Drexel RSS Club first meeting

We had our first RSS club meeting yesterday. A few students and one faculty (Kevin Owens from chemistry) attended. One of the issues brought up was finding a place to start and the confusion with seeing XML when an RSS feed link is opened. So I demonstrated how to use Bloglines to copy and paste the URL to subscribe. The nice thing about RSS is that it doesn't require that much learning before it snowballs.

We also talked about podcasting and kicked around a few ideas for setting up some more blogs in CoAS. It was nice to see that there was one experienced user in the group to share her experiences with the neophytes.

The "negative image" of blogs came up. Apparently some people have been burned by bloggers who created fictitious account of their lives and now don't want to have anything to do with blogs. I think the way to squash that meme is to keep putting out useful and authentic material. Having Laura Blankenship on Wednesday talk about Blogging in Science is another step in that direction.

Our next RSS club meeting will be on Friday April 22 at noon. RSVP bradlejc@drexel.edu if you wish to attend.