We're happy to announce that our preferred RSS aggregator, Blogbridge, now has the power of reading lists (in the weekly version).

Reading lists are a critical tool/service for the emerging world of Learning 2.0. Dave Winer who developed the code for them, defines them as follows:

Reading lists are OPML documents that point to RSS feeds, like most of the OPML documents you find, but instead of subscribing to each feed in the document, the reader or aggregator subscribes to the OPML document itself. When the author of the OPML document adds a feed, the aggregator automatically checks that feed in its next scan, and (key point) when a feed is removed, the aggregator no longer checks that feed. THe editor of the OPML file can update all the subscribers by updating the OPML file. Think of it as sort of a mutual fund for subscriptions.

This means that “editors” can build collections of RSS feeds and “readers” can subscribe to these collections. I have built a collection called “Otter Learning 2.0″ which includes good feeds around the topic of learning 2.0. I built this collection within Blogbridge and published the aggregated list of feeds as a “reading list.” Here is the url: http://www.blogbridge.com/rl/3247/Otter+Learning+2.0.opml. When you click on this url, this is what you see is a listing of all of the rss feeds in the list:

But this list is not static. It is dynamic in that I continue to find new feeds that I think belong in the collection. So when I add a new feed to the list and update the opml, people who have subscribed to the list will automatically have their collections updated.

This ability to share collections has important implications for learning. Imagine, as we do, that courses become collections of feeds. While someone enrolls in a course, then all they have to do is subscribe to the course reading list and they automatically get all of the feeds they need, organized in one place, and dynamically updated as needed. Imagine that an enterprise starts to distribute all kinds of things as feeds. Reading lists (and the directories to manage the lists) will become the next step in managing RSS in the enterprise.

OK. So we're very excited about this and kudos to Pito and his development team for making it happen. Now here's how you can subscribe to Otter's Learning 2.0 Reading List. You must be using the Blogbridge Weekly Version as this is still a feature in beta testing. Once you have downloaded Blogbridge, all you do is add a Guide and copy this URL into the reading list menu:

http://www.blogbridge.com/rl/3247/Otter+Learning+2.0.opml

Now you are subscribed to this list. And when I make changes your aggregator will keep your list up to date.

We will be publishing new tutorials that show you exactly how to do this. And you can read about how to create and publish your own reading lists on the Blogbridge blog. And if you want to share a reading list you have built that you think our blog readers will like, send us the opml url and we'll publish it here.

Share This

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 4:39 pm and is filed under E-Learning, Main Page. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.