RSS Skeptic

This week I have set up RSS feeds to ABC News and Curtin Library' new Media and Information titles (as part of the 23 Things programme) I already had one for new literature books here at Murdoch Library.



To be honest, I couldn't think of any website that I consistently check dalily, or even weekly, so it was a struggle to find RSS feeds that I would actually find useful. Maybe the weather? but bom.gov.au doesn't have an RSS feed, and although Kathryn found out how to set one up the "roundabout" way I didn't do so for two reasons; 1) I don't actually want to check the weather every single day, and if I'm checking my reader just for the weather, why don't I go straight to the source? 2) out of protest- I mean this is supposed to be convenient, it's not exactly time-saving or convenient to have to track these things down (or get another person to track it down for you, how very 1.0)



I cancelled the two RSS feeds I set up before (ALIA and Local Govt). Although I was initially embracing the "new" concept of information arriving conveniently on my desktop and not going throught the arduous task of actually looking for it, I found that there was simply too much information to be manageable. Also, the information arrived not on my terms (not on my set parameters nor in a format the I was comfortable with nor at a time convenient to me) but on the terms of the host website. It turns out that rather than making my life easier and my information retrieval habits more effective, I recieved too much information and I missed out on stuff I wanted anyway because I was unable to set my own parameters.



I suppose that when something starts up, the technology will be far from perfect, and that RSS feeds will become more sophisticated over time. For now I will stick to my Luddite 0.0 ways of checking.... hang on.... my zero favourite websites daily :)



signed,

skeptical member of iGen