There are a couple of very simple use cases pertaining to our utilization of enterprise RSS and portal technology that I personally just love.
One use case relates to how I get updates to frequently published internal documents, e.g. status reports, internal release notes, subscriber updates, etc. We publish those types of documents via our portal, and SharePoint allows you to syndicate updates to such content via an RSS feed. So I simply subscribe to those feeds via the NewsGator Enterprise Server, and the publisher has no need to notify me via email that the document has been updated, or even worse, email the document itself.
But let’s make this even cooler. I can use the alerting mechanism provided in the NewsGator Desktop application (currently in beta) to notify me with a desktop pop-up as soon as the document, and thus the corresponding RSS feed is updated. I accomplish this by creating a “document updates location,” which is just a grouping of feeds, and having Desktop alert me when any feed in that location is updated.
Another simple but powerful use case involves email feeds. Email feeds allow you to publish an RSS feed based on an email address. Sending an email to this address generates a new article for the feed. We use email feeds in a variety of ways, including a “FunStuff” email feed to which all employees can post topics not related to core business but may be of interest (like our company foosball tournament). One can choose to unsubscribe from the feed if she is no longer interested in the subject matter. But because these emails are not cluttering up one’s inbox, most folks stay subscribed, and they can read this feed like any other RSS feed at their convenience.
Karyn German
VP, Product Development and Support
Recent Comments