So Many Websites, So Little Time Geek Squad to the Rescue

Posted Dec. 16, 2007

Scouting in the News Any RSS Reader capable of managing multiple feeds can be configured to scan Worthington Scouts, Delaware Google Groups, Simon Kenton Council events, and BSA National

Let me see, there's the Council Website, the District Website,  the District Google Group,  the District Enews, the Scouter, at least 17 unit websites in Worthington, not to mention dozens of scout resources around the web.  Who has time to keep up with it all?  Rumors to the contrary, it was not the goal of WorthingtonScouts.org to add yet another website to the pile. A couple of weeks ago one of the leaders of Pack 123 asked Chris Morris whether WorthingtonScouts.org had an RSS feed.  I told Chris, "No, but we're planning to install one", then I headed to Wikipedia to look up RSS feeds.   The article was very informative and by the end of the day, the website had a simple RSS feed that published the list of new articles displayed in the RSS reader on the right. The next step was to explore the possibilities of this technology.  Turns out that that the tools used to host many scout websites and blogs, (including the District Google Groups and Council websites), automatically generate RSS Feeds.   This list of articles was generated from an RSS Feed at http://worthingtonscouts.org/worth_rss.xml Using a slightly more sophisticated  RSS reader, I was able to configure a scouting RSS reader at left.  This reader scans WorthingtonScouts,  Delaware Google Groups, and  the  event feed from Simon Kenton Council.  It can be added your Google Homepage, Google Dashboard, or to any webpage that supports Javascript.  Click on the Embed this Gadget" button for configuration/installation instructions.  The two RSS readers featured in this article are Google Gadgets available from the Google website.  There are many more RSS readers.  Ask your teenagers, they're probably all over this stuff -- RSS is also used by podcasters. A random list of Scout related RSS Feeds: http://worthingtonscouts.org/worth_rss.xml New articles on Worthington Scouts http://groups.google.com/group/Delaware-District/feed/rss_v2_0_msgs.xml Delaware Google Group http://www.doubleknot.com/rss/rss_events.asp?orgkey=195 Simon Kenton Council eventsddd http://www.doubleknot.com/rss/rss_events.asp?orgkey=1889 Delaware District Calendar http://www.doubleknot.com/rss/rss_docs.asp?orgkey=195 Simon Kenton Council fliers, documents http://worthingtonscouts.org/google_scouts.xml Scout articles in Google News http://www.boyscouttrail.com/rss/scoutmaster.xml Scoutmaster Musings http://feeds.feedburner.com/RopesAndPoles Ropes and Poles  http://www.scouting.org/news/feed.xml Scouting.org -- News from BSA http://usssp.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default US Scouting Service Weblog http://www.bsanews.com/rss.xml BSA News: News for Scouts http://www.scouting.org/commissioners/podcast/commissioner.xml BSA Commissioner Podcasts http://worthingtonscouts.org/skc_rss.xml Simon Kenton Council Newsletters http://www.crventuring.org/feed.rss http://www.crventuring.org/feed.rss Central Region Venturing Newsletter Click on a feed to see recent content.

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