The main purpose of RSS feeds is syndication. RSS files describe headlines, links, and article summaries. Other sites can incorporate this information into their pages automatically. This draws more visitors to the site. Using special software, a user subscribes to the news feed which provides them with up-to-date information quickly and easily. These programs, called aggregators (see link below), collect new stories from various web sites and present it in a simple way similar to a web browser, like Internet Explorer.
In addition to syndicating stories, RSS files are used to syndicate audio files. This is called podcasting. The term podcasting derives its name from Apple's iPod, but an iPod, or any portable music player, is not needed to listen a podcast. Users subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically receive new audio files via the internet. RSS files summarize the contents of the audio files. Programs called podders (see link below) or podcatchers use RSS files to download audio into a media player whenever new audio is available. Users then listen to the audio on the computer or a portable media player.
Since RSS complements the availability of sermon audio on the church website, the feed is centered on podcasting at present. The technical team will be adding headlines and story summaries with links for new articles soon making it easier than ever to stay up to date.
Here is some information on aggregators.
http://blogspace.com/rss/readers
More information on podcasting can be found here. http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcasting_FAQ.html
Questions or comments can be sent directly to Chuck McCauley by sending an email to
