Alerts and RSS feeds

What is it?

Alerts and RSS feeds are ways in which to control how you get information on the Internet. RSS (usually taken to be an abbreviation of Really simple syndication) feeds allow a user to tailor their own web pages and incorporate content from other web pages on other web sites. News and information in your own web site can also be shared in the same way with other web sites.

Alerts are a bit different. Typically you register for a website and specify what you are interested in. When an event occurs, e.g. a consultation is opened on a topic in which you are interested, then you receive an alert which may take the form of an email or a text message.

Why bother with it?

RSS feeds are very useful. Many sites use them to bring together information from different sources on a theme and it not only enriches and adds values to their own information but it also constantly refreshes their sites and keeps the interest in their site alive even when they don't have fresh news of their own. By tailoring your own pages you can see most of the information that is of interest to you by visiting just the one web site.

Alerts mean that users do not constantly need to visit sites to check on whether there is something of interest - they simply register and go online when they are told that something of interest has occurred. Councils that have comprehensive Consultation systems use them.

Where can I find out more about it?

The RSS - wiki explains RSS in more detail.

RSS - Newcastle ward news is an example of an RSS news feeds used to pick up items of local interest at Ward Level from the Newcastle Council websites. If you have access to a resource that enable you to aggregate news feeds then you will be able to personalise the news and, for example, include feeds of your local ward information as well as news from the BBC and many other sites that provide an RSS feed. There are a number of free resources that provide this functionality, for example,Yahoo, RSS aggregation - Yahoo

Hartlepool Council allows citizens to register to receive alerts on topics they are interested in for forthcoming consultations. See Alerts - Hartlepool consultation.