So RSS is emerging more and more in the enterprise. Many of us will be thinking about how RSS will impact our communities of information workers. I posted recently on the issues surrounding information overload. Tonight I’ll focus my attention to the subscription experience itself.
I don’t use Microsoft Outlook for my work email client, we are a Lotus Notes shop and my predominant work background has been, until recently, focused on Lotus Notes (including as a beta user for Notes 8). I do however use Outlook at home and think they have really hit on the right formula for subscription.
Here’s why I like the Microsoft method:
– the interfaces are clean and intuitive
– you subscribe to feeds during your normal browsing experience (with IE7)
– your feeds are then automatically synchronised using the Windows Common Feed List into Outlook 2007
– once in Outlook the posts are to all intent and purpose an email so it is simple for the user to forward articles to colleagues.
– they have obviously thought about how people work and how to make the experience better for the information worker.
The link between RSS and email is one of the features I would look for in any enterprise RSS reader (be that standalone or bundled/plugged into an email product).
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