Genii Weblog

RSS for update notification?

Wed 2 Jun 2004, 04:40 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
I am wondering whether we (Genii Software) should use RSS more effectively for notifying people of updates to software and/or documentation.  It would be easy to build an RSS feed that was separate from this weblog and simply showed new and modified documents in the Midas Help DB, or new changes to the website, or new versions of any of our software.  The advantage of RSS is that even if nothing happened for a while, many people would simply leave the RSS feed in place, and when something came up, they would know.  It would save people from having to check the website for updates.

What do you think?  Are there advantages or disadvantages?  Should there be separate feeds for documentation updates, software updates and sample updates, or one feed for all?  Should there be separate feeds by product, or one feed for all products since existing customers are often curious what else we are doing?

Copyright © 2004 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


165.1. Christopher Byrne (06/02/2004 10:23 PM)

Hey Ben,

Interesting questions. I was just reading a piece in Information Week a couple of weeks ago that relates to your subject. By making it an RSS Feed or feeds, you simplify your work because there is no email address database to manage as people would self-manage their feed(s) and it is up to them to opt-in or out without your intervention. I think the only downside is that you may lose kind of a 'personal' touch with your customers, but then again, who knows.

Cheers!

Chris


165.2. Rob McDonagh (06/03/2004 05:50 AM)

Hey Ben,

I think that's a GREAT idea. I wish all vendors had RSS feeds for updates. I would make one feed for all, especially if there aren't a ton of updates.


165.3. Bruce Elgort (06/03/2004 11:30 AM)

I think that would be a great idea! RSS is the way to go for such things.