RSS feeds are the unappreciated heroes of the internet. They are awesome time saving and information gathering tools, properly used. RSS feeds can consolidate all the information from your social networks, important blogs, newspapers, and trade magazines in a single place: your own custom internet portal.

bongoboy at the CSI blog has a great post about the importance of RSS feeds in maintaining situation awareness.

"Situational Awareness means, in it’s simplest form, that you know which way is up… and up is very, very important in the aviation world, as the opposite of up is down and down has the potential to end badly. Very badly.

In the construction world, the absence of current situational awareness can simply mean that one doesn’t take the time to keep up with the constant change that is taking place in our industry, but in this litigious age simply claiming ignorance of modern materials and techniques is not a defense, especially considering how simple it is to have that information delivered to your computer each and every morning for you to peruse and enjoy with your morning coffee."

He points out the value of RSS from both sides: they are a great way to distribute information and to keep you informed. Both are valuable to a manufacturer. Encourage current clients and new prospects to subscribe and you get free, instantaneous, opt-in distribution at the click of a button. Find and subscribe to useful and interesting blogs, including your clients', and you get a one-stop information center. (It takes me a bit more than the 15 minutes bongoboy claims to read my blogs each morning, but then I probably subscribe to more comics than he does.)

The hardest part, as it is everywhere on the net, is weeding out the garbage from the gems. As bongoboy points out:

"Does it have potential to push a load of useless information across your desktop? Of course it does, but if you’re smart enough to be reading up on technology like this and you’ve come across this article, then you have the required gray matter to glance over a feed article for a second or two, make a snap judgement and toss it out if it doesn’t make the cut. If the feed continually sends you content that you feel is garbage, unsubscribe...this is a free country."