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Next-Generation Web Tools |
Really Simple Syndication (RSS): A means of alerting users about news and other Web content generated by an online publisher.
Blogs: Online journals.
Wikis: Web sites that allow visitors to contribute content.
Podcasts: Web-distributed media broadcasts.
Social networking: Web sites that enable users to build social communities and interact with these contacts online.
The peer-to-peer model: Music, video and text file sharing.
Content tagging: Users mark content of note to alert themselves or others to its value.
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax): The use of different programming languages to create real-time, interactive Web applications.
Mashups: A Web page or application that integrates complementary elements from two or more sources.
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How They Do It
Middlebrook's team members, who rotate podcast and RSS duties, create the feeds using an off-the-shelf HTML authoring tool. City National offers monthly personal finance and international business outlook podcasts, a weekly market trends podcast and seven RSS feeds ranging from foreign exchange activities to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
"Podcasts and RSS feeds are important communication feeds for our clients and colleagues," says Beale. "City National was an early adopter of this technology, and it has realized a number of positive benefits."
Like many CIOs, Beale oversees the company's Web strategy, but Middlebrook, who reports to the director of marketing but also works closely with IT, handles the testing and implementation of these tools.
Internally, the bank is exploring the idea of using blogs as the next iteration of its corporate-information and best-practices portal. It's also investigating whether to use Ajax -- or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML -- on its Web site. Use of Ajax, a method of building interactive Web applications that process user requests immediately using a combination of programming tools, is still in the R&D phase, says Middlebrook.
"We are constantly looking for ways to further adapt the technology in meaningful ways to achieve value," Beale says. In the meantime, demand for the feeds continues to grow. "That tells us we're on the right track," says Middlebrook.
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