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It’s a radio signal for a website, most commonly used for weblogs. More technically: “Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable “What’s New” for your site.” See Intro to RSS for more info.

The Newspaper Association of America site has an informative article titled Syndication Made Simple. “Just as free e-mail newsletters enable publishers to directly reach readers and promote online and in-paper content, RSS “pushes” headlines and succinct, one-sentence article descriptions to those who subscribe to the no-cost feeds.”

The other side of syndication is aggregation. Here’s an article from Wired News that explains why aggregators are all the rage: Aggregators Attack Info Overload.

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Tonight I am writing from the Student Union at Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana. After the auction last night, Doug Wornson drove me to the airport and I flew down to Chicago and then to Indianapolis and then by shuttle to Bloomington, Indiana, where we started classes for the Certified Auctioneers Institute. This afternoon we learned about new Internet auction technologies and on-line bidding. I only had 1 hour of sleep on the plane last night, so I will turn in and get ready for tomorrow.

It sure feels like winter here. By the way it feels we are lucky to be done with outside auctions. We had quite a season. September, October, and November were very busy months for us, and it will be nice to take a breather. A short breather, we trust. An auctioneer’s life is focused around either being busy, or trying to get busy. I sometimes think of a roller coaster analogy. In the winter, when you are starting to sign up auctions and start advertising for them, it is like the roller coaster climbing up hill. It seems to take quite a while and isn’t too scary. Then as you near the top and see just how far off the ground you have gotten, the nerves start. Then you go over the top and you have to just hang on for the ride because you couldn’t get off then even if you wanted to. At the end of the ride, you get off the car with your legs shaking, totally drained, and just glad to be alive. Then, moments later, you run back to get in line again because it was so much fun.
Well, we are getting back in line for the next ride. This is a good time of year to get reorganized for the next ride. We are starting to line up some auctions for next year already. The first auctions of the year are usually the fund-raisers. If your organization has never had an auction fund-raiser, you should give us a call. Crazy things can happen at these fun events. As I mentioned, Jerry sold a bushel of apples for $3.50 each at the Camp Omega fund-raiser earlier in November.
At this moment, I will be doing an auction for the Girl Scouts at Brackett’s Crossing in Lakeville on February 21, for Cannon Valley Sportsmen at their Game Feed in Northfield on March 13, Northfield Arts Guild in Northfield on March 20, and at St Dominic’s School in Northfield on April 17. These are just the some of the early ones we have firm dates for. We are working on a number of other auctions, so keep watching our web site.
Have a happy Thanksgiving