RSS & XSLT : what and why

Posted by Stephane Guidoin on Feb 02, 2006; 1:06pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/link-to-MP-from-ISF-pages-tp211p232.html

Just to clarify a little more. Both RSS (commonly known as "feed") and
XSLT (known as webservice) are used to allow other websites and clients
to read data from internet/websites without going onto the web.

Differences :
RSS/Feed : People can only read a set of data that are provided in the
feed. For example, when you have some AP/Reuters news on your favorite
website, it's probably thanks to a RSS feed. There is also many
application used to read RSS from a computer (for example to read news
and blogs without speding hours of browsing)

XSLT/Webservice : Instead of reading, webservices allows interaction.
Then it's possible to read, request specific data, even modify/create data.

Both of those technologies allow websites to become more than that : a
plateform ; other websites and applications can use the data just to
promote them or to create something new. To me, this vision fits with
what "How'd they vote" is in terms of diffusions of political contents.

Cory, for the moment, I'd say RSS feed could be enough. It's easier to
set up and can bring all the data needed.

Bye

Stef