RSS specification

2.1 RDF Site Summary 1.0 (RSS)

RSS is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication format. RSS is an XML application that conforms to the W3C's RDF Specification and is extensible via XML-namespace and/or RDF based modularization (see below).

An RSS file, at a minimum, is a document describing a "channel" consisting of URL-retrievable items. Each item consists of a title, link, and brief description. While items have traditionally been news headlines, RSS has seen much repurposing in its short existence.

2.2 RDF Specification 1.0

The RDF specification can be found at:

- http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec

This specification defines the core RSS schema. Additional elements that are not in the core schema are added by the use of modules. Each "imported" module extends the namespace of the core schema. This namespace-based modularisation affords RSS 1.0 extensibility. The only modules that ship "in the box" with RSS 1.0 are Dublin Core, Content and Syndication.

Consult the appropriate module documentation for further information:

2.2.1 Dublin Core

- http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/dc/

2.2.2 Syndication

- http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/

2.3 NZGLS

You may notice that the core set, together with the modules above does not give us all the elements required to describe our (government) data set (for example, there is no "agency" element).

Defining our own government-specific module and "importing" this into the core RSS schema easily remedies this problem, and provides for "future-proofing". We can always extend the schema should we need new elements. Our government-specific module is called NZGLS and was defined as part of the e-government programme:

2.3.1 NZGLS

- http://www.nzgls.govt.nz/standard/

Please note that the appendix lists the elements and syntax of the NZGLS module.