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Usenet is an interactive online news system that allows people around the world to participate in discussions about various topics. Usenet news is like the conventional news media such as newspapers and magazines in that information is distributed to a large audience. The big advantage of Usenet is that the readers can also participate in the discussions that take place. Usenet users divide themselves among different newsgroups with various topics. Currently DSI's news server carries over 44,000 active newsgroups with topics ranging from genetic research to digital music, and about everything in between. Newsgroups can be created by nearly anyone, as long as a concensus about the usefulness and potential interest is discussed on the news administrators' newsgroup, alt.config. Contrary to the Big-Brother image this may provoke, the system of Usenet news remains a truly free, democratic forum where people can communicate with one another about a wide array of topics.
Newsgroups are categorized according to their topics following an established set of naming conventions. A newsgroup's name looks something like this: rec.music.phish. The top-level heirarchy name rec. describes the general topic level, in this case "recreation". Notice that periods separate the parts of a newsgroup's name. The next part of the name takes you to the recreation subdivision of .music., and finally to a specific band's name, such as .phish. All newsgroups are typed in lower case. Here is a brief list of some top-level news heirarchies:
- alt.* - Alternate area for any other groups that don't quit fit anywhere else. Some of the most interesting groups are in this category
- comp.* - computer and systems' related issues
- sci.* - Scientific discussion in many fields (biology, soils, GIS, etc.)
- rec.* - Recreational newsgroups, including rec.crafts.*
There are several ways to read the news. The simplest ways involve using some sort of graphical news reader running under Windows. Both Outlook Express and Netscape Communicator have news reading capabilities built in. Other Windows applications are dedicated newsreaders, such as Free Agent, WinVN, News XPress, Q News, Trumpet News, and others. Once these programs have been configured with the server information, they will then download a list of available newsgroups from the news server. The user can then search through the newsgroup list and "subscribe" to ones they find interesting. Subscribing to a newsgroup means that when the newsreader is opened, it will automatically download new messages in that particular group. The workings of usenet are similar to that of email in that messages are composed and presented in a similar manner. Anyone who is comfortable with sending email can easily make the transition to Usenet.
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