翻译《ELI7024 - 关于RSS（简易资讯聚合）你需要知道的七件事》

7 things you should know about...

RSS

关于RSS（简易资讯聚合）你需要知道的七件事

Scenario

场景说明

For several semesters, Dr. Shaw has maintained Web sites for his chemistry courses. Each site includes reading lists and the syllabus, and he also uses a blog on the site to inform students about additional resources and changes to lab times and locations. Each lab group, consisting of five students, also has its own blog, where they report results from experiments. Beginning in the spring semester, Shaw adds RSS feeds to the site - one each for his blog and the lab group blogs. RSS feeds deliver updated Web content to subscribed users, and Shaw tells the students to subscribe to all of the feeds in the course. He also suggests that they subscribe to the chemistry department's RSS feed for its Web page, which includes events and news that might be of interest to the students, as well as podcasts of pertinent lectures, both on campus and from other institutions.

几个学期以来，萧博士一直在维护他的几个化学课程网站。每个网站都包括阅读列表和课程大纲，他还用网志通知学生新增资源和实验时间及地点的变更。每个实验小组，有五个学生组成，也有他们自己的网志，用来报告实验结果。春季学期一开始，萧博士为网站增加RSS订阅源——他的网志、学生实验小组网志，每个一份。RSS 订阅源向订阅用户提供网页的更新内容，萧博士告诉学生订阅课程所有订阅源。还建议学生们订阅化学系网站的RSS订阅源，其中包括学生可能感兴趣的活动和新闻，以及校内和其他机构的讲座相关网播。

Students subscribe to the feeds using a variety of RSS aggregators, chosen based on personal preference. At regular intervals, the aggregators automatically check for and download new content from the RSS feeds. When they look at their aggregators, the students see a list of all the feeds they are subscribed to and which ones have new content, which they can quickly access through the aggregator. Several of the students are in other classes that also use RSS for course updates. By organizing all of their RSS feeds in their aggregators, those students establish a single point of contact for updates to their classes. Many students also add RSS feeds from other online sources relevant to their coursework, creating a customized, up-to-date resource for their academic work.

学生根据个人喜好，利用各种RSS聚合器订阅这些订阅源。每隔一段时间，聚合器自动检查RSS订阅源并下载新内容。当学生打开聚合器，他们会看到他们订阅的所有订阅源列表，同时显示哪一个订阅源有新内容，通过聚合器他们可以很快打开新内容。一些其他班的学生也用RSS更新课程。用聚合器组织管理所有RSS订阅源，这些学生通过单一途径，就能更新自己所有的课程。许多学生也添加与其课程相关的其他在线资源的RSS订阅源，为其学术工作建立起一份定制的最新的资源。

Shaw follows the RSS feeds to monitor the progress of the lab groups. Each day he checks his aggregator for new content, and, when he is away from campus, he monitors the feeds on his PDA. With two introductory courses of more than one hundred students each, using RSS feeds allows Shaw to keep tabs on all of his lab groups more easily than he could with e-mail updates from students or by looking for blog updates on the course Web site.

萧博士通过跟踪RSS订阅源来监视实验小组的进度。每天他都检查聚合器查看最新内容，他不在学校的时候，通过PDA来订阅。两门入门课程都有超过一百名学生，使用RSS订阅源，萧博士可以很轻松的密切注意所有实验小组的更新，比用电子邮件或者浏览课程网站上的网志更新轻松多了。

What is it?

这是什么？

RSS is a protocol that lets users subscribe to online content using an RSS "reader" or "aggregator," which checks subscribed Web pages and automatically downloads new content. The aggregators display a list of subscriptions, with highlighting or another indicator of RSS feeds that have added content since the user last logged in. Without having to go to all of the individual Web sites, users can quickly and easily access new material from sites that interest them. For many, RSS has become the pipe through which content flows from providers to consumers. What makes RSS important is that users decide exactly what content is allowed through that pipe.

