Thanks to the New Media Department at the Walker Art Center for launching this site enhancement which will provide mnartists.org content to a broader audience.

What is an RSS feed?
The acronymn RSS has been used to used to abbreviate a few different phrases. The one most appropriate for our implementation is Real Simple Syndication. An RSS feed is simply a text file that contains the news from an organization and can be read by many different software applications called news aggregators. This allows you to read the news or get updates from dozens of websites all at once without ever having to open your web browser.

Why did mnartists.org add the RSS feeds?
It is our goal to continually broaden the mnartists.org reach! The RSS feeds will provide content from the site to a much greater audience. People who use news aggregators to manage web information can now add mnartists feeds to the list of sites that they track. As an example of this check out the aggregator site on mnspeak.com
http://www.mnspeak.com/mnspeak/aggregator/
This aggregator collects posts from 150+ locally-authored blogs and media sources-now including mnartists.org!

It's now possible for people to subscribe to an mnartists.org RSS feed for new artwork, articles, news, collections, artists, or organizations. People who use news aggregators can get the latest articles from mnartists, track an artist and be notified when they upload new work, and so on in their own news center. And, if the RSS feed includes audio (for example the current feature collection of the mnartists.org mix CD http://www.mnartists.org/tourHome.do?action=start&rid=75114), people can subscribe to the RSS feed in iTunes or another Podcast receiver, download and listen to the tunes there!

Why Subscribe to an RSS Feed?
Use of an RSS Feed/ aggregator can drive more traffic to websites and save time in the finding Net-based information that you are interested in. It allows you to quickly scan titles and only retrieve information that you deem of high value. Any RSS feed you subscribe to will automatically tell you when there is an update. This lets you check all the sites your interested in very quickly. Why would someone subscribe to an mnartists.org feed? To keep up to date when a new article is published or to see when one of your favorite artists puts new work online, or get up-to-date news and events information.

What is an RSS Reader or Aggregator?
An RSS aggregator is usually a stand alone program (though it may be integrated with a mail or other communications program) that periodically and automatically searches the Web for new additions to any site to which the end user has subscribed. Some systems "pop-up" when new material arrives or on a scheduled basis, others wait until they are checked by the end user. Aggregators can be customized as to frequency of site checking and the ways that selected content is displayed. You can subscribe to as many RSS feeds as you wish and information is displayed and sorted by date and by the publisher of the data. There are open source, freeware and commercial RSS aggregators.

How Do you Read an RSS feed?
On many sites you visit, you will see an RSS ICON reading either "XML", "RDF", or "RSS 2.0"

To add the RSS feed to your reader/aggregator copy the URL by right clicking on the RSS link and then copy it into the "subscribe" form located in your RSS Reader.

For people new to RSS it is helpful to mention that if you just click (not right click) the RSS or XML button you will see a page of junk source code and you can copy the URL from the browser there. Many Mac people don't have a two button mouse so there is no right click. Usually the fastest thing is to click the link and copy the url from the browser. Otherwise control click is the same thing as right click for 1 button mice.

You do not have to worry about the different RSS formats (.92, 1.0, 2.0 etc.) as most modern readers can interpret them all. These icon(s) will link to the location where the RSS feed is published..

How to Install an RSS Reader or Aggregator
The are many RSS Readers/Aggregators to choose from. This is a short list of software we have used and recommend. Follow the directions provided by any of these Aggregators.

For Mac or PC:
Thunderbird (Free email application with RSS capability)
Firefox (Free web browser with RSS & Live Bookmark capability)

Mac OSX:
NetNewsWire
NewsFire

Windows:
RSS Reader
FeedReader

Linux:
Straw
Syndigator

Web:
Bloglines

How Simple was that! If you have questions or would like additional information you may email us at info@mnartists.org.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Kvern
Project Director, mnartists.org