A Not-So-New Technology That Now Makes Most Mailing Lists Obsolete

Since you are reading this blog, you are possibly familiar with a fairly new technology named RSS, Atom, and/or XML feeds.

The technology allows you to stay current without visiting a lot of different webpages and allows you to choose to read items that interest you once you have found a website that generally produces content such as articles and news that you are interested in.

Once you have located such a website, then subscribing to their RSS or Atom feed (both use XML technology) requires a RSS reader which typically scrolls the headlines or titles for each article.

Some readers even provide a short introduction to the articles as a pop up window.

For Yahoo! users, the My Yahoo! page offers such feeds for you to subscribe to.

I have placed a lot of various methods for you to subscribe to this blog within the right margin through the various icons that you see listed.

Two RSS readers that I am currently using are add-ons to the Firefox web browser.

One reader is called InfoRSS. I really like it since it scrolls right to left at the bottom of your monitor and does not take up too much monitor space.

You can skip to the next feed that you have subscribed to, click on a headline to see a pop up short introduction, or double click the headline to read the full article, blog entry, or mailing list message (depending on the content that you have subscribed to).

Another RSS reader that I use when I get tired of looking at headlines at the bottom of a page or when I really want to find something interesting to read is Sage.

Sage opens a sidebar frame within Firefox just as whenever you would click the History icon within MS Internet Explorer.

Virtually all of the Yahoo! Groups mailing lists can now be subscribed to as RSS feeds.

I really have not experimented to see if the RSS feeds will work for a closed, subscription-only mailing list or to see what exclusivity there is possible.

But as one technology cliche' goes, all information wants to be free. This is the essence of open access, open source, or whatever is the opposite of the we-must-keep-secrets-at-all-costs mindset formed and taken to absurd heights during the Cold War era.

Unfortunately, many within and external to the Bond have caught this cancerous disease and when organizations are involved, the entire system of classifying information as secret or esoteric loses its focus and then everything such as a take-out menu may be classified as top secret as happened within a federal intelligence agency.

One forward-looking beauty of RSS feeds is that they can effectively reduce the number of hands that a piece of information has to go through to reach each traditional mailing list member.

Control freaks hate this but RSS feeds allow the opportunity to reduce any time delays or past behaviors such as having to log in or start up an e-mail program.

RSS feeds are probably already available on some cell phones and I know that they are available on any smartphone or PDA.

Every media outlet or organization that produces a lot of content and information is trying to make their information as mobile as possible without requiring one to being tethered to a desktop computer to gain access.

But the way that RSS feeds will work to a greater benefit within dynamic learning organizations is through the usage of tags which are used to pinpoint or clarify what a piece of content is about.

This is an introduction that I am now proposing is to be used throughout the Bond.

One of the best places to get turned onto tags is through websites that offer collaborative networking of links such as Del.icio.us (pronounced as Delicious) and Technorati. Photos can even be thrown into the mix with a website such as Flickr.

Virtually every new piece of software being created within the past 18 months has or will include RSS feeds in some manner.

Instead of Brothers sending out an e-mail to a mailing list of a website or photo or piece of news that they have found interesting, they can choose to "tag" the media content instead and then it will become immediately available to the entire Bond.

The key is therefore to know what tags or keywords will be most likely used by Brothers.

Tags that I have used include: Kappa Alpha Psi (for the places that will allow the usage of separate words), kappaalphapsi, Kappa+Alpha+Psi (in some cases), nupe, nupes, yoursinthebond, nnlb or the name of an undisclosed website created last month.

This technology is so dynamic that it will be incorporated into every aspect of the internet and become an assumed option that is available to all.

Anywhere that a RSS feed is available, a tag can be used to accurately describe it and allow it to be sent wherever someone might be interested in receiving it.

A sports fan could see sports information while a joke fan could obtain jokes without infringing on the territory of the other one.

Since photos can be tagged as well as podcasts, video blogs, and textual blogs can be tagged as a website URL, all of these can be converted into a RSS feed without any additional effort.

This is the real beauty of the technology. Go to Del.icio.us and Technorati at a minimum and create a free account and start tagging the various websites, photos, and anything else that you run across.

Remember that you can create tags that use your own name, city, chapter's name, college/university, line name, semester of initiation, province, committee, and anything other keyword that you and others will think of in order to share information.

A tag is really more important than a domain name at this point and we will probably incorporate this doctrine into my own company efforts as a result.

The keyword that you use as a tag will then become the password of the hub for various people. You can have multiple tags for a single website or content as well.

Technorati is basically a form of a search engine (like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others you know) that is centered around tags and you can find news and websites and other stuff that interest you all without having to subscribe to a mailing list and receiving a ton of e-mail messages.

I am no longer concerned about spam, having to delete messages, receiving unwanted and/or inappropriate messages, and/or conserving hard drive space after obtaining a Gmail account. The amount of space keeps growing and if I ever catch up to the maximum amount, then something else needs to really be done such as an intervention on one end or another.

I now have directed virtually all of my various e-mail accounts to flow through Gmail since it has one of the best spam filters I have ever seen that is available for free. If you need or want an invitation to obtain a free Gmail account, just let me know and consider it done regardless of whether we actually know one another or have met.

If you have unknowingly made your e-mail address available to others, then you really need a Gmail account more than you think. You can even change the settings so that your outgoing messages are using the e-mail address that you already have been using. It is simply amazing.

But a few final thoughts on RSS feeds and XML technology.

I foresee that various websites and mailing lists will begin to identify the central keywords that stand out in the minds of their visitors and subscribers. The keywords should be placed on a page within the website or a page should be created that reflects the various feeds and tags already identified.

I will be definitely creating such pages for the various websites and mailing lists that I am a part of.

XML is a form of HTML that allows databases to be manipulated as web pages (or even e-mail in my opinion).

Therefore, the usage of RSS and Atom feeds, and XML technology works to speed up the distribution of information while minimizing the number of potential choke points needed to screen the information.

A mailing list is now best used to:

1. eliminate unwanted noise (spam); or

2. reduce opportunities for Brothers to be heard; or

3. focus minds on a particular topic or issue.

All of the above best practices for a mailing list naturally depend on the mental state and leadership capability of the mailing list owner(s) and/or moderator(s) as we all have recently noticed as absent within the NN and KF.

There are no bureaucratic coalition opportunities with tags, RSS feeds, and XML technology however. Hallelujah!

Yours in the Bond!