Guru Andy Dickinsons Turns us into Cyber Nerds
Before I entered room GR270 on a glorious autumn afternoon, I had absolutely no idea what RSS was. Really Stupid Something? Right Sodding Spam? I knew it had something to do with web content,but nothing more.
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| Andy Dickinson: Internet Guru |
One hour of Andy Dickinson’s no-nonsense will-you-girls-shut-the-f**k-up instruction and I now know it stands for Really Simple Syndication. Simples.
Information Gathering
It is a means of information gathering; a whale’s mouth that filters the tiny plankton that clog up the ocean of web content and feed us enough relevance to survive as fledgling journos.
It works like this: find an interesting website, something like Rugby World http://www.rugbyworld.com/ and look for the little orange icon. In this case it’s in the “Follow us” box: http://www.rugbyworld.com/wp-rss2.php . Then go to your Google account, go to Google Reader, add link, paste it in, and hey presto, you will get updates from that website. You can even link it to your smart phone, if you’re smart enough.
Forums and Chat Rooms: Not Just for Dodgy Geezers
Joining forums and chat rooms, I had always thought was a bit dodgy. It smacks of fat boys who can’t get a date, but who are one step ahead of other fat boys who can’t get a date; this is because they exchange opinions with people rather than murder them in cyberspace.
Normal Andy
Andy seems fairly normal, so I’m going to trust him on this one and immerse myself. Have a look at ARRSE.co.uk – go on, you know you want to. Not what you thought it was, is it?
