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.