Mindtracks

Pixel Groovy describes itself as “a user controlled tutorial directory” which means that there are some great tutorials to be found on this site as the members vote for the best tutorial which pushes it to the front page. The site covers Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max, CSS and web development topics, including programming such as PHP and Ruby on Rails.

Mustafa of Design Vitality has listed 100 Web Design Template Sources, Tools and Resources as an Open Source Web Design Toolbox

In Amateur Web Sites - the Top Ten Signs Charlie Morris points out that busy backgrounds and graphics, badly designed navigation menus, using frames to contain content, a linear table based look, the appearance of hit counters and “under construction signs” with endorsements to use one particular browser, cluttered pages containing free adds and choice of hosting service. It’s a good summary for anyone who dabbles in designing their own site.

The Web Page Analyzer from Website Optimization is a free website performance tool. To use it type in your URL, wait a few seconds then check the speed report. The next section suggests ways to change the site for the better

Dexigner is a design resource directory and guide. For anyone interested in the topic of design it is a feast. The site is organised by subject, and includes news items from sections on product design, graphic design, fashion design, architecture, digital art and contemporary visual arts. You can also browse a database of designs, designers and design companies.

CSS Juice has produced a useful list of 20 Popular CSS Online Tools and Generators

All these tools are selected due to the design and popularity. And there are some tools are out of the list as the poor site design or similarity. The list is separated with “CSS Formatter and Optimizer”, “CSS Layout and Menu Generator” and “Miscellaneous Tools”.

The web has changed the way we research, read, write and distribute information. Online practices are all significantly different to the print world. RSS and its implications will be the topic I discuss in class this morning.

We will start with a video RSS in Plain English produced by commoncraft.

Most of the time in this course I have been talking about ways to create content in the form of building websites or creating blogs etc. Today in class I will be talking about RSS as it is fundamentally a new way to deliver and consume web content.

Once you start poking around blogs you quickly have problems with ‘keeping up’ and reading does appear daunting. Before RSS, users had to visit individual web sites to find out what was new. You don’t have to click from blog to blog to see if your favourites have new content as with RSS new content is delivered directly to web browsers or your desktop, using an aggregator .

Wikipedia defines RSS as

a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Users of RSS content use programs called feed ‘readers’ or ‘aggregators’: the user ’subscribes’ to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user’s subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

To view RSS feeds, you’ll need an RSS reading program called an aggregator or reader which allows you to subscribe to the RSS feeds. Their main advantage is that they save you time.

Ryan Singel writing for Wired News makes the observation in Aggregators Attack Info Overload that users are using aggregators in order to manage the information overload. Eric Dahl writing for PC World in RSS Hot Fix for Info-Junkies : Growing Web standard makes it easy to get news on the topics you want describes RSS as the “next Web-based time-saver”.

When an aggregator is opened it is much like an email program which means that each blog can be scanned quickly. Posts that are not of interest can be skipped and deleted while those that are of interest can be focused on.

Syndication holds implications for both website visitors and website designers as one aspect of dynamic sites is being able to produce syndicated content that people want. Aggregators allow users to shape their own media consumption. It is possible for a user to subscribe to some key news media outlets such as the BBC, or Reuters, as well as non-news sites such as for instance Flickr, podcasts, video podcasts, or Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

The recent development of ‘tags’ means that people can also subscribe to material such as photographs in flickr. I have found that once I became used to shaping my own media mix using an aggregator it would be extremely difficult to be satisfied with simply the content provided by mainstream news sites.

The implications of RSS for how we create and consume media are many as RSS not only enhances the range and diversity of available media products and allows consumers to easily shape their choice of material. The implications of a public able to shape their media consumption are huge. Many see the blogging phenomenon, and developments like RSS, as undermining mainstream media or ‘old media’.

RSS Readers and Aggregators

There are web based readers and readers that are stand alone applications housed on your own computer. I prefer web based readers as it means I have access to my news anywhere. Most RSS readers are free to use, and easy to learn.

There are many web based readers available

Google reader

Bloglines

NetVibes

FeedCollectors allows you to collect feeds and share them.

Findory

feed-directory.com is a large directory of feeds

Yahoo has a list of readers

Google also has a list of readers

Links to more articles

Hack Attack: Getting good with Google Reader

Take a look at this article on using Bloglines as it has clear comprehensive instructions, illustrated with screenshots which has been published by Preetam Rai of betterdays.

Alex Iskold in The Future of RSS asks if RSS is evolving into a tool which can deliver semantically rich information. The article covers a brief history of RSS, an explanation of how it works and what it is designed to do and not do.

Elsa Wenze of CNet has done a review on the popular RSS readers Make your own headlines looks at readers like Google reader and bloglines.

John Tokash’s Aggcompare compares RSS aggregators.

10 Ways to Look at Feeds

Dave Shea of Mezzoblue has published a what is article in What is RSS XML Atom Syndication? and Dave Winer has summarized the History of RSS published on the RSS at Harvard Law blog.

Nicole Lecht a bookbinder and print designer writes a regular blog, Freshly Blended which I have been reading lately. The design process, inspiration, techniques and products sold in her Etsy shop are reported consistently.

Understanding the jargon of any particular area is always a learning curve as it acts as a barrier until you get across it. Seomoz.org has produced a A Complete Glossary of Essential SEO Jargon which I am sure new folks will find useful

German designer Thomas Schostok creates some great collage pieces in what he calls gluebooks which are to be found online on his site.

The screenshot is taken from the “Bad Taste” gluebook

While on the site check out his type faces and webdesigns too. They are certainly an individual style.
Found with thanks via collage clearinghouse