Use of RSS in Designing Next Generation Alerting Services BY AMIT KUMAR DAS* ABSTRACT This paper attempts to identify the advantages of using RSS feeds as building block of developing new generation altering services in libraries of any type or size. Describe the methods of identifying feeds and process for organization of feeds in a RSS aggregator. It also makes a comparison of RSS tools on the basis of framed parameters. KEY WORDS:- Web2.0; library2.0; RSS Introduction Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty was coined term Web 2.0 in 2005. Tim O’Reilly’s article explained “What Is Web 2.0: design patterns and business models for the next generation of software”. O’Reilly comes up with this somewhat technical definition: “Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.” (1) It is a second generation Internet-based services that allows people to collaborate and share information online in a new way-such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, etc… [Wikipedia] (2) 1. CHARACTERISTICS OF WEB 2.0 Researchers and information scientists have already found out some characteristics. The main characteristics are as follows :- • Interactive • Dynamic • Uses the Web as the Platform • Based on collective intelligence and Radical trust • Everything is in beta form • New techniques like AJAX and API • User oriented architecture *AMIT KUMAR DAS. M.PHIL STUDENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF BURDWAN, PIN-713104. E-mail-dasamitkumar2007@rediffmail.com dasamitkumar2007@gmail.com Paper submitted for presentation in 23 rd National Seminar of IASLIC on Library Profession in Search of a New Paradigm to be held in Bose Institute, Kolkata during 10- 13 December 2008. 1