Help With RSS and Aggregator Tech Description

I need help. I'm working on some simple descriptors for RSS and RSS aggregators in the context of technologies for communities of practice. As I've been searching and writing, I realized I know enough to simply be dangerous, not useful.

Can you help?

I'm looking to improve upon the following:

RSS Feeds

Short definition:
RSS (really simple syndication) feeds are XML files generated when specified web content is updated. They contain a list of items that describe the content. RSS is based on an XML file format.

Key Function:
RSS feeds act as a subscription service. They provide an an easy way to distribute a list of web based headlines, update notices, and/or content (often called "feeds") to other websites or tools that aggregate and organize those feeds for reading (RSS aggregators or readers).

Key Features of RSS Feeds:
RSS syndication - the piece of programming on a content website that summarizes changes on that site and make that information available to subscribers. (I think I have this all wrong. It isn't a feature, it is what it IS!)
Usefulness of this feature to communities:
RSS can form the basis of subscription and alert functions for new discussions, wiki and blog posts, static content, calendar items or any updated web content. This is critical for distributed communities as a way to both garner attention towards the community and allow the members to select what they want to pay attention to.

Shared feeds - the ability to aggregate individual feeds into a community feed. (NEED TO FIND TERM FOR THIS).
Usefulness of this feature to communities:
Shared feeds allow a community to collate their individual content into a shared "feed" for either internal and/or external use. This can be important for internal community functions or to provide a "window" in to the collective activity of the community.

Secify feed components - Feeds may be specified to contain a link back to the original site/content, headlines, publisher, date and time or it may contain all the content as well.
Usefulness of this feature to communities:
The publisher can limit a feed to headlines as a way to "force" the reader back to the original site, or provide full feeds for maximum individual flexibility. This allows some discretion about how to weight something towards a community or individual experience.

Feedback? Suggestions? Again, the focus here is RSS in the CONTEXT OF A DISTRIBUTED COMMUNITY - not just RSS in general. TIA!

(My key Source: http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html)

lee LeFever: Comparing Social Networking to Online Communities

Lee, in between jetting around the country working his fingernails to the bone, had time to come up with another of his wonderful compare/contrast pieces, this time looking at the issues of how identity are manifest in online communities as compared to social networking sites.

Comparing Social Networking to Online Communities:

"Perhaps the most compelling difference in my mind is the use of the member profile to represent member identity. What enables many of the differences I outline below is the way in which social networking communities use the member profiles or member homepages to build identity."

(snip)

owever, I do see opportunity for traditional online communities to take a new look at member profiles and how they can be used build identity. Participation in discussions should not be the only way to have an identity in an online community.

There are some great points to dig into, but I have to be brief. Meeting starts downstairs at the kitchen table 2 minutes ago. That said, I agree with Lee's premise about the importance of looking at identity as a key to understanding and maximizing social and business interaction in distributed, web based settings. I think the line between online communities and social networking will totally blur as we explore those affordances that bridge, or create a connecting "cloud" between technical interaction applications.

I've been "heads down" this week at a F2F with Etienne Wenger, John Smith and Kim Rowe where we have been analyzing technologies for distributed communities of practice and this very same idea of identity and how we manage it both as an individual and as a member of communities -- often many (Etienne talks about this as multimembership) -- has been front and center.

I'll have more on this soon! And READ LEE'S ARTICLE!

Shel and Robert Right a Book Via Blogs

Makes sense to me!
Announcing a corporate blogging book: the Red Couch project

"Tonight, while at 41,000 feet in an airplane from Seattle to Oakland, it hit me: do the entire thing on the blogs.

And I meant THE ENTIRE THING. I called Shel last night while driving along 880 (remember, we didn't yet have a formal deal, or even a proposal yet). I told Shel I'm not going to accept his emails anymore. Huh? I told him we're going to do this whole thing on the blogs. He pushed back. That is the craziest idea he's ever heard, he told me. He thought it would mess up our ability to really discuss the book openly. Could we discuss people in the industry openly? Why not? I asked. We SHOULD be transparent. Especially given the content that our book would be pushing."