Education 603 Technological Capabilities
Internet Tool Review
Network News
Network News is an electronic discussion group through the Internet. Network News organizes discussions under the same topic, and a series of news articles on the same topic is called a "thread." Unlike Group E-mail Lists, Newsgroups 1) Keep specialized discussions organized and separate from e-mail, 2) Are easy to browse, and 3) Does not require a lot of commitments. While messages from Listserv (group e-mail lists) are automatically delivered to your mailbox, Network news are placed in the special Newsgroup servers, not individual mail box. Users can read whatever they are interested in at any time they want. A typical Network News server offers over 2500 Newsgroups.
Newsgroups are organized hierarchically; parent.subgroup.subgroup (e.g. k12.chat.elementary, k12.news, k12.ed.math etc.) From the name of Newsgroup, users can tell the topic of discussions in that Newsgroup.
Followings are annotated descriptions of six salient features of the Network News reader in the Netscape Navigator.
- Newsgroup List Pane (upper-left
window) -- This shows 1) Name of News Server, 2) Subscription mark
(you can "check" a particular Newsgroup you want to subscribe), 3)
Number of unread articles, and 4) Number of total articles.(Users
can change a width of each column and the order of columns as
well.)
- Message Heading Pane (upper-right
winder) -- This shows 1) Subject of article, 2) Flagging (flag for
future references), 3) Reading mark (green dot means you have not
read that article yet.) 4) Date, and 5) Sender's name. (Users can
change a width of each column and the order of columns as
well.)
- Message Content Pane (bottom
window) -- This shows 1) Subject, 2) Date, 3) Author's name, 4)
Organization, 5) Related Newsgroups, 6) References of related
articles. (If a message is a part of "thread", users can easily
follow the discussion by clicking the number of related articles.)
and 7) Body of message: content of news article.
- Posting a Message to Newsgroup: You can send a message as a
follow-up to previous discussion
"Re:News", or you can start a new
discussion topic "To:News". Simply
after you compose your message send to Newsgroup (like e-mail).
Like Eudora, sending an "attachment" is also possible too.
- Sending a Message to only the author by e-mail : If you have a
private question (not appropriate for whole newsgroup), you can
send an e-mail to the author "Re:Mail
or To:Mail", instead of
posting a message to the newsgroup.
- Netscape News and Navigation : Netscape News uses a separate window from a Navigation window. If a News article contains any urls, these are clickable and linked to the actual web site. Also a Newsgroup on the web site can be linked to the Newsgroup server on the Netscape News window.
Examples
Internet Newsgroups : This is a list of Internet newsgroups.
http://www.w3.org/pub/DataSources/News/Groups/Overview.html
Hurricane '96 StormWatch Message Boards: This is an example of how Message Board (similar to the Newsgroup, does not need a separate News reader) can be used for an educational purpose.
http://blueskies.sprl.umich.edu/StormWatch/wwwboard/weeks234.html
The URL for information regarding Newsgroup :
Netscape Navigator 3.0 Newsgroups http://www.netscape.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_3.0/index.html
Netscape Navigator 2.0 newsgroups : http://www.netscape.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_2.0/integrated_newsgroups/index.html
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