What is RSS?

Rather than get into the tech aspects of what RSS is when explaining it to people new to RSS, Dave Winer suggests referring to how RSS is used.

…I start with ‘automated web surfing.’ It gets you more news for the time you put into using the Internet. If you don’t want more news then RSS is probably not for you. But if there are subjects that you are intensely interested in, and if the people covering the topics also offer the information in RSS, then your computer (or a web site) can make web surfing a richer and perhaps more productive experience.

Dave also mentions last year’s excellent RSS article from the BBC.