RSS

* Learn how to use free and inexpensive software such as Garage Band and Audacity to manipulate audio files and create podcasts.

* Explore the pros and cons of various blogging platforms.

* Have your students blog, and use RSS to deliver their assignments to you automatically.

With RSS and the Read/Write Web, the possibilities are endless.

A glossary and an extensive list of online resources round out this essential guide to the power of Web syndication.

RSS can come to your rescue, but first you need to know what it is and how to use it. Syndicating Web Sites With RSS Feeds For Dummies has what you need to know to get up and running fast—and with today’s flood of constantly-changing information, “fast” is a top priority.

Here, in plain English, you’ll find out how to:

• Use RSS to drive traffic to your Web site and build brand awareness
• Choose and install the right software, set up RSS feeds, and decide on the format that meets your needs
• Create RSS feeds from scratch, or put a news reader on your Web site
• Improve your site’s ranking in search engines and build customer loyalty
• Enable your customers to choose when and how they receive updated information
• Tailor information for your audience and publish all your updates quickly and easily
• Promote your RSS feed and explain to your customers how to use it
• Provide added value for your customers

Making the most of RSS can make life easier for both you and those who do business with you. Syndicating Web Sites With RSS Feeds For Dummies will help you maintain fresh content for your Web site, blog, or e-zine, promote your site and establish links to it, and even update vital documents like employee guides, price lists, and procedures manuals, quickly and easily.

"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." -Financial Times

Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news.

Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.

Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.

Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area."

Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.

Including:

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Featuring a foreword by Thomas Jefferson, a Dress the Supreme Court layout, and, oddly enough, a profile of George "The Iceman" Gervin, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, from Jon Stewart and the writers of the Emmy Award-winning The Daily Show, is by far one the most irreverent and wittiest (and may we add smartest) political book you're likely to encounter. Amazon.com spoke with Jon Stewart a few days before the 2004 publication of America (The Book) and they discussed bald eagles, magical talking cats, Thor Heyerdahl, and much more

• Read the Amazon.com Interview with Jon Stewart
• Listen to the Amazon.com Interview with Jon Stewart
• Watch a "Vintage" Amazon.com Exclusive Video from Jon Stewart

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More from Jon Stewart

Naked Pictures of Famous People

America (The Book) [Audio CD]

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004 [DVD]

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The Blogging Church is a handbook that will inspire and equip you to join the conversation.

The book includes contributions from five of the most popular bloggers in the world—Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Kathy Sierra, Guy Kawasaki, and Merlin Mann, as well as interviews with blogging pastors such as Mark Driscoll, Craig Groeschel, Tony Morgan, Perry Noble, Greg Surratt, Mark Batterson, and many more.

The book begins with an overview of XML and its uses, and goes on to explain how to parse XML by using the Simple API for XML (SAX 2). Next, there is coverage of how XML is validated by using Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schema, and transformed by using eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Brief coverage of Sun's Java API for XML is followed by a detailed look at the Java Document Object Model (JDOM), a new API devised by the author in association with O'Reilly, the publisher.

The last part of the book is more advanced, and covers applications of XML and Java. There are chapters on Web-publishing frameworks, XML Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), using XML to read and write configuration data, and generating XML with Java. There is also a short business-to-business example. Appendices provide an API reference to the various specifications discussed in the book.

The strengths of Java and XML include the author's deep knowledge of his subject, and a writing style that is both clear and enthusiastic. If you happen to know a lot about Java and not much about XML, this is the ideal title. Readers who already have a good grasp of XML basics might be frustrated by the amount of introductory material. --Tim Anderson

With the increasingly important cultural role being placed upon shops and boutiques in today's competitive retail environment, the need to provide new and innovative shopping experiences has brought about a redefinition of simple consumerism. Fashion spaces have taken on the role of the museum, presenting product collections as if they were displaying works of art. With this new emphasis on the role of the retail space comes the architectural challenge of creating multifunctional, customizable shells that can be renewed to meet the needs of every seasonal collection.

New Shops & Boutiques takes us inside more than 40 contemporary projects that have captured the public's attention and recognition, thanks to their exceptional interior and exterior architecture and design. From Giorgio Armani and the Sony Tower Showroom, to John Pawson and WonderWall Inc., this shopping tour around the world presents a comprehensive selection of the market's most outstanding commercial spaces and designers. And with more than 500 full-color photographs, New Shops & Boutiques is sure to provide an indispensable guide for the storeowner and architect alike.

Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: " Brief background on Gadgets " Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer " Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample "My Blogs" " Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample " Detail the standard practices " Recheck the gadget created for standard practices " Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast " Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML.

XML is essentially an enabling technology, dry and boring on its own. As a result, most books on the market are dry, and academic in nature teaching theory rather than practice. This book actually teaches practical, real-world applications of XML, using the very latest version of PHP (PHP 5) as the base language.

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP explains how XML can be put to use in real-world projects. The book also covers buzz topics such as RSS and Web Services.