First in series on Tips & Tricks for scholars: RSS feeds"

Following the first effort of Emerging scholar stuff (archive availlable at here) I propose to contribute to YECREA's website by feeding a new category of content: Tips & Tricks. I argue that young scholars are provided nowadays with a huge number of tools and services that might greatly improve their daily tasks but because of the lack of time, most of them don't take the time to discover them. Well, I'll do for you guys ;-). As first input to this new category I propose here a re-publication of one the important posts of ESS blog: "Emerging Scholars need a RSS reader
As scholars use the internet as major (unique?) access tool to information and a means of communication for a significant amount of time, lots of stuff have occurred and help them in their daily activities. The evolution of recent years has increased the number of channels and sources of information and the struggle to manage them has grown more and more. This statement is neither new nor path-breaking but it was the greatest basis of the creation of this blog. Among all stuff suggested here, this one is the most important: emerging scholar need...a feed reader.
The main idea intended here is that young scholars have to deal with a vast range of information on the internet. And when I say vast, we still are far from the reality. Sources vary in quality, seriousness, truth worthiness, purpose, authority, etc. The information may be academic or not, pro or not, user generated or commercially designed. Whatever the source, one thing doesn't change: the quantity. In order to follow the speed of the publishing process on the Internet, it seems important to take benefit from the tools it offers. And RSS can't be neglected.
Basically, a rss feed offers the opportunity to subscribe to specific content on the internet --purists will have corrected in their own mind ;-). That means that if a source is considered as interesting, the scholar don't have to come back later to see if new content has been published. He just has to subscribe once and then all new content will be "pushed" within its feed reader. This system is not perfect: Indeed, when you are dealing with 400 feeds, new challenges arise due to the time needed to scan the reader. Anyway, this stuff is an efficient answer to the current state of the internet.
I am not a specialist on the subject, but since more than two years, I tested some readers. I won't offer here the name of the ultimate system. I prefer to present here the three kinds of options, available today:

• Readers in the browser: This option is the easiest, in my opinion, but also the most basic. It will rapidly become limited for scholars who get used to rss. It may be described as the same process as bookmarking a web page. The difference is that it doesn't create a link in the browers to a single page, but a kind of "file" which is filled in every time a new content is published on the feed. This function is available on almost all recent browsers: Firefox, IE7, Opera, Safari, Flock, etc.
• Locally installed readers: This option is the most efficient for new users because those readers offers a vast range of functionalities but are really easy to use. Indeed, they are often designed as they look like an e-mail client or newsgroups clients --oldest of us will remember ;-). If the content differs, the user will find the same kind of windows (not the OS) view and the same level of reading: the feed, the title, the abstract and more if wanted. In that category, I use FeedReader3 and I tested earlier Alertinfo and Webbulles but there are loads of other options available.
• Web based readers. Those readers manage feeds on a web server, which free the user from its computer. S/he may access them from anywhere. In general, those kinds of services offer other functionalities such as widgets and community based improvements. Some examples are Google Reader, Netvibes, Bloglines, etc.

In addition I would like to add that more advanced use of rss needs to be considered by young scholars. When having collected different feeds, you may want to share them or make them portable. The majority of feed readers now offer easy ways to export groups of feeds as an opml file. Don't need to give more technical details. Just remember that you may export all your feeds or import them in a reader. It is really useful when testing a new reader for example or after having reinstall you computer.
Finally, some may ask for more concrete uses of rss. Here are example of sources with useful feeds:

• RSS feeds are available on almost all information websites, press and news websites, etc. Googlenews, major newspapers, specialized online sources (cnet, zdnet, etc.).
• RSS feeds are avillable on all blogs (thanks to the software which create them by default). This is also the case for wikis.
• RSS feeds are often available on results of major sear engines.
• RSS feeds are availlable on almost all community platforms, especially those already presented in that blog: del.icio.us, flickr, YouTube, slideshare, but also citeUlike (it will be presented here soon).

Nowadays, RSS cannot be ignored any more, so those of you haven't still made the jump, I encourage you to do so...you'll improve the way you collect, process and share information on the Internet...I promise !
Jer'm