Re: [syndication] RSS for Liberal Arts Majors

[elijah wright <elw@stderr.org>]

> Not enough people are using RSS aggregators. So far it's mostly been for
> people with a substantial investment in information, engineers,
> librarians, lawyers. A lot more people, even people with liberal arts
> degrees, would use the software, if they knew how valuable it is.

first: you're setting up a false dichotomy between "liberal arts people"
and everyone else - why?  that is an extremely unproductive division to
make, i think, dave. the difference between librarians and other sub-camps
of academia is less than one might think. ;)  (disclaimer: i have two
degrees in english and am working on a third one in LIS...)

second: things really are rolling along - people in different disciplines
(I have the most knowledge of the situation in English and Communications
contexts) *DO* know about syndication and aggregation, and are promoting
it to students and co-workers as it becomes appropriate.  (i wrote a
review of Amphetadesk and a couple of other blog tools last summer
*specifically* because it was useful to advocate them to rhetoricians and
people interested in computer-assisted writing!)

many courses are now repurposing and using weblog software as the
instructors find it appropriate - often as a replacement for Blackboard,
WebCT, or some other proprietary system.  I see Drupal and PostNuke used
most frequently in this context, though I'm also aware of people using
LiveJournal, DiaryLand, and (a little) Radio for similar purposes.

Understanding the culture of these departments helps a lot - it takes at
least three times as long to achieve the same market penetration that
you'd get in some other departments.  (writing instruction is naturally a
conservative discipline, though certain individuals within it who can make
big waves quickly if convinced that the value is really there).

w.r.t Making-It-Happen: you might be able to make a big move by donating
bunches of copies of radio to education.  Many English departments teach
huge numbers of students with very little funding - the money is often
there for server hardware but not for buying software for the 15% or so of
students who take freshman composition in any particular semester.  I
suppose that instructors *could* ask students to buy Radio, but it is
highly unlikely.  (everybody takes comp in their first year, some more
than once :) )

anyway, dave - back to earlier points - making generalizations without
supporting evidence is not terribly useful.  you could have asked if
anybody had a grasp on market penetration in those fields, and i could
have given you a couple of pages of detail on short notice.

let's make RSS better for everyone!

thanks, (and everyone doing work in this area should feel that they are
	heroes! :) )

elijah