News Release: Michigan Catholic Conference Incorporates RSS Feed into Website

(LANSING)—In a move to keep pace with the ever-changing developments of the Internet, the Michigan Catholic Conference announced today it has integrated an RSS feed into the homepage of its website. Located at the Michigan Catholic Conference help page, the feed allows visitors to the Conference’s website to receive immediate notice when the page has been updated.

“As the Internet continues to develop rapidly in its use of web-based programs and features such as RSS feeds, the Conference has deemed it necessary to ensure the organization’s website is reflective of current technological developments,” said MCC Associate for Communications Dave Maluchnik.

The technology behind RSS allows a user to “subscribe” to websites that provide RSS feeds—typically sites that change or add content regularly. In order to use the RSS technology, the user must install a newsreader application or use an aggregator service, which may be thought of as an intermediary that constantly monitors RSS feeds for any updates and automatically downloads them to the users system. Users are then immediately informed of the updates, and can view them at any time.

RSS is a term commonly employed in the tech field that refers to a family of XML file formats for use by websites and weblogs (“blogs”). The acronym RSS is used to refer to various standards, including Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication. RSS is used by numerous broadcast and print media organizations such as Vatican Radio, CNN, ESPN, the New York Times, and many others. The feeds are also beneficial for those in the blogging and Podcasting communities, allowing them to share their latest entry headlines or downloads, complete with text and a link to the website providing the feed.

Newsreader applications such as FeedReader for Windows and NetNewsWire Lite for Mac are available for free and may be downloaded from the Michigan Catholic Conference help page.

Michigan Catholic Conference is the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in this state.

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