One thing I learned during Blog Business Summit is that for most people RSS is over their heads, like Goodyear blimp over their heads. This isn’t their fault, it’s ours. We, as the blogi masters, just haven’t done enough to help people get it (or “grok” it as I like to say).
Anita Campbell has an article in Inc Technology that brings it all down to this: “The simple reality is:Â RSS still has far too much geek factor.”
The question is, then, what can we do about it? I think it comes down to two things, education and application.
First we have to educate people what it is, how it really works, how to look for it on sites, and how to subscribe. Then we need, we absolutely need to show people why it is so important. Why it can save them time and help them in their day-to-day jobs.
Tags: RSS, collaborative intelligence
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Pingback by blogtoweb.com » Blog Archive » On Writing, for the Blogging Generation — November 2, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
I agree that the benefit of RSS still eludes most people. However, I think the biggest obstacle is integration with existing software. Once browsers, e-mail readers, and even operating systems provide the necessary and seamless hooks, RSS feed use will likely take off.
At the moment, all we have are tips on what icon to use and a couple of best practices on keeping the number of clicks to a minimum. But these things still need every RSS publisher to explain what RSS is and that’s where I believe we lose most people.
Comment by IT Consulting Guy — November 5, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
this is VERY important. for the past little while, i’ve been wracking my brain how to help people subscribe to my blog. never mind RSS.
“so what’s a blog again?”
“how come you don’t email me your blogs?”
“what do you mean, ‘subscribe’ to the blog?”
“you’ve got a great blog!” (when they go to my static web site)
“i love your blog!” (when they read my electronic newsletter)
“you’ve never told me where your blog is!” (when it’s in the signature of each and every email i send)
that’s only a few of the comments.
then these poor people are supposed to know that they can do this weird “subscribing” stuff by going to a jungle of icons somewhere at the bottom of the page of the blog (if they ever get there)?
yes, clearly, there’s a lot of education that needs to happen, and WE need to do the educating.
thanks for bringing this up!
Comment by isabella mori — November 7, 2006 @ 1:35 pm