NiCHE is committed to providing our members with ever more efficient ways of staying up to date with the Environmental History world. To achieve this we've provided three free subscription options: an RSS feed, a Twitter feed and an email subscription. All three services will send you the exact same articles so you need not use more than one.
Subscriptions are available for NiCHE News or Nature's Past Podcast, by Sean Kheraj. The NiCHE News subscription includes all news items submitted by NiCHE members and project news related to NiCHE funded projects. By following NiCHE News you should have a good idea of the environmental history and historic geography field in Canada.
You can also subscribe to Nature's Past podcast, produced by Sean Kheraj. By subscribing to this feature you will be informed of new episodes as they are released (about once per month).
What is RSS?
RSS or "Really Simple Syndication" is an up to date collection of articles / posts / essays from a particular source. The title, link and a short blurb of these articles is stored in an RSS feed. You can subscribe to the RSS feed and you will be notified of new posts as they are created. The advantage of this over visiting a site directly is that always know when new content is available.
To subscribe to an RSS feed, you first must sign up for a feed reader. There are many free services that do this. Bloglines is a popular option. In Bloglines, click on "Add". You can then look for the orange and white RSS icon on your favourite websites. Often it will be accompanied by a link. Cut and paste the link from your favourite page into your new feed. Bloglines will then monitor all the sites you have subscribed to for changes.
Doing this allows you to visit one site to get updates on content, rather than checking multiple sites each day.
NiCHE New's RSS feed can be found at http://niche-canada.org/feed/news
Nature's Past's RSS feed can be found at http://feeds.feedburner.com/naturespast
Why Bother?
You certainly don't have to use RSS feeds. Many people may prefer to visit sites or receive news via a stream of emails. That's fine and NiCHE will continue to provide all content that you would find in our RSS feed on our site.
However, a feed reader has its advantages. Getting feeds sent to your reader is like having your own personal newspaper, designed by you. Unlike listservs, readers remove items from your list when you have read them (or decided to ignore them) so you do not need to worry about deleting them. Since you signed up for all the feeds, there's no need to worry about receiving spam. This leaves your email free of clutter so you can use it for what it was intended: sending messages.
Think of RSS feeds as a "hey, you might find this interesting" from the people and organizations that you've subscribed to. It's not invasive, a time saver and it's free.
Twitter
What is Twitter?
Twitter allows you to receive news and messages from the sources you want to hear from, all in one location. To do this, you sign up for a free Twitter account and "follow" people and organizations of interest to you. NiCHE has a Twitter account that automatically posts the titles and links of news articles from our site. You can find our account and follow us at http://twitter.com/NiCHE_Canada . You can find Nature's Past at http://twitter.com/naturespast .
This is a way to stay up to date with Canadian Environmental History news without having to visit the NiCHE site directly. We're happy to have you visit, but if you'd prefer to receive your news this way, we're also happy to provide this service. If you'd like to have your Twitter messages sent to your desktop, several free programs allow you to do this. You might try Tweetdeck.
Isn't Twitter Stupid / Childish / Creepy?
That's for you to decide.
Sure, there are lots of people out there who put out way too much information about themselves (does anyone really need to know when you're brushing your teeth?), but there are plenty of other uses for Twitter.
Many people choose only to listen in on organizations posting news and updates. Others use Twitter only to keep up to date on research in their field. To these people, Twitter is a useful, professional tool. You don't have to put out any more information than you're comfortable with, nor do you have to "follow" people you do not know.
As for creepy: you don't know the journalist who wrote your favourite newspaper. Does it make you feel creepy to read their articles? Think of it like the radio. Twitterers are broadcasting and they know (or hope) people are listening.
How is this different from the RSS feed?
It's not. The information you receive by subscribing to the NiCHE RSS feed is identical to what is presented on Twitter. We have provided both options to our users, some of whom may prefer one format over the other.
If you're more comfortable with receiving daily emails from list servs and would like to receive your NiCHE News that way instead, you can sign up for a once a day email that will provide you with short blurbs and links to all the new articles from that day. You can sign up by visiting: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=niche-canada/KOWt&loc=en_US or by clicking on the "Email" link in the Subscribe Menu.
Currently, this is only available for NiCHE News, but subscribers of NiCHE News will also receive information about new podcast episodes
iTunes
Nature's Past also has an iTunes page where you can learn about the podcast, leave comments, or subscribe through iTunes. If you are already using iTunes to subscribe to other audio services, you might be interested in using this means to keep tabs on Nature's Past.