Written by David Tebbutt in June 2005

When the World Wide Web first impacted our consciousness, acres of newsprint dedicated themselves to the latest sites and sources of arcane information. We struggled with our mistyping of endless URLs which took us into the bowels of this and that academic institution. Eventually, everything calmed down and the web became part of everyday life.

Now, we seem to be in a similar situation with RSS feeds. Anyone who writes about them can crank up their word count by listing sources of interesting feeds. But soon, probably very soon, RSS will become part of the weft and warp of our online experience.

For those who've not stumbled across RSS yet, it is essentially a 'tip off' service provided by creators of online material to say that it has been updated. The presence of a feed is denoted by a little RSS, XML or Atom button. Most blogs have them, as well as many other sources of information, from job vacancies to supermarket bargains. Closer to home, many content management systems can now create RSS feeds.

For users, RSS feeds provide useful antennae on the outside world. Knowledge workers in organisations need to keep on top of what's going on in their subject field. They want to collect information, especially breaking information, at their convenience and with the least amount of effort. Enter the RSS aggregator and various search engines that do the grunt work for them.

The aggregator provides a one-stop-shop for all the information feeds. The search engines keep a lookout for information of relevance and deliver the hits as an RSS feed. If I were interested in all mentions of "Information World Review" by bloggers, I might pop the term into a Technorati watchlist. Any blogger who dares to mention this magazine will be reported to me automatically.

Other engines look at other sources of information. Sometimes the aggregator contains predetermined feeds. Sometimes you might want to construct your own aggregated feeds on behalf of your internal clients. The details don't matter. The important thing is that the user gets relevant information in a timely and convenient manner.

At first they'll probably go mad and subscribe to all sorts of dubious feeds. They'll learn soon enough. Best to show them how the system works, tell them about any useful internal feeds, give them some guidance and some warnings about the outside world and then let them get on with it.

They will create an information universe around themselves that would have been impossible for the organisation's information strategists to define. They will subscribe and unsubscribe until they end up with a core of trusted feeds. These will be extended gradually as they are exposed to others by their existing feeds and by the changing focus of their work.

The effect on their awareness of the world at large will be profound. They will be exposed to new ideas and fresh arguments which could stimulate their thoughts to the benefit of their work and the organisation.

But, once again, 'information overload' will rear its ugly head. Take a couple of days off and how the heck do you manage the deluge? Well, deleting it isn't such a bad option. After all, this is all information that they didn't previously receive. Or maybe read the essentials and kill the rest.

One downside of this kind of exposure is the realisation of just how little we know. But, along with this, has to come the acceptance that it is actually quite impossible to keep on top of everything. Perhaps part of your job is helping people come to terms with this.