What is RSS?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is an XML based format ("RSS Content") for easily distributing a list of headlines and update notices to a wide number of people. RSS Feeds are used by computer programs called RSS Readers that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.

What problem does RSS solve?
Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and can get overwhelming, and are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily, and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.

How to use RSS feeds?
Generally, in order to view the Ontario Vipassana Foundation's RSS feed on your computer, you will first need to acquire a RSS Reader. To add the Ontario Vipassana Foundation RSS channel, click on the XML button, copy the URL of the XML code page that comes up and paste it into your RSS application. It's simple!

  http://www.torana.dhamma.org/rss_feeds/rsspub.xml

Examples
Please note that the following links are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by Ontario Vipassana Foundation of the contents of such third-party web sites.

Browser RSS Readers Some browsers, like the popular Firefox browser, have a built in RSS reader. To add the Ontario Vipassana Foundation's RSS feed to Firefox click on the RSS icon in the URL Address Block and subscribe. The icon is found in the lower right corner of the browser window for older Firefox versions.

The feed can also be added manually to Firefox by copying the URL of the RSS feed (right click on XML image and select Copy Shortcut/Link). Then click on Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks, File, New Livemark. Enter a name like "Ontario Vipassana" or "OVF". Paste in the URL of the RSS feed. Click Ok and close out of the Bookmark Manager. The RSS feed can be located in the Bookmarks and will be automatically updated whenever new content is published on the Ontario Vipassana Website.

Internet Explorer 6.0 sp1 and above requires an Add-on like Pluck for RSS feeds. IE 7.0 will have RSS built in like Firefox.

Web Based Readers MyYahoo! has a built in RSS reader. Click on the button to add the RSS feed to your MyYahoo account. You can also add to MyYahoo manually by copying the URL of the RSS feed (right click on XML image and select Copy Shortcut/Link) and paste the URL of the RSS feed into the MyYahoo Add RSS feed box. more information

All in One Readers (Email, RSS, News Groups) The Thunderbird Email and RSS program is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is the produced by Mozilla, the maker of the popular Firefox Web Browser.

With Thunderbird running click on File - New - Account. Select the RSS & Blogs and click Next. Name the Folder using the default given or "RSS Feeds" or anything else you wish. click on Next and Finish.

The Account folder should now appear in the left column. Click on it and the main page for RSS feeds will appear. Click on Manage Subscriptions and then click on Add. Copy the URL of the RSS feed (right click on XML image and select Copy Shortcut/Link). Paste the URL of the RSS feed into the Add box. Ensure the folder that you just created appears in the selection for "Store Feed Articles in:". To check or not to check the "Show the article summary" is a personal choice. The Article Summaries are the same as those printed under the Headline Links on the Home Page. Click Ok and Ok again.

All Done! The Feed should now appear.

Stand Alone RSS Readers There are literally hundreds of stand alone readers. The advantages to using these over Browser, Web Based and All in One Readers are features and more features. In short most save the user time when viewing many RSS feeds.

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Ontario Vipassana Centre - 6486 Simcoe County Road 56, Egbert, Ontario, L0L 1N0, Canada
Tel: +1 705-434-9850 Fax: +1 866-691-5214 E-mail: info@torana.dhamma.org
Web: www.torana.dhamma.org
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The Ontario Vipassana Centre is owned and operated by the Ontario Vipassana Foundation, which is a registered non-profit charitable organization (Charity Number BN 87365 6219 RR0001)