NCUA News Release

NCUA Unveils Enhanced Agency Web Communications Technology

Alexandria, VA, May 16, 2005 – In an effort to enhance the NCUA’s website and accessibility of information, the NCUA has added a new method of distributing content from the web site (www.ncua.gov) for the general public.

The feature, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed, will allow NCUA to syndicate items on the web site. This feature will be available to all users of the agency’s web site. The NCUA has selected the comprehensive section of “Recently Posted Information” for the feed.

“Last year, the agency implemented the NCUA Express system as a method of delivering timely official correspondence and publications to credit union officials. Since the Express was implemented we have received numerous inquiries from the general public desiring to take advantage of this service,” said NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson. “We believe the RSS will be the most efficient and effective method to provide current postings to the NCUA web available to the general public.”

“One of the benefits of this technology is once the end user subscribes to our feed, they will be notified every time the feed is updated, eliminating the need to return to our web site for updates,” said Lisa Kruppa, the agency’s webmaster. Features of the feeds include:

• Set filters for the content of the feed;
• Schedule the timing for their feed to check for updates; and
• Group feeds into categories meaningful to them.

NCUA urges credit unions that are not currently subscribed to NCUA Express to visit www.ncua.gov for an e-subscription so they may receive official agency correspondence and information. “NCUA Express is the most expeditious and cost-effective way for credit unions to stay informed of NCUA’s regulatory alerts, letters to credit unions, and other publications,” said Chairman Johnson.

However, for the general public interested in utilizing the RSS Feed a user must have an RSS-aware program, called news aggregators or Feed Readers. A Feed Reader helps a user keep up-to-date with all of their favorite web sites by checking their RSS Feeds and displaying new items from each subscribed feed.

The link to NCUA’s feed may be found on the website’s “Recently Posted Information” page (http://www.ncua.gov/justposted.html). The feed is indicated by the orange XML button just below the title. The direct link to our feed is: http://www.ncua.gov/RSS/NCUAChanges.xml

If you do not have a feed reader there are many options available to you, such as online versions and versions that install on your local computer. To find more information on Feed Readers and RSS Feeds go to your favorite search engine and type in “RSS Feed Reader”.