Seems like everyday I am telling someone new about how RSS and syndication will (already has for me) change the way people use the web. Last week it was our Dean for Research and just yesterday it was the guy at PSU who is responsible for technology spin-outs … when people catch on they love it … its always, “how can I get started?”

All that’s fine and dandy, but I am starting to wonder when everyone else is actually going to catch on. Here’s a quick example … a couple of weeks ago I emailed the people at PSU who are responsible for the LMS on our campus (ANGEL) to find out if it could do RSS (in either direction) … of course it can’t but I did get an invite to come and talk to them about just exactly “what do I mean …” Again, I have no problem helping out, I just wish this stuff would catch on in Higher Education (and in the real world as well) soon. I am dying to have my students, faculty, and research sponsors dialed in enough that I could push updates, assignments, and thoughts to them without having to spam them.

I had read last week that Jupiter Research said RSS wasn’t going to catch on and was a marginal technology … that’s bullshit if you ask me, but they’re the research experts (hehe) … then today, came across this saying RSS is set to explode! Here’s to hoping it does! We built RSS into Edison Services over a year ago and for those who use it, they love it. Next year when I am teaching again, I will tell my students to get on the RSS Bus if they want to get updates and enclosures from me … no ANGEL or other crappy CMS/LMS anymore … all open source tools to power my classroom.

As a matter of fact, I am giving a talk at the ADC Institute next month that will focus on technologies that change the classroom. Apple was hoping I focus almost completely on their tools … I will, but will be doing a whole bunch of stuff with blogging, the power of open source tools, RSS, and the like. To tell you all the truth, Apple has some great tools — iSights, iPods, iLife, etc, but very little of it allows people to share — unless you want to shell out $100.00/year for a .Mac account. Its what we are going to talk with Apple about — how can they allow people on campuses to integrate their technologies with existing, standards-based protocols. At any rate, seems like a change for the better is coming.