The 411 about Newsgroups! (COM125-Assignment #2)

Can you imagine the Internet without the idea of being able to communicate with others? How would we ever find out about what's going on with the world around us? Imagine if we were only limited to reading information that people posted online without being able to comment on it or discuss it? In our generation, communicating with others online is what the Internet is ALL about. Not only can we find limitless information about almost any topic, but we can get involved in putting our "two cents" into it too! What would we ever do without the concept of NEWSGROUPS?

The word newsgroup looks just like what it’s defined as. “A newsgroup is a discussion about a particular subject consisting of notes written to a central Internet site and redistributed through Usenet, a worldwide network of news discussion groups.”(reference) Usenet consists of messages or notes that people submit on many different types of subjects. This information is posted to servers on a worldwide network.

Newsgroups are a continuous public discussion about any particular topic. Anyone can feel free to join a discussion anytime they want. Usually it's easily accessible, but sometimes some sites require a fee.

So who are the brains behind all this?

North Carolina was the first place to discover newsgroups. In 1979 two Duke University students connected two computers together "to start an exchange of information with other UNIX users." Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott, computer science graduate students at Duke, provided the most basic way to share information and communicate. They came up with an easy way "to automate the transfer of files between any two computers using telephone modems." They had good knowledge of the first mailing lists using ARPANET, and wanted to make a similar program that universities can use that weren't doing research. "The ARPANET was the first wide area packet switching network, called the "Eve" network, which has evolved into the Internet we know and love today." (reference) Although these two men conceived the Usenet concept, a man by the name of Steve Bellovin wrote the first program way before the Internet even became popular.

Here's a picture of the amazing individual!

STEVE BELLOVIN


Newsgroups are a great addition to the use of the Internet today. They allow us to access many different sites that can fill our brains with information on a various amount of topics. It also gets us involved with sharing our own thoughts and feelings, about the issues that we choose to discuss about. One of the best parts about it is that you can join a newsgroup anytime and become a part of a huge conversation with people from all over the world. This opportunity opens up our chances to get to know other people and their opinions, from other countries. It gives us a different perspective on life.


Here's just a little tip on when newsgroups are most useful. (SOURCE)

• When you don't need an immediate answer.


• You want to communicate with more than one person.


• You want to communicate with a group of people interested in the same topic.


• You need or want to provide extensive information about that topic.

Also, here's an example of a newsgroup site that allows you to access MANY different newsgroups! http://www.cyberfiber.com/

I hope that this helped you all get an idea of what newsgroups are all about. Before I did the research I thought I knew exactly what it was about, but it definitely exceeded my expecations of how useful it can be. Now I know there's another way to keep me busy on the Internet!