Blogging, RSS and the Information Landscape:

A Look At Online News

Kathy GillUniversity of Washington

10 May 2005WWW2005 • Chiba, Japan

Overview

Question: how have online news sites adopted RSS technology

Organization of Talk: Review RSS Technology, Timeline Review Diffusion Theory Examine Blog, RSS Growth Daily Newspaper Study

RSS

Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, RDF Site Summary

XML document that facilitates content syndication This “feed” contains structured data Transformed to information by RSS reader

Ease of syndication, low cost

RSS Development Timeline

March 1999 Netscape RSS 0.90

July 1999 Netscape RSS 0.91

June 2000 Userland RSS 0.91

Late 2002 RSS-Dev Working Group

RSS 1.0

January 2003

Userland RSS 2.0.1

RSS 2.0 Spec

“Having a settled spec is something RSS has needed for a long time. The purpose of this work is to help it become a unchanging thing, to foster growth in the market that is developing around it, and to clear the path for innovation in new syndication formats.”

RSS Readers

With RSS 2.0 spec, developers were no longer shooting at moving target

Example: Pluck launched in 2003, turns MSIE into a reader • Privately funded by two firms capitalized at $4+ billion

• cNet editor’s choice in July 2004• Public funding of $8.5 million Oct 2004

RSS Diffusion

Rogers: an innovation is “an idea practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption”

Winston: adoption rate slows with competing, incompatible prototypes and absence of a supervening social necessity

Rogers’ Diffusion Model

A relative advantage over current practice

Compatible with current practices and values

Reduces complexity (ease of use) Opportunity to test before committing (trialability)

Ability to observe results before adoption (observability)

A Five-Step Model

Potential adopters hear about the innovation

Are persuaded that there might be benefits

Try the innovation Confirm or reject adoption decision

Communication

Shared messages within a social system

Lexis-Nexis data-mining, Jan 2003: RSS not yet being communicated through news wires or major newspapers, particularly when compared with blogs and blogging

What’s In a Name?

Newspaper (product) is printed (action) on newsprint (technology)

Blog (product) is blogged (action) with blogging software (technology) No clear differentiation Also the case with RSS

Hinders communication

RSS Visibility in Online News Social System

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2001 2002 2003 2004

BlogsRSS

Frequency of Appearance of “Blogs” and “RSS Syndication” in Lexis-Nexis News Wire Reports

Other Adoption Hurdles

Incompatible RSS formats > burden on developers

Non-integrated software > potential consumers must find and install new software IT departments : no software installation

Everyday computer users are uneasy

Blogging Social System Jan 2003: ~ 500,000 blogs March 2005: 8 million - 24 million blogs

Pew Internet and American Life Project: Spring 2002: 3% had created blog March 2003: 11% had read blogs Fall 2004: 8% had created blog End of 2004: 27% of 120 M US adults had read blogs …. 5% used an RSS reader

RSS Social System

Technorati tracking 2 million blogs, March 2004 7.7 million blogs, March 2005

Syndic8.com tracking 2,500, mid-2001 286,000, January 2005

RSS Readers

Necessity because prior practice became cumbersome

Development also a function of stable specification

Became easier to find and use A necessary condition for adoption (Rogers)

Yahoo! News: “We’re trying to make this understandable for normal people.”

Online News : Overview

Repurposing electrons from print to new media is a business decision

Few papers have adopted blogs Social system disconnect? Not enough time?

Syndication is an integral part of social system

Online News Social System

1994: San Jose Mercury News goes online

1998: Charlotte Observer uses blog-like format, Hurricane Bonnie

2000: WSJ launches blog-like feature, Best of the Web

Online News RSS Adoption

Apr 2002

New York Times (limited to Userland)

RSS 0.91

Oct 2002

Christian Science Monitor

Now 25 RSS 1.0 feeds

By Mar 2004

Washington Post 125 RSS 2.0 feeds

Daily Newspaper Study

18 papers in top 15 urbanized areas of US (covers 65% of US population)

Leader: RSS 2.0 All implemented since late 2003

Only four have no official RSS feed LA Times, Chicago Tribune Miami Herald Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editorial Decision

Not technological decision > in 3 of 15 markets, papers are co-managed Philadelphia Inquirer (16); Daily News (2)

Detroit News (35); Free Press (1)

Seattle Times (45); P-I (27)

Why Rapid Adoption?

Syndication in line with culture Business model is evolving

How to reverse loss in readers? How to generate online revenue?

Recognition of growth of blogosphere, driving readers “Pay to read” barriers (WSJ v CSM)

Summary RSS adoption has lagged adoption of blogging technology Frequent, rapid specification changes hindered development of easy-to-use RSS readers

Growth of blogosphere is the supervening social necessity

RSS, not blogs, adopted by newspapers Adoption decision appears to be editorial May be business (reader) driven

RSS mainstreamed with Yahoo! News