Literature: Cons of blogging (Part 2)

Each blog is essentially a simple web site. To read what other bloggers have to say, one must visit each site individually. This is unlike a threaded discussion forum where all responses are in one location. Therefore, reading multiple blogs is inconvenient because each blog must be bookmarked and this might hamper interaction between learners or between mentors and learners.

This is where RSS aggregators come into play. RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending on your source. What aggregators do is monitor multiple blogs of your choice, collect blog entries in real time, and display them in one software window (Figure 1). Some aggregators allow a reader to respond to a blog entry and most aggregators are freeware. Examples of aggregators for various computer platforms can be found here (opens in new window). You can also Google "RSS aggregators" or, if you use the Firefox/Mozilla web browser, install an aggregator extension (scroll down to the "news" category).


Figure 1. Screenshot of NetNewsWire aggregator (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/)

Reading and responding to multiple blogs is not so inconvenient after all. Not only that, a number of news web sites also offer RSS feeds. RSS aggregators can fetch the latest headlines, articles, sports scores, or financial information too.