none of the class will have heard of it), I could see that many of them were finding the concept a bit difficult to grasp. Still, a few of the students looked mildly interested, and one student actually stayed behind, set up her reader (Google) and confirmed with me that a New Zealand news site she was interested in subscribing to had no feeds.
One of the attendees who knew a bit about RSS had a chat with me about why I thought people aren’t using RSS more widely. I think that RSS isn’t as easy to use as it could be, although this is changing with aggregator options being built into email clients and web browsers. I also think that using RSS hasn’t become habitual, like email is. Whenever I’ve shown people email and RSS as options for keeping informed, the majority are quite happy to use email to receive alerts and subscriptions, but seem to baulk at the thought of having to check Something Else.
How much resistance was there to using email when The Internet first entered the popular consciousness? I seem to remember that there was some, but I could be imagining things. Anyone know?
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Yep. I did a live demo of the internet for my “information organization” class at library school bck in 1990. The paper I wrote to accompany it concluded that the internet “could be useful”, but it depended on people checking their email – and I didn’t think they would do that. 🙂
Hi CW, I remember when I was employed in my full-time job 10 years ago, a year after I joined they introduced email to middle-management levels and only a select few. There wasn’t widespread resistance as such, since it was only to a few people who already needed a way to send and respond to written communications efficiently. Then about five years later, they introduced email to all staff in the organisation, regardless of designations. I felt there was a lot more resistance towards adopting emails, and largely due to anxieties in having to adopt something new. But since the needs slowly became more apparent (rather than leaving it as a “good to have” thing), nowadays everyone accepts that we have to use email.
So wrt RSS, I see it as more of a “good to have” thing at the moment. Those who are using it are clearly enjoying a competitive advantage, imho. These things, you just can’t force.
Kathryn I might have to see if I can dig up any articles on email…
Ivan thanks for your points – I think you might be right, RSS is not really an “essential” but I have to agree that it is an extremely useful tool to have – especially for librarians (and anyone else) who want to keep up on developments and conversations in many different areas and disciplines.