How much time do you spend everyday collecting information online? Too much? Read this and learn about RSS feeds and personalized websites.

This month we discovered and discussed news feeds and personalized websites during our brown bag lunch. Working at an organization that is carried by the pillars of research, capacity development and post-graduate education, one can imagine the flood of information rushing in and out every day. But how does it get there?

Well, we can say with great efforts from our side! By great efforts we mean hours of desk research to find the essential piece of information and countless accounts to log into to participate in an online discussion etc.

We decided this has to stop! From now on information has to come to us!

Inspired by this thought we based our brown bag lunch around RSS feeds and personalized websites. The concept behind RSS feeds and readers can be a bit tricky. Therefore we prepared a presentation that would let us in easy.

Such a topic cannot go with Common Craft! Once more we enjoyed the graphics and storytelling of Sachi and Lee LeFever.

Once the basics were covered the participants used what they had learned in a hands-on practice. Together we explored the interfaces and functionalities of Netvibes and iGoogle.

These sessions give us great pleasure, especially when we run into colleagues who tell us how they love using their new personalized website;-)

Isabel Thompson

(thompson[at]vie.unu.edu)