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January/February 1997, pgs. 64, 85 The Internet, The Middle East, and You
Newsgroups, Online Conferencing And the Web
by James M. Ennes, Jr.Think of 13,000 public discussion groups, all open to anyone in the world for any opinion on any subject. No editors. No censors. Others may disagree with you. They may argue. They may insult, demean or ignore you. But they cannot silence you. That’s USENET, an online conferencing system available to anyone with a computer. The first online computer conferencing system, called “Delphi” after the Greek oracle, appeared in 1970. Delphi revolutionized conferencing, allowing hundreds of scientists and other research professionals to interact electronically and almost instantly over long distances. Soon several different systems were in operation, mostly using mainframe computers and incompatible standards. Each military service had its own network. Government agencies and universities had other systems. Interaction between networks was difficult.
Early Newsgroups Were CrudeThe early systems were crude by today’s standards, using arcane commands that most people found difficult to master. Yet usage grew. In the late 1970s the first USENET (UNIX User Network) was developed to connect several UNIX machines. This became the forerunner of today’s newsgroup system. In 1982, “Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol” (called “TCP/IP”) was developed to provide standards. “TCP” verified the accuracy of transmitted data, while “IP” standardized data transfer. For the first time, computer networks were truly interconnectable. Data could readily be transferred between computers worldwide, and between mainframe and desktop machines. The “Internet” was born. Soon, with the development of Mac and Windows graphical interfaces, the USENET newsgroups became easier to use, and they proliferated. Today, you can find newsgroups catering to almost every conceivable subject. If you don’t find a newsgroup you like, you can set up your own.
News Reader SoftwareIf you sign up for an Internet service, the software included with the service will include Web “browser” and news “reader” capabilities. Netscape and Internet Explorer “browsers” and the national services such as Prodigy and America Online are all capable of reading “newsgroups.” In addition, dedicated news reader programs such as WinVN, recently upgraded for use by scientists at the NASA Space Flight Center, can be found free or at nominal cost in the Internet. Any of these will help search, sort, find, read, save, forward or manipulate newsgroup information. The dedicated news readers such as WinVN tend to be packed with more features and to be easier to use. With news reader software running on your computer, you can easily search for any ongoing discussion or commercial news report that may interest you. You can even find the text of previous, long forgotten discussions. For example, if you want to read history or recent news from Palestine, you might search the World Wide Web for “Palestine.” Here you will find thousands of sources of relatively static information in Web sites created by individuals and organizations on both sides of the issue. If you want to know what people are saying and thinking about Palestine, you can read the USENET newsgroups instead of the Web sites. Good starting places for a newsgroup search are Digital Equipment Corporation’s AltaVista search engine at http://www.altavista.digital.com , or DejaNews at http://www.dejanews.com, which is specially designed for searching newsgroups. Because of the high volume of USENET messages, most Internet services replace older messages as newer ones arrive. DejaNews, however, seeks to index every word in every public message in the USENET world, and to keep those indexes on file indefinitely. Even if the message is no longer available, you can still identify the sender and exchange e-mail.
Finding Your Way in USENETPublic discussions or wire service news reports of any subject currently in the news or in the public mind can readily be found in USENET newsgroups. For instance, searches for “Hebron +torture” or “Palestine +torture” reveal hundreds of messages discussing the recent Israeli Supreme Court decision sanctioning torture of Palestinians. Here you will find statements of Palestinians who have experienced the abuse of their loved ones, and of supporters of Israel who argue that torture is necessary for Israel’s security. Some of these discussions can get very heated. A DejaNews search for recent public messages mentioning “Palestine” turns up over 17,000 such references, each indexed by date, newsgroup, subject and sender’s e-mail address. Each newsgroup and e-mail address appears on your screen as a highlighted hypertext link. A single mouse click will display the full message or open a mail window so you can post a public or private reply. Instead of searching for messages, you may prefer to go directly to a newsgroup and browse all the public mail. DejaNews has a special feature to help do that. When I asked DejaNews where to find ongoing discussions containing the word “Palestine,” the reply listed nine newsgroups, arranged in priority order starting with the most active:
The first part of each name describes the content. “Soc” identifies groups dealing with social issues. “News” flags groups concerned with the network itself. “Talk” groups debate issues. “Rec” groups deal with the arts, hobbies and recreation. Some identify the country. Clicking the name on your computer screen takes you quickly to the specified newsgroup. There you can easily follow the thread of the discussion underway, from message to replies. You may also post new public messages, or reply publicly or privately to the person whose message interests you. To save time, on subsequent visits you can elect to see only mail posted since your last visit. Jumping directly to a newsgroup is also a simple matter. From Netscape you can open the Options menu and select “Show All Newsgroups,” then just scan the names until you see one you wish to visit. To jump to a particular newsgroup whose name you know, you can just type the name in Netscape’s “Location” window preceded by “news:” in the form “news:talk.politics.mideast.” Netscape will take you to that newsgroup and fill your screen with one-line message headings. Control-F will let you search all the headings for any keyword. Once you find a news report or notice of interest, most software will let you save that to your hard drive, edit it, print it, e-mail it to someone, or even e-mail it to yourself, which is often quicker and easier than saving it. Most newsgroups are unmoderated, allowing unlimited posting by anyone. Some are moderated, in which case a moderator screens mail or limits who may participate. Some, such as the Clari News Service, are commercial services with restricted access. If your Internet Service Provider subscribes to Clari, your USENET news feed will include about 300 additional newsgroups containing hundreds of wire service stories divided by subject and area, including many stories about current events in Palestine. The Changing Face of Cyberspace
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