RSS 是一种协议，允许用户使用RSS阅读器或者聚合器订阅网上内容，RSS 阅读器或者聚合器检查订阅的网页并自动下载新内容。聚合器显示订阅列表，使用高亮或者其他方式显示用户最后一次登录后新增的内容。不需要单独访问每一个网站，用户就能快速轻松获取网站上他们感兴趣的新材料。对许多人而言，RSS 变成内容从提供者到消费者流动的管道。RSS 之所以重要是因为，用户可以决定，允许什么内容通过这根管道。

Since its introduction in the late 1990s, RSS has become almost ubiquitous. An excellent mechanism for distributing regularly updated content, RSS is a natural complement to blogs, news sites, photo-sharing applications, and podcasts. The popularity of podcasting results on some level from RSS technology. When new podcasts are available, the aggregator (or, in this case, podcatcher) automatically downloads the new file to your computer or portable music player.

自从二十世纪九十年代出现，RSS 已经无处不在。作为一项很好的定期发布更新内容的机制，RSS 是网志、新闻网站、相片共享应用、网播的天然补充。网播的流行在一定程度上归功于RSS 技术。有新的网播内容时，聚合器（在这里或称为网播收集器）自动从你的计算机或便携音乐播放器下载新文件。

Who's doing it?

谁在用它？

Bloggers represented many of the early users of RSS, which has since been widely adopted as a way to share information from virtually any source, including machine data. At both the institutional and departmental levels, large numbers of colleges and universities have incorporated RSS feeds into their online offerings. Peterson's maintains a College and University Feed Directory that catalogs hundreds of higher education RSS feeds organized by topic area, such as admissions, libraries, research centers, and technology. Listed in "research centers," for example, is a Harvard University Gazette RSS feed that provides updates about scientific research conducted at the university. Other feeds relate to scholarship opportunities, calendars of campus events, new acquisitions by libraries, tips for students from university IT staff, and numerous other areas of interest to students, faculty, staff, or alumni.

博客是指RSS 的许多早期用户，他们将RSS 广泛用于分享信息——不论来源何处，甚至包括机器数据。大量高校下属各研究机构和院系，都为在线服务添加RSS订阅源。彼得森维护着一份高校订阅源目录，收集了上百高等教育RSS订阅源，按照课题领域分类，比如入学、图书馆、研究中心、技术等。比如，研究中心列表，有哈佛大学公报RSS 订阅源，提供哈佛大学科学研究有关更新。其他订阅源涉及奖学金机会、大学活动日程安排、图书馆新进书籍、大学IT员工给学生的小技巧，以及学生、教师、员工、校友感兴趣的为数众多的其他领域。

How does it work?

它是如何工作的？

Making content available through RSS requires adding a small bit of code to a Web site, typically with an accompanying icon that lets users know that the content on the page is available through RSS. Users click on the icon or other RSS link to add a subscription to their aggregators, which allow users to set parameters such as how frequently the application looks for new content and how long downloaded items are kept. Rather than checking 20 or 50 or 100 blogs every day, for example, you can subscribe to the blogs' RSS feeds and simply check your aggregator to see new content added to any of them. For some content, RSS feeds deliver headlines and short bits of "teaser" text, driving users to the content provider's site to access the full resource. In other cases, such as podcasts and photos, RSS feeds deliver all of the content to users. If you subscribe to a Flickr feed, for example, new photos added to that feed will be downloaded to your aggregator, where you can access them locally.

要通过RSS 发布内容，需要为网站添加一小段代码，通常还有一个图标，让用户知道页面上的内容可以通过RSS 订阅。用户点击这个图标或者其他RSS 链接，添加订阅到聚合器，聚合器让用户设置参数诸如软件以什么频率查看新内容，以及下载内容保留多久时间。比如，与其每天浏览二十或五十或一百份网志，不如订阅这些网志的RSS订阅源，然后简单查看聚合器，看看有什么新内容。对于某些内容，RSS 订阅源提供标题和简短的“挑逗性”文字，促使用户访问内容提供者的网站，查看完整内容。另一些情况，比如网播和照片，RSS 订阅源为用户提供全部内容。比如，如果你订阅Flickr 订阅源，订阅源中新增加的照片会下载到你的聚合器中，你就可以从本地访问这些照片。

In the early days of RSS, users needed separate reader or aggregator applications for their RSS subscriptions. Increasingly, Web browsers and even operating systems incorporate RSS functionality, giving a much wider range of users access to RSS feeds through applications they already use. In addition, devices such as PDAs and cell phones now support RSS.

