"Spring" Is Knocking at Our Door

 

Spring! A time for fresh beginnings as new life emerges from winter's deep sleep.
The spirit of spring awakens Mother Earth.
This is what I'm looking for, When Spring comes knocking at my door, This is what I long to see, When spring awakens over me.
This is the glory that I long to hold...
Spring is a blessing to behold.
This is what I've waited for - Nothing less, Nothing more.
Spring has come, Spring has spung, It's a time of love, For the old, For the young...
It's a time for all of us, NOT just for some.
It was a long, hard, cold Winter, but 'Finally' Spring has arrived,
Some of our Friends aren't with us,
Only the strong have survived...
Happy New Year and Nowrooz to all my colleagues, friends and readers. May the New Year bring you good health, prosperity and, above all, happiness.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  9:24 PM

The Growing Popularity of RSS

 

The Digital Edge published an article entitled "RSS Providers Analyze, Newspapers’ Opportunities" in which Susan Mernit discusses the growing popularity of RSS among information-hungry consumers.
She says:

The growing popularity of RSS among information-hungry consumers is having a direct impact on publishers’ audience acquisition and Web monetization strategies. Although journalist/blogger Tom Biro reports that 160 newspapers in the U.S. are offering RSS feeds of their content, only a few have comprehensive strategies for distributing and monetizing the feeds. Most, like the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, are experimenting and watching carefully to see what’s next....

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  10:28 AM

Survey Indicates 75.3% Read Blogs for "News I Can't Find Elsewhere"

 

A survey of 30,079 blog readers conducted March 2005 by BlogAds finds that one reader in five is a blogger, 75.3% read logs for "news I can't find elsewhere", 59.8% for "faster news", ...
Here are a few ones which are interesting:

• 79.3% of blog readers don't have their own blogs.
• 75.5% of surveyed people(23,847) are men.
• 10% of respondents are students. In addition, 14.8% have a job in education sectors.
• Among respondents, 38% think online newspapers are "useful" sources while 50% assess the blogs as "Extremely useful" sources of news and opinion.
  Many things else to be followed especially by PR and media people. Continue here.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  3:16 PM

Using RSS to Follow Your Beat

 

After the previous post, I found some nice points among my notes and made decision to share them with you and everyone else.
You can take them as a quick guide to RSS:

• RSS for Journalists: Jonathan Dube, editor of Cyberjournalist.net, has a guide entitled RSS for Journalists in his column on Poynter. It is worthy of reading over and over.
  Newspapers with RSS: Sidewalk theory has listed most U.S. newspapers with RSS. It is possible to change the format, therefore, you can see the papers by state, by owner, ... or see only the sites with RSS feed.
• How to use RSS to follow your beat: Mark Schaver at C.A.R offers a detailed instructions on using news aggregators.
• AP RSS News Feeds: Here you can create your own AP ticker with RSS feeds from The Associated Press.
• A Guide To Media Monitoring With RSS: Listening and monitoring is a vital discipline that any 21st century information and communication activists have to practice regularly and RSS makes it easier to listen and monitor. Josh Hallett has provided a guide one need to know to get started.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  2:39 PM

RSS can smooth out waves for information surfing

 

The Houston Chronicle writes about RSS:

As more people find themselves getting most of their news, information and even entertainment online, they're facing a problem.
There's so much out there, how can a dedicated info junkie keep up? It's easy to chew up too much time surfing from site to site, trying to spot changes since the last visit.
The answer is RSS, a way for sites to get content to users without their visiting the site.

Jack Smith  |  *Feedback  |   0 comments   |     |  2:29 PM