Chapter 1. Introduction

"Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

In this chapter, I'll first talk about what RSS and Atom are for and then take a look at a little of their history. We then move on to the business cases for syndicating your own content and a discussion of the philosophy behind content syndication. The chapter finishes with a brief discussion of the legal issues surrounding the provision and use of syndication feeds.