RSS is a type of XML which allows one system to tell other systems what new information it has. It's generally used to notify others of the latest news which is available over a network.

RSS stands for `Really Simple Syndication' or `Rich Site Summary', depending on which part of it you are referring to!

Confluence and RSS

Confluence reads incoming RSS and creates outgoing RSS. It allows you to stay informed of the latest current affairs of others and allows you to tell them of your own.

Confluence and Blogging

Blogging (or weblogging) has recently received massive attention in online communication but is not a terribly new concept as ideas go on the internet. Confluence allows users to create blogs in each space, which can be used to publish regular news about what your organisation is thinking. These blogs are fully searchable within Confluence.

Also see an example blog in the Demonstration Space: Octagon blog post

Reading incoming RSS

Reading incoming RSS is quite simple. See below for an example using the RSS feeds published by the BBC:

Usage:
{rss:url=my_rss_url}

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
my_rss_url	yes	none	the url to the RSS feed

Example:
{rss:url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/syndication/feeds/news/ukfs_news/world/rss091.xml|max=5}

Publishing RSS from Confluence

Confluence automatically generates RSS feeds for

• New blog posts
• New pages
• Updated pages
• New comments

You can find the XML documents which describe each of the above items by visiting the //Space Summary and viewing the //Content tab, which leads to RSS options.

For example, here is a list new pages published by your own instance of Confluence right now. It can easily be used to let your team share news at a rapid rate.