How to Increase Your Value on the Job

Every once in awhile someone will mistake me for someone else they know in a wheelchair. That’s because they remember the most stand out trait. That may be OK at the grocery store but definitely not OK in the work environment. At work you want to be known for your information management skills or some other highly desirable work skill rather than for your physical features. Consider polishing up your computer skills to shine in your job.

Remember those other articles and blogs I wrote stressing the importance and value of information? If you want to be remembered at work for something other than your wheelchair you’ll need to know how to manage information. One way to do that is using RSS technology feeds. While there are many options, I’ll briefly show you two ways towards understanding and utilizing RSS to your advantage. Too few people know how to use RSS feeds. If you’re the only one in the office that knows how to use them, you are a step ahead of others.

Rather than duplicate all the information on the web I will summarize the information and give you some resources for further clarification.

Understanding RSS Feeds

Simply speaking, RSS is updated web information. It is a format for syndicating news and content. It allows you to easily identify updated web information without having to visit each web page source. Let’s say you are interested in financial information. In your web browser you visit, http://www.marketwatch.com/?avatar=seen. In the area that shows the web address, also know as Universal Resource Identifier (URI), on the far right side, you may see an additional symbol, for example “RSS” if you use Safari or if you use Firefox, you may see an orange cube with diagonal lines in it, like so . Internet Explorer (version 7 or greater) will see the orange cube within the browser tool bar. These symbols (possibly other, eg. XML, ATOM) indicate the web site offers RSS capability. By selecting or clicking on the RSS symbol you will see the offered syndication news. Suppose you see an article about Apple. The news is very optimistic so you think about buying Apple stock. You want to watch the news about this company for a few days before buying stock in this superb, innovative company. On the top of this web page we see a box in which to type Apple’s stock symbol in order to get a quote or stock price. Apple’s symbol is AAPL (trust me on this one). We type in the symbol, hit return and come to a web page with much info on Apple. Immediately to the left of the Apple chart and just to the right of stock price information, you’ll see an RSS orange cube symbol as well as the text “RSS for AAPL”. If we click on that we see the syndicated informational page. We’ll use this web address in the next step.

Option 1 - Aggregators

Now we have to manage this information so we can track all news updates regarding this particular company. To do this we’ll need an aggregator. An aggregator is simply a news reader - an RSS reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are software applications. Thousands of news sources make their content available, free, to users of aggregators. Aggregators allow readers to pick and choose their favorite news sources quickly and conveniently in one place. You’ll need to create an account to use an online aggregator. I set up a free account at Bloglines.com but you can use others. According to Blogspace.com, the most popular aggregators are:

Web: feeds.reddit
Check all your feeds from any web browser and get recommendations about other feeds you'll like.

Mac OS X: NetNewsWire
This elegant Mac-like aggregator is easy to use and powerful.

Windows: SharpReader
Simple, but gets the job done.

Linux: Straw
The best aggregator for GNOME.

Other popular aggregators:

AmphetaDesk
A news aggregator you access through a web browser.

News Is Free
Lets you create your own customized news page with feeds from the sites you're interested in.

Once you have an Aggregators set up you’ll want to subscribe to your preferred RSS feed. To do that, copy the desired RSS URI address, in this case, from the section above, it is http://www.marketwatch.com/rss/newsfinder/AllMarketWatchNews/?p=word&pv=AAPL&t=AAPL&dist=TQP_Icon_rss from the paragraph above the section on Aggregators. Click on Bloglines.com, or wherever your aggregator account is, click on “Subscribe” and paste the address and click “Subscribe” again.

Viewing RSS Feeds

Now when I want to view the latest news updates on Apple, instead of going to the news page, I simply go to my subscriptions on Bloglines.com. I can Bookmark this page and easily retrieve updated news not only on Apple but I can view ALL my RSS Feeds in this single location. That’s a lot more convenient than searching different web pages for updates on different subjects or items.

Option2, Live Bookmarks

The latest Firefox 2 and/or Internet Explorer version 7 or greater allows you to subscribe to feeds using something called "Live Bookmarks". In Firefox 2 you can choose different options for subscribing to web feeds, including "Live Bookmarks". At the end of an article you may find the universal RSS symbol (orange square with diagonal lines in it). Clicking on it you will be presented with a preview of the feed content and a choice of using "Live Bookmarks", some web-based readers or your own application. Subscribe to the feed using: Select this option and choose "Live Bookmarks" if you always want to subscribe to feeds using "Live Bookmarks".

