First, let us get some acronym* definitions out of the way:

• aov – acts of volition
• XML – Extensible Markup Language
• RDF – Resource Description Framework
• RSS – RDF Site Summary

With that out of the way, aov has setup an RSS channel. RSS is an XML application based on the World Wide Web Consortium’s RDF Specification.

Now in english: RSS is a simple format for web syndication that lets any site make it’s headlines available to be grabbed by any other compliant site. For example, My.Netscape.com let’s you add these channels as custom news on your home page. Headlines from any site that that creates an RSS channel can be added to your my.netscape.com home page.

The people at My.Netscape.com seem to expect those with an RSS channel to include this graphic on their site. Clicking on this graphic will add aov headlines to your My.Netscape.com page. That is if you can bear the buggy and irritating signup process. Seems more like viral marketing for Netscape than an open news standard. The graphic will not be displayed on aov permanently (only in this post).

The format is cool though. An example of a good implementation can be found at Peter Rukavina’s Reinvented.net (which has been nicely redesigned). The News page at Reinvented.net uses RSS to grab headlines from Slashdot.org, The PEI Government website, and (drumroll please) Acts of Volition.