RSS

You can find all the latest press releases, an up-to-date summary of events and the latest collection of photo, audio and video files on the website of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council. However, there is no need to keep visiting the website for all the latest news. You can also link to the various RSS feeds on the website.

How does it work?

RSS stands for ‘rich site summary’ and is a format used to create lists of articles in XML (extensible mark-up language), which include the title, a brief description and a link to the article in question on the website. Because they are in XML, these lists can also be read by other programmes called news readers. Subscribers to an RSS feed are actually subscribing to one of these lists which can then be downloaded using the news reader. The news reader regularly scans the Belgian Presidency website looking for new information. Just like an email programme, the news reader can automatically inform you when new information has been posted, keeping you up to date with all the latest news.

What do I need?

You have three options:

You can install a news reader (often free) on your PC. This programme aggregates your RSS feeds. Examples of news reader programmes are FeedReader (www.feedreader.com) and AmphetaDesk (http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk).
You can use a search engine which supports an RSS add-on, such as Mozilla Firefox or Safari. RSS feeds are added in the browser’s ‘favourites’.
You can use a website which allows personal pages to be created with your favourite news and information, such as My.yahoo.com or Google.be/reader.