What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a service to provide content feeds from websites that contain article headlines, summaries and links back to the full article from that website. RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when content that interests you appears on your favorite websites. Instead of visiting a website to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically notifies you when something new is posted online all through your downloaded news reader.

What is CAP?

Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is a simple but general format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over all kinds of networks. CAP allows a consistent warning message to be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems, thus increasing warning effectiveness while simplifying the warning task. CAP also facilitates the detection of emerging patterns in local warnings of various kinds, such as might indicate an undetected hazard or hostile act. CAP provides a template for effective warning messages based on best practices identified in academic research and real-world experience.

How do I subscribe?

You will need to download and install an RSS reader, or use a web-based service. Then, you copy and paste the URL of the news feed into the viewer's “subscribe” dialogue. Example RSS viewers include, but are not limited to:

• FeedDemon (Windows)
• NetNewsWire Lite (Mac)
• Mozilla Firefox Web Browser (Windows, Mac, Unix)
  Firefox has a feature called Live Bookmarks that lets you subscribe to an RSS feed within the browser.
• Bloglines
  Bloglines is a free, web-based service for managing news feeds. There is no need to download or install software, and you can access your feeds from any computer connected to the Internet.
• RSS Bandit (Windows) - free