Going into checking out RSS I tried to have a much more opened mind compared to blogger. I find RSS to be the exact opposite of other social media platforms. The constant feed of article after article from organizations is what RSS is all about. This keeps a user from having to search all over the internet for their favorite blogs, entertainment, news, or so on.
Although this may be seen as a positive, it does not really give an opportunity for a conversation to occur between the organization and possible subscriber. The pros may outweighs the cons in this case, but I think that an organization who is going to attempt to put out articles for its users should allow for some kind of feedback. Feedback is what completes the cycle of communication after all!
The organizations who use RSS are relying on their subscribers to be excellent listeners. This is helped by RSS tracking which articles you have and have not read. In order for subscribers to be great listeners the information should be attention grabbing to them. The organization must know what is important to their subscribers. They should know what information their subscribers want or need.
The organizations that I found had general health information for a wide variety of people. It was the healthfinder.gov website. The information found on RSS from healthfinder.gov mostly pertained the current news, such as the West Nile virus. They also had random updates throughout the week on their feed pertaining to health in the United States.
I guess at the end of the day I have mixed feelings about google reader. I see where it may be overwhelming to users because it is all information based. It also does not entail much interaction between the user and organization compared to other platforms. On a more positive note I see where convience is for the user. They no longer have to spend time going from their favorite websites to blogs and waste time. RSS allows them to do this all in one.
The only question that remains is if the user is a great listener or not. Is the information catchy enough to read the full article? Is the information what they're really interested in? Does the information pertain to them? Is the information relevant and up to date, or just old news? Are they really listening or only monitoring the out coming information?
In the end it seems all these questions rely on the organization itself.
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