Internet Research

Newsgroups & Listservs

Newsgroups

• Newsgroups have little to do with – news. They are electronic discussion boards or bulletin boards.

• People must visit (messages do not come by email).

• They leave messages or ask questions.

Listservs

• Listservs are electronic mailing lists.• The name was trademarked by L-Soft,

which developed Listserv software.• Listservs deliver email messages to

and from people who have signed up for the list.

• The messages can come one at a time or in a one-message digest each day.

Effective research tools

• Newsgroups and listservs are effective research tools.

• Researchers can find out trends, tap public opinion, contact experts and make contacts.

Finding experts through listservs

• To participate in a list, you must first subscribe.

• Usually, subscribing is free. Often lists are supervised or moderated.

• Because people must register, because the volume of mail can be heavy, listservs usually attract people who are interested in, and know a lot about, the topic: A good place to find experts.

Making contact

• Once you have a research topic, you can subscribe to a listserv devoted to the topic.

• Messages can teach you more about the topic and put you in touch with experts or people with experience.

Example: Online news

• For example, if you were interested in online news, you could join an online news listserv.

• You would get 30-40 messages a day (or one digest with 30-40 messages) from people interested in, or working in, online news.

Lurking and asking

• You could “lurk” on the list – observing the discussion without participating.

• Or you could pose a question to the group or to individuals through email.

Finding listservs• Close to 100,00 listservs exist.• A number of web sites organize and

categorize listservs so you can search on your topic.

• www.liszt.com once was the main site. It now brings you to another good site: www.topica.com

• www.tile.net.lists will give you information on specific lists.

• www.lsoft.com/catalist.html is the “official” catalog of listserv lists.

Using newsgroups

• Internet researchers will not find “news” on newsgroups.

• They will find opinions, stories, anecdotes, ideas and people who care a lot about a topic.

Finding newsgroups

• More than 80,000 newsgroups exist.• The BEST place to find a directory

and archives of groups was Deja formerly DejaNews: www.deja.com

• Surprise: You will be taken to Google, which recently bought Deja.

Groups at Google and Yahoo

• You can search Google Groups by Usenet categories, such as alt (alternative) or biz ( for business).

• Yahoo also has gotten into the groups business, though without the extensive Deja archives bought by Google.

Example: E-commerce

• Suppose you were doing research on electronic commerce.

• You could find a group on biz.e-commerce at Google and subscribe or read past messages. You could search ecommerce at Yahoo groups.

• You could get ideas. You could make contacts.

Archives: Lists

• For listservs and newsgroups, researchers often find it useful to look back over archives of discussions.

• You can often search individual lists by your subject and find everything that has been written by the group.

Archives: Groups

• Groups/Google says it offers 20 years of archives with over 700 million messages.

• You could go to Groups at Google and read through archives from past months, even years.

Profnet

• A great resource for finding experts is Profnet – Professors’ Network.

• University professors often are experts in their subject area. Profnet allows you to find them.

• By email: profnet@vyne.com• Or the web:

www.vyne.com/profnet

Communities as research

• “Virtual community” is a name sometimes given to lists or groups where people get together and exchange opinions and ideas.

• “Community” is used purposefully. People can and do become a community online.

• And that community can be a tool for the Internet researcher.