Adding a Live Bookmark

When you are on a web page where a web feed (RSS) is available: Select the web feed icon usually at the right side of the URI (you may need to select a title – some sites have more than one feed). The "Add Live Bookmark" dialog will appear or "Subscribe to this feed" with IE7 browser. Change the name to make it more relevant to you if you wish and click "Create in" location. When you wish to check this feed simply go to “Bookmarks” in the menu bar of Firefox or IE7 and scroll down to the Live Bookmark you have added.

For more information see the Live Bookmarks - Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base. I did find one error there though as there is no "Tools -> Options -> Feeds".

If a site doesn't display the RSS symbol in the URI, it may still have an available feed. Check the page content for a small orange symbol with "RSS", "RDF" "XML" or "Atom" on the web page, then that symbol should link to the feed. You simply click the web feed link in the webpage to subscribe.

Manually adding a Live Bookmark in Forefox

To manually add the feed as a Live Bookmark, follow these directions:

Copy the "RSS", "RDF" "XML" or "Atom" link location.
Go to "Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks" (or "Organize Bookmarks in Firefox 2) to open the Bookmarks Manager.
Click "File -> New Live Bookmark". Type in a name and type or paste in the feed location you copied earlier. Click OK.
If your new Live Bookmark does not appear on your Bookmarks toolbar you can reopen the Bookmarks Manager and drag it there, if you wish.

Once you get a feel for using RSS, try these purpose designed feeds; They all can or should be used in office settings:

Track Packages. Simpletracking.com allows you to create a custom feed that gets updated as your package moves along its route. UPS, Fedex, USPS & DHL are supported.
Create a Calendar Feed. This should be helpful to everyone in your office. RSSCalendar.com allows you to create an account, add events and meetings, and then share a feed for others use. They can use a standard aggregator or the RSSCalendar.com site to keep track.
Deliver Your Contacts Via RSS. If you need to keep track of your contacts on different machines or want to share your contacts with fellow employees, RSSContact.com allows you to create a feed and upload your contact information to do just that.
Track Job Openings. You can easily keep tabs on openings for particular positions with Indeed's simple job searching site. Or try Hotjob's feeds through their service (any search can be delivered as a feed).
Log Referring Links To Your Site. If you manage your agency’s web page, track who's visiting your site via Referrer Madness. Simply drop one line of code in your pages and track the link provided. No account required.
Stay On Top Of Virus & Security Threats. Sophos (feeds), Trend Micro (feeds) and Viruslist.com (feeds) all provide feeds to stay on top of viruses and other security threats.

The above RSS feed sites and a complete list of 25 RSS feed ideas are courtesy of lab.arc90.com, licensed under Creative Commons.

Another way to keep abreast of news is to use Google alerts. We’ll save that though for another article.

For general information about RSS go to my favorite computer encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

For a very practical collection of information on RSS go to http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/rss.html

For another very good description of using RSS Feeds see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm?rss=/rss/newsonline_world_edition/asia-pacific/rss.xml

Resumes and Interviews

If you are preparing to enter the work world or updating your resume, be sure to include “Have a working knowledge of managing information using RSS feeds.” When in a job interview be sure to remind the interviewer you have a can manage information using RSS feeds. Employers need people with this type of talent. Remember, “Information Management” is a big need in any office.

A big “Shout Out” goes to John Middleton, at SEDL, who pointed out some of this information to me and edited this article. In my original article I used the acronym URL. John pointed out it should be URI. Amaze your co-workers with this web trivia:

"URI stands for Universal Resource Identifier and URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. Often times people use the terms interchangably, which is not entirely correct. A URL is a subset of the URI popular protocols. These are protocols (http://, ftp://, mailto:). Therefore all URLs are URIs. The term URL is deprecated and the more correct term URI is used in technical documentation. All URIs are means to access a resource on the Internet and are a a technical short hand used to link to the resource. URIs always designate a method to access the resource and designate the specific resource to be accessed."

Do you have a question about employment and disability? Send your question to grodgers@austin.rr.com and put “DLRP JOBS” in the subject line.

About the author

Gene Rodgers Photo Gene Rodgers has been a quadriplegic since age 17. Since then he has earned several college degrees, worked in several states, earned a Switzer Fellowship, and now works as a private contractor.