Guerrilla RSSfare

This morning, everyone at my institution, employees as well as students, got an email informing us that we are required  (emphasis not mine) to subscribe to a service which would deliver a daily news summary to our email inbox. I already subscribe to the same RSS feed which is delivered to a separate RSS folder in Outlook, and I check regularly for new updates. I read the ones of interest, but I do so begrudgingly because the posts are so often poorly written. I think that taking the care to ensure you are writing in standard English as appropriate to your audience shows a respect to your readership, and I am repulsed by the fact that our PR department fails to proofread regularly. (The last straw was when they sent a notice out regarding my father's death and got the name of my office wrong and typed "wif" instead of "wife" when referring to his widow).


My point in writing this post is a reminder that if we plan to use these alternative forms of communication with our patrons, public, potential donors, etc., we need to remember to present ourselves appropriately. Also, if Web 2.0 technologies, like RSS, are indeed user-centered and user-driven, forcing them upon our users is at best inappropriate and at worst counterproductive. 


And now, I'll step down from my soap box and get back to Glee!