FOR MANY of us who came in late, the Net is all about websites. Mailing lists and their power, too, are mostly overlooked. (Initiatives like the much older INDNET initiative or the almost-a-decade-old Goanet are an exception, and the like, focussing largely on an e-mail based exception.)
Many might have not heard about Usenet newsgroups. For long, I hadn't either. It was only when http://groups.google.com made it easy to to read Usenet online (it's just like visiting a website) that one learnt about Usenet's potential. You can also post very easily to a Usenet newsgroup, simply by sending an email to an address as cyptic as [EMAIL PROTECTED] (that's assuming you're posting a message *today* to the soc.culture.indian group). So, what is a newsgroup really? It's not synomymous with a mailing-list, though some use the term thus, erroneously. To give a simple -- and simplistic -- explanation, a Usenet newsgroup is a mix between a website and a mailing list. Anyone can post to it, but you can read it without necessarily having to download posts into your mailbox. This means you can avoid mail-clutter, but you probably need good connect speeds. Usenet is actually old technology. It's heyday was perhaps in the 'seventies and 'eighties. Early Goanetters like Marlon Menezes and Uly Menezes have been posting from and to newsgroups long back in the past. Like any other technology, it has its own advantages, pros and cons. There are 25,000+ Usenet newsgroups replicated across servers worldwide. Not sure what the exact number is. It is not difficult to find a specialist group, dealing with just about any technology or subject, if you search for it. For instance, if you're into Free Software, you might find comp.os.linux.announce (cola for short) to be useful. There are groups in the alt (alternate), soc (society), comp (computers), rec (recreation, see rec.travel.asia with its occasional posts on Goa), sci (science) and related hierarchies. Like other areas of the Net, there is spam and porn also clogging some networks. Earlier this year, after a campaign of many months, and with support from people like Tariq Siddiqi, Archana Nagvenkar, Craig Rodrigues, George Pinto, Herman Carneiro and others, we set up the first Goa-related Usenet newsgroup -- soc.culture.indian.goa, or scig for short. This still needs more participation, and interest in it is still to reach its optimum. But one's own dream is to have this network as a supplement to existing mailing-lists and websites, to complement their efforts, rather than replicate them. To post to this group, simply mail it to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- news from every source is particularly welcome. To check out more about the power of Usenet newsgroups, just go to http://groups.google.com and search for any keyword you're interested in. It could be just something like Goa (you'll learn about Gun Owners of America too!) or some technical subject. Don't be surprised to hear voices which you never knew existed on the web! FN -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
