Help

Help

CitizenShift is part of a long-term project to promote the use of open source code so that everyone can benefit from developing technologies and expertise.

The CitizenShift site has been developed in cooperation with the Interstructure group, an efficient, versatile Montreal company active in the area of free software development and emerging technologies. This project has given CitizenShift and Interstructure an opportunity to share their interests, expertise, curiosity and ability to get things done.

Get Firefox!If you really want to take advantage of the site's full range of functions and view the graphics environment the way it was designed, we strongly recommend that you download the latest version of Firefox, a free, open source Web browser. Firefox is fully compatible with Windows (all versions), OS X (Apple) and Linux operating systems. Many computer experts consider Firefox to be the best open source browser available at no charge.

The CitizenShift site is also optimized for the latest version of Internet Explorer 6 for all Windows platforms (ME, 2000 and XP), as well as for Safari running under Mac OS X. Note that Netscape 4.7.1 and older versions and Internet Explorer 5 running under Mac OS 9 and X are not supported.

 

Viewing video
To view video and hear audio, you need the Real Player free plug-in installed on your computer. This is the Download Center.

 

RSS feed, XML
CitizenShift is a dynamic site, which means the content is managed independently of the display, allowing generation of a page such as http://citizen.nfb.ca/rss/index.rss, which contains a description of the most recent articles posted on the site. This is an RSS feed. By creating the RSS feed (also known as an RSS channel or stream), which updates the content automatically, CitizenShift is acting as a specialized information channel. One of the main uses of RSS is for broadcasting news over the Internet. Many blogs and news sites (CBC, BBC News, New York Times, etc.) make use of this functionality.

CitizenShift, by offering this technology and opening its feed, is setting itself up as a citizen-oriented news channel under the NFB banner.

Here is a selection of recommended RSS readers among the many available:

AmphetaDesk
Desktop reader. Syndicated news aggregator with over 1,000 channels available. Linux, Mac and Windows compatible. (free)

BottomFeeder
Desktop reader for RSS and Atom feeds. Linux, Windows, Mac, Compaq Unix, HP-UX and Solaris compatible. (free)

FeedReader
Supports RSS formats, Dublin core modules and Slashback extensions. Caches headlines for offline viewing. (free)

FireAnt
FireANT is an RSS video aggregator and media player that can automatically download media content for you to watch and listen to. (free)

Lektora
RSS feed reader (Mac and PC) that can be integrated into Internet Explorer or Firefox. Developed in Montreal, Lektora presents news in the form of a virtual newspaper and includes daily archiving and import/export functions in OPML format. 30-day free trial version available. (for purchase)

RSSOwl
RSS and RDF news reader that is Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris compatible, developed in Java. Lets you import and export news sources in OPML format and convert them to PDF, RTF or HTML documents. (free)

 

If you have more general questions about the National Film Board of Canada, go to the Help section of the NFB Web site.

If you can't find the answer to your question here, write to us at citizen@nfb.ca