[TN-Bird] TN, Bristol-birds with RSS Feeds - the future?

Tennessee and Bristol Birders:
I have recently set up a new and improved birding journal from the one I 
previously mentioned a few weeks back (A friend gave me a TON of web space to 
play 
with).  This one is taking advantage of the rapidly growing technology called 
RSS.  I have both bristol-bird and tn-bird on the site with the newest 10 
posts titles from each one ( I think you can set this up to see as many of the 
posts as you like).  As a new post is added, the "oldest post" is bumped from 
the list.  I will be using this page as my home page.  If I were to be away 
from 
my computer for an extended time, I can click where it says "bristol-bird" or 
"tn-bird" and go to the archives.  By clicking on the titles of the posts I 
can easily view that individual post.  It is not instantaneous, but it updates 
within 10 minutes the message being sent to either list.

The URL to my birding journal (to check this out) is:

http://etnbirdjournal.technobohemia.com

I a still working on getting the format down so depending on what browser you 
are using the right column might be at the bottom.  If it is then scroll all 
the way down to see the RSS feed, if not, it should be to the right of the 
first post and down under the links to bird stuff and my gracious' hosts boards 
and galleries.  (In the galleries area you can a gallery I have there of nature 
pics).

RSS is a bit on the complicated side, but I can see a big advantage to being 
able to see the newest birding posts (and have quick access to the birding 
lists archives) from wherever you have Internet Access and where you might not 
have access to your email.

Here is a brief description of what RSS is:
__________________________________________________________________________
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, 
including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like 
Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much 
anything that 
can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent 
changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision 
history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an 
RSS-aware 
program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an 
appropriate way.
RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging 
community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can 
help 
you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and 
displaying new items from each of them.
A brief history
 But coders beware. The name "RSS" is an umbrella term for a format that 
spans several different versions of at least two different (but parallel) 
formats. 
The original RSS, version 0.90, was designed by Netscape as a format for 
building portals of headlines to mainstream news sites. It was deemed overly 
complex for its goals; a simpler version, 0.91, was proposed and subsequently 
dropped when Netscape lost interest in the portal-making business. But 0.91 was 
picked up by another vendor, UserLand Software, which intended to use it as the 
basis of its weblogging products and other web-based writing software. 

(the above material was from the web site:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html )
____________________________________________________________________________

Rob Biller
Elizabethton, TN

PS - This will probably get lost with all the Ivory-billed Woodpecker News 
flowing quickly out of Arkansas right now.  Amazing Stuff!


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