在RSS 早期，用户需要使用专门的阅读器或聚合器程序订阅RSS。后来越来越多的网页浏览器甚至操作系统集成了RSS 功能，使得更多用户通过已有程序访问RSS 订阅源。另外，PDA 等设备和移动电话现在也支持RSS。

Why is it significant?

为什么重要？

In many ways, RSS answers the question of how to filter and organize the vast amount of information on the Web. Internet users tend to settle on preferred sources of information, whether news sites, blogs, wikis, or other online resources that regularly update content. RSS allows users to create a list of those sources in an application that automatically retrieves updates, saving considerable time and effort. RSS feeds can be offered at varying levels of granularity, further enhancing users' ability to specify exactly what information they want to receive. For example, a college or university might offer one RSS feed for the institution's main news page, sharing information that concerns the institution broadly, and other feeds focused on the college of arts and sciences, the history department, or research being conducted by a professor of European history. Users can subscribe to feeds independently, tailoring the content they receive to their unique interests and needs.

在很多方面，RSS 都解决了如何过滤和管理网上海量信息的问题。互联网用户倾向于处理喜欢的信息源，无论是新闻网站、日志、维基，还是其他定期更新内容的在线资源。RSS 允许用户用某一应用程序为这些资源创建一份列表，自动获取更新，省下大量时间、精力。RSS 订阅源可以提供不同级别的详细程度，进一步提高用户精确指定想要获取哪些信息的能力。比如，某高校为其机构主要新闻页面提供一份RSS 订阅源，分享该机构广泛关注的信息，同时还提供艺术与科学学院、历史系，以及欧洲历史教授正在开展的研究等其他订阅源。用户可以分别订阅这些订阅源，也可以根据自己的兴趣和需求剪裁收到的内容。

Growing numbers of online resources offer RSS functionality. Because applications such as browsers and operating systems increasingly support RSS, the technology has the potential to become the primary vehicle through which users interact with the Internet. Further, RSS can offer an alternative to e-mail newsletters, which raise concerns about privacy and spam.

越来越多的在线资源提供RSS 功能。由于浏览器和操作系统等应用增加对RSS 的支持，该技术有可能成为用户接触互联网的主要手段。此外，RSS 能够替代电子邮件通讯，后者的隐私和垃圾邮件问题越来越严重。

What are the downsides?

有哪些缺点？

To take advantage of RSS feeds, users must locate online sources they trust, which can be a time-consuming task. Even if a site is deemed reliable, it may not offer RSS feeds. Moreover, because using RSS depends on making specific choices about which content you see, users who limit their Internet usage to reading RSS feeds will miss the serendipity of pulling up a site's home page just to see if something catches their attention. The flipside of placing limits on the overflow of online information is that you cut yourself off from resources that might prove valuable.

要发挥RSS 订阅源的优势，用户必须找到他们信任的在线资源，这会非常耗时。即使一个网站被认为可信，它也不见得会提供RSS 订阅源。况且，由于使用RSS 取决于你想看到哪些内容的具体选择，那些互联网用途狭窄、仅仅阅读RSS 订阅源的用户会因为只看他们想要关注的内容，而错过访问网站首页带来的意外收获。为网上信息超载设置限制的反面就是，接触不到一些可能对你有价值的资源。

Not all content is appropriate for RSS, such as a published article that is not going to change. Nevertheless, Web pages like these sometimes offer RSS feeds, indicating that appropriate guidelines for how the technology should be used are still evolving. In addition to several versions of RSS, a competing protocol from Atom offers an alternative technology for the same purpose. Underlying the various protocols are fundamental disagreements among developers about how the tools should work.

