The internet certainly has changed how we get our news and information. Even getting breaking news from radio and television is beginning to seem quaint. News junkies — no longer limited to national or local stations — now use streaming technology to access broadcasts from anywhere in the world.

RSS — really simple syndication — takes news delivery to a new level by transmitting it in a more manageable format. I had my internet browser home page set to the The New York Times so I could quickly glance at the latest headlines and lread stories that caught my eye.

What piqued my interest in RSS, though, was Lexis-Nexis’ announcement that included in the upcoming Time Matters version 7.0 is an RSS news-feeder function. I wanted to learn more about RSS — what’s involved in getting news delivered to my computer and what kinds of information I could receive. I also thought it worth seeing what resources are available specifically to the legal profession and what’s involved in publishing a news feed.

Most busy professionals are interested in information on myriad websites whose content changes on different schedules. For example, daily newspaper sites might change every few hours while a law firm website or blog might change when there’s a development or the spirit moves the authors. Regularly checking these sites for updates is tedious at best. In the past, many sites have offered the option of an e-mail notification when their sites change. Depending on how many you’re monitoring, you could receive a deluge of such e-mail. These can be disorganized, overwhelming and often mistaken for spam. RSS technology elegantly solves this problem by sending feeds or updates from numerous sources to an aggregator that collects, organizes and displays the information. RSS sources sometimes are known as channels, while the sites used to aggregate the RSS feeds are referred to as RSS readers.

Solutions

In addition to programs like Time Matters serving as an RSS feed, there are many aggregator solutions. These can be software installed on a computer, a website with programming to support the aggregation functions or a service that provides selected content. An internet search will yield many approaches to managing RSS feeds. Most of the major search engines can serve as newsreaders. There also are many free programs to download. Two favorites are feeddemon.com and newsgator.com because they include the option to bring the feeds directly into Outlook, an iPod or MP3 player.

Among the better-known sources, Yahoo recently added support for RSS feeds. Using Yahoo as an example of how to work with an aggregator site, select My Yahoo from its home page. That will bring you to the page where you can select sites from which you want updates. The starting page includes news feeds from Reuters and E Online. If you choose Add Content to one of the blank sections, you see a screen that allows you to search the web for additional feeds by topic or provider. Yahoo also has made it easy to add RSS feeds to My Yahoo page. Any web page that has an icon with a plus sign followed by the words My Yahoo can have its feeds added to your page.

If you’re more interested in information from those feeds than in the weather, horoscope or entertainment sections that are part of the initial My Yahoo page, you can either move the sections or choose “edit” to remove unwanted portions or even add additional pages. Sites like dailywhirl.com also can be used to manage RSS feeds.

Sounds interesting, but what types of sites have information you might want fed to your reader? For starters, leading newspapers that carry breaking news. For a more international perspective, the BBC also has a feed. People following sports, politics, movies, technology (including learning about new RSS feeds), there are feeds galore for each interest.

Legal resource

Genie Tyburski is web manager of virtualchase.com, sponsored by the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, based in Philadelphia. With her background as a law librarian, Tyburski started the site as a resource for legal professionals to master online research. Over the years, the site has grown in depth and now provides excellent information for locating any legal-related information on the internet. It’s probably the single best collection of legal-oriented RSS feeds (see virtualchase.com/resources/rss_law.html). Not only does she list the leading resources, but she includes a brief review and, when available, an option to click on a link that connects to those resources. 

The types of legal feeds of interest generally depend on practice areas. For example, lawyers handling products liability cases may want updates from auto-recalls.justia.com/. This site lists any government-ordered recalls, organized by manufacturer, model and model year. To my surprise, I found several recalled items on both our cars.

Many lawyers and firms have begun blogs on legal-specific topics that keep current on developments. Bar associations and their sections also have gotten into the act. For example, there’s an RSS feed from the American Bar Association and its Law Practice Management and Litigation sections. I would expect local and state bar associations to come on board in the next year or so.

Government agencies including some courts also have become RSS providers. The U.S. District Court for Eastern New York offers a feed for orders, complaints and judgments, including case name, docket number and date of publication. The Census Bureau feed provides information about newly released documents, statistics and other information. The Federal Aviation Administration’s technical center has a feed providing recently published technical reports via an RSS feed. The U.S. Department of Education includes state and federal resources and information. A really helpful source is the Food and Drug Administration, which reports on its actions on products including recalls, withdrawals and safety alerts.

Attorney blogs

A number of attorneys were the earlier bloggers who now also provide RSS feeds. Among them are Ernie the Attorney (ernieattorney.typepad.com/ernie_the_attorney) whose blog and feed discuss a wide range of law-related topics, including frequent mention of the latest technology and gadgets. Dennis Kennedy (denniskennedy.com/blog) discusses legal technology and technology law, and patent attorney Bob Shaver (patentpending.blogs.com) takes a humorous look at recent inventions and the patent process. Denise Howell’s Bag and Baggage shares her comments on intellectual property, internet law and technology along with their sources. If you’re interested in privacy issues, computer viruses, hacking and the like, check out Unintended Consequences by California attorney Doug Simpson (dougsimpson.com/blog). Alabama lawyer Edward Still comments on voting and election law issues through votelaw.com/blog. beSpacific written by Sabrina Pacifici, editor of LLRX.com, focuses on copyright, trademark, patent and internet law matters.

New Jersey attorneys and firms now have active blogs, too. Several, including Stark & Stark (njlawblog.com), have multiple RSS feeds for different practice areas. The New Jersey Law Librarians Association has a feed that includes law-related news. Attorney Bill Ward of Carlin & Ward, who specializes in eminent domain, has a blog with an RSS feed on the latest developments.

To find RSS feeds (other than seeing a button on specific websites), use any major search engine or sites like Feedster.com, which has a directory of RSS sites. FeedFinder lets you enter a web address and see what feeds are available from that site.

If you or your firm regularly update website content or already have a blog, you may want to consider making your site a feeder. Blog software such as Movable Type and Blogger automatically create feeds. There are many websites with instructions about how to create an RSS feed from your site. Be sure the RSS link icons are prominent so it’s easy for people to sign up to get your feeds.

Enjoy exploring this new way of keeping on top of news, information and legal case developments. RSS feed technology brings new meaning to having the world at your fingertips!

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems in Montclair, a training and consulting firm specializing in law firm automation. Copies of previous columns are on her company website, www.losinc.com. For information about her quarterly meetings for Time Matters users, check the website or e-mail info@losinc.com. Schlein formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be faxed to New Jersey Lawyer at (732) 650-7010, e-mailed to news@njlnews.com or mailed to “Law Technology Questions,” New Jersey Lawyer, Edison Square, 2035 Lincoln Highway, Suite 3005, Edison, N.J. 08817.