As fate would conspire I’ve wound up producing two different ways of trying to point out the basics of RSS for newcomers.
The first was a recent client project, for the awesome social feed reading application Feed Each Other. I had a lot of fun working with Udi at Feed Each Other on this one, and hopefully the results - a screencast / motion graphics / stock footage mashup will help to explain the benefits of using a feed reader, and in particular Feed Each Other, which I encourage you to check out.
Check out the (slightly grainy) YouTube version here:
Second up my beginner’s guide to RSS and what you can do with it just made it to the front page of Master New Media, so by all means check that out if you get a chance, or want to direct someone less experienced with the wonders of RSS than yourself at some of the cool things that you can do with it.