RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.

Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and can get overwhelming, and are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily, and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.

RSS works by having the website author maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standard way. This list of notifications is called an "RSS Feed". People who are interested in finding out the latest headlines or changes can check this list. Special computer programs called "RSS aggregators" have been developed that automatically access the RSS feeds of websites you care about on your behalf and organize the results for you. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes called "RSS Channels" and "RSS Readers".)

I have started publishing an ECV feed which will contain ONLY upcoming events and current news within ECV. You need to do nothing besides downloading one of the free RSS Readers listed below, then subscribing to this link to view and be kept up-to-date on current ECV events. RSS LINK.

The newer Browsers, IE7 and Firefox have built in RSS Readers. Simply click on the link and then subscribe. One feature these browsers don't offer is the ability to automatically check the feed for updates or new content. You need to do that manually. Other aggregators can be set to auto-refresh and stay connected in your service tray when closed. They will check for new events at a given interval, set by you and inform you when a new feed has been published.

You can subscribe to hundreds of other feeds.. Most news services and message boards provide these free services as well. Look for either of these logos and click on them to subscribe. Most will ask if you want to subscribe to some of the more popular feeds. Merely decline and proceed to the ECV feed.

Here are a couple of RSS aggregators I've used and recommend.

Tristana Reader Website Download - Download Site 2

Feed Demon Download Page

Feed Reader Homepage - This is my favorite aggregator.