RSS and aggregators
The online blog media involved (photos, video, audio) are now almost always tagged and wrapped in XML code that uses a syndication technology called RSS. RSS increasingly underpins much of the information flow on the web today.
It was a technical standard that went through several iterations and schisms, but is now the name of the process whereby we can disseminate personalised dynamic information quickly and easily. While it may originally have stood for'really simple syndication', the acronym has now become synonymous for what it is - news and information dissemination and retrieval for personalised content.
With RSS, independent and corporate producers, bloggers and educationalists can ensure that consumers watch, listen to or read their content where and when they want A web service called an aggregator can search for and pull down this highly pertinent content, archive and even play it on the end-user's computer. The latest incarnation of the iTunes software is an example of an aggregator, pulling down specialised music (and other media) content straight to an iPod.This information wrapped around and pointing to the media is automatically updated and pushed out to the consumer when the producer updates the site.