For those who don’t know about RSS, I could try to take a moment to explain what it is by explaining the problem that it solves. Have you ever noticed how much information there is on the web? If you ever find yourself constantly browsing through a particular string of websites, some of which update regularly, some of which update irregularly, and just get tired of all that browsing, you may find it useful to know that some of those websites syndicate the information they publish using RSS technology. You could download a desktop application (I’m using Awasu, though there are others out there) and it would tell you which sites have been updated and give you a list of headlines.

A new post on Awasu’s blog points out an implication of RSS technology in a blog post titled “Power to the People.” The importance of RSS is that it gives the end user greater ability to filter through information. With all the noise out there in the information world, the ability to filter out that noise is becoming increasingly important to all of us. For those of us who actually pay attention to the news, it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between news and commentary. What I prefer to keep in mind here is to pay attention to articles and stories that are relevant, informative, and factual. As for commentary, it’s more important to me that opinions are backed up by facts that can be independently verified, and that details that undercut an argument are not left out.

In a recent column, Bill O’Reilly makes some rather arrogant statements about himself (suprise, suprise) and his employer. He claims Fox takes on a “populist-traditional, pro-American editorial posture,” then claims that Fox is not a conservative network. So, which is it? populist-traditional and pro-American, or not conservative? Why be pro-American? Why not be a credible journalistic organization with an obligation to the truth, even if the truth doesn’t necessarily advance American interests?

Well, in any case, I digress. This post is really suppsed to have something to do with RSS and its importance.

I guess what I’m really trying to say here is that while the Internet has helped bring about more free-flowing information and lots and lots of noise to accompany the information, RSS is here to bring some order to that chaos. Not to mention, this is order that is controlled at the level of the end user. This is a power that can undercut any self-proclaimed populist like O’Reilly. He should feel threatened not by Al Franken, but by the order gradually brought to the chaos and noise of the Internet. With more order, I’d be willing to bet that information becomes more coherent; the situation leads us to more easily discriminate between noise and credible information.