There are some technologies that are just too important - too significant. And in spite of their importance are summarily ignored. RSS is one of those. Yes, the initials stand for words - different words depending on what version of RSS you’re talking about — but the words don’t really matter. The words are talking about the same concept.

RSS is a way to describe the content on a webpage in such a way as to allow computers to read the content. The “so what?” factor here is that you can then use computers to scan, sort, filter, and collect information for you and present it in ways that you prefer.

RSS is sometimes called a ‘feed’ and the software used to process the feed is commonly called a ‘feed reader’ or a ‘news aggregator.’ The process of collecting feeds is called ’subscription’ so if you were going to read this blog with a feed reader, you’d ’subscribe to the feed.’

These ’subscriptions’ aren’t like magazine or newspaper subscriptions. You don’t have to pay for them. It’s just a process by which you tell your feed reader what information you want it to collect and collate for you.

One of the most popular of the current readers is Google Reader and it allows you to view your feeds from anywhere on the web by just using a web browser. The advantage to this is that you can check the news from any computer that has browser access to the web and you do not need to install special software on a computer.

“Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke

One of the largest challenges facing all of us in these early days of the 21st Century is how to keep up with it. The rate of change - especially in technology - has escalated dramatically to the point where even experts in the field have to pick and choose what facets of it to stay in touch with as the rest of the world sails off in other directions. To the un-initiated, these technologies seem almost magical — or perhaps seem to require some kind of magical power to harness.

The Wizard’s Keep is our window on the intersection of technology, education, and accessibility. In these posts, we’ll look forward to the technology on the horizon, examine the current state of technology, and even look back at technologies that have been around for awhile but really haven’t gained as much traction as perhaps they could.

If you’re interested in these ideas, I encourage you to add the feed to your aggregator so you’ll be informed of new postings. If you don’t know what a feed or an aggregator is, stay tuned. At least once each week, I’ll make a new post to explain the magic and show you how invoke the magical properties of 21st Century technology so, for you at least, it seems less like magic.