What is RSS?

RSS has several meanings: Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary and RDF Site Summary (RDF stands for Resource Data Framework).

In any case, RSS is a method of summarizing the latest news and information from a website in a lightweight form that can be easily read by any of a number of news readers or news aggregators. The idea is to give users the ability to quickly obtain the latest news and updates from a site in a headline or news digest format. This in turn helps during high-traffic periods by reducing the load on the servers.

What Do I Need to Use the RSS Feeds?

To use our RSS feeds, you need a feed reader (aka news aggregator) installed on your computer. Many free RSS readers can be downloaded from the Web. These applications can be set to read the feeds on a recurring basis.

Once you install the feed reader or news aggregator, you can simply add the feed addresses (URLs) to the list of feeds in the reader. The installation instructions for the readers will help you with that. If your news reader or aggregator uses "auto-discovery," simply enter the main site address (e.g., http://forestthreats.org) and it will find the available feeds.

The following RSS feeds are available from the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center. If you have a feed reader or news aggregator, you can click these links to view the RSS feeds in your browser (or copy the URLs and paste them into your feed reader or news aggregator):

• What's New  (http://forestthreats.org/whats-new/RSS)
• Featured Forest Threat  (http://forestthreats.org/featured-forest-threats/RSS)
• Upcoming Events  (http://forestthreats.org/news-events/upcoming-events/RSS)
  

Click here for more information about RSS from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.