How are newsgroups different than other online discussion groups?
The easiest kind of discussion group to use is one based on electronic mail. Known as listservs, these online groups send messages directly to your e-mailbox. From there you can read, respond to and forward the messages just as you would any other e-mail message. However, this ease of use has one major flaw: a copy of the message is sent to the mailbox of everyone in the group. If we look at a group like ILEARN which has over 400 subscribers, most of whom have their mailboxes on Zoo, that means that up to 400 copies of any given message will be stored on Zoo at one time--not very efficient.
Newsgroups (sometimes called Usenet newsgroups) work differently. The messages are stored in a central location. You use a program called a newsreader to read the messages at that location. The difference is rather like going to a library to read a newspaper versus haviung it delievered to your door. Except, of course, that this "library" is on your computer.
What is a newsreader?
A newsreader is any program that will allow you to read newsgroups. At UVM the supported newsreader is the newsreader that is built right into our supported web browser, Netscape.
Where is the "central location" where newsgroup messages are stored?
EMBA (Engineering, Math, and Business Administration) has collected and stored newsgroups for the UVM community for several years. The newsgroup server is named emba-news.emba.uvm.edu.
How do I create a group for my class?
Tim Raymond of EMBA has generously agreed to create newsgroups for UVM courses. They will follow the naming convention of uvm.dept.coursenumber. For example, History 161 would be named: uvm.hst.161
To have a group created, send e-mail to Tim (Tim.Raymond@uvm.edu) He will need to know the number of the course, the name of the course, and a brief description (6-7 words). He will send you any information you need to know to be a newsgroup owner.
Last revised: 3 March 1996
Questions? Send e-mail to helpline@uvm.edu or call the HelpLine at 656-2604.
Author: Hope Greenberg
Computing and Information Technology, http://www.uvm.edu/cit/
Copyright 1997 The University of Vermont