不是所有内容都适合RSS，比如发表的文章就不会继续改动。然而，有时候这类网页也提供RSS 订阅源，这表明仍然需要发展适当的准则，指导如何使用技术。此外，RSS 的多个版本，竞争协议ATOM，都为同一目的提供了替代技术。开发者之间的基本分歧，是工具如何工作所依据的各种协议。

Where is it going?

用在什么地方？

Increasing numbers of Web sites will offer RSS feeds, and RSS enables new ways for data to flow between applications. A course management system, for example, can be configured to send an RSS feed about its current status. If trouble is detected, an update about the problem is sent to users or other systems subscribed to that feed. Mashup applications that combine data from disparate systems can also take advantage of RSS technology to maintain awareness of data updates. Similarly, some social networking sites allow users to add RSS subscriptions to their pages. For instance, a Facebook user can subscribe her profile page to her Flickr RSS feed. When she adds a picture to her Flickr account, that photo is added to her Facebook page (with Facebook acting as the aggregator).

越来越多的网站会提供RSS 订阅源，RSS 成为应用间数据流动的新途径。比如，课程管理系统，可以配置成发送RSS 订阅源，提示当前状态。一旦检测到故障，有关问题的更新便发送给用户或者其他订阅系统。混搭应用把不同系统的数据融合起来，还可以利用RSS 技术的优势，及时知晓数据的更新。同样，一些社交网站允许用户在其页面添加RSS 订阅。例如，Facebook 用户可以把他Flickr RSS 订阅源订阅到个人资料页上。他的Flickr帐户添加照片后，照片会增加到他的Facebook页面上（这里Facebook就是一个聚合器）。

Some services attempt to quantify the number of individuals subscribed to specific RSS feeds, though these numbers are currently only estimates. Tools to track RSS usage - including how many people are subscribed, how many of those subscribers open specific links, and other usage data - will likely become more sophisticated and more accurate as organizations seek to understand the effectiveness of RSS efforts. By enabling new channels of data exchange, as with research data and communities of learners, RSS has the potential to create a stronger connection between knowledge creation with individual learning.

某些服务试图量化独立订阅到具体RSS 订阅源的数量，尽管这些数量现在还只能估计。跟踪RSS 用途——包括有多少人订阅，这些订阅者有多少打开具体连接，以及其他使用数据——的工具会变得更加复杂，更加准确，各机构可以用来设法了解RSS 工作的效用。通过实现数据交换的新渠道，与研究数据和学习者社区一样，在知识创造活动与个体学习活动之间， RSS 有可能建立强有力的连接。

What are the implications for teaching and learning?

对教育学习学习有什么影响？

RSS provides an efficient way for students to keep in touch with faculty, stay informed about coursework and other academic activities, and follow developments in their fields of study, which for many will be an important skill in their professional lives. The exchange of information that RSS facilitates can also take place from students to faculty or among the students in various courses within a department. Faculty use RSS to help them efficiently use the Internet to exchange disciplinary information and increase awareness of important developments. Many faculty also use online repositories of learning objects to locate educational resources to include in their courses, and initiatives including MERLOT and OpenCourseWare offer RSS feeds that notify subscribers when new content has been added in particular academic areas.

RSS 为学生提供了与教师保持接触的有效途径，第一时间了解功课布置和其他学术活动，紧跟研究领域的发展，这对许多学生的专业生涯都是一项重要技能。RSS 也能促进同一院系各课程间学生到教师、学生之间的信息交换。教师利用RSS 帮助自己高效运用互联网交换学术信息，提高对重大发展的认识。许多教师也利用在线学习对象库找到课程需要的教育资源，包括MERLOT 和OpenCourseWare 提供RSS 订阅源，通知订阅者具体学术领域添加了新内容。

RSS

简易资讯聚合

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April 2007

二零零七年二月