Newsgroups

The ease with which users can contact and talk to one another has led to the development of Usenet groups or Newsgroups -computerised discussion areas, in which anyone can take part. Large numbers of people participate in such discussion groups throughout the world, covering almost every imaginable subject. For businesses, they can provide useful ways of communicating with actual or potential customers and for making new business contacts. There are 'helplines' on a range of topics, and you will be able to save copies of 'articles' or 'notices' to your local computer, and reply privately or publicly to the various messages.

There are thousands of Newsgroups and you can even start your own if one specifically dealing with your business area of interest does not already exist. However, the chances are it will. Most ISPs will provide access to the major ones.

Newsgroups also represent an effective way of keeping in touch with others in the same field or business sector, providing a useful mechanism for identifying experts and collaborating on projects.

Some Newsgroups are specific to particular countries or ideas. You can tell this by the Newsgroup name, e.g. uk.finance is aimed at UK businesses, while seattle.business is aimed at American ones.

Some service providers, such as CompuServe and AOL, run their own Newsgroups for subscribers to their services.

Like any public forum, Newsgroups have their own code of behaviour, called 'netiquette'. Activities that are commonly frowned on include sending chain letters, making personal attacks on contributors and asking common or simplistic questions (many Newsgroups have a list of frequently-asked-questions (FAQ file) that a new user should first ask for or refer to). To gain a sense of the accepted do's and don'ts in a particular Newsgroup, it makes sense to follow its postings for a while before you actively participate.

Where to look

For ease of access, Newsgroups are divided into categories according to their subject. Common categories are:
* biz. which covers business-oriented Newsgroups
* alt. which has alternative Newsgroups on a variety of topics
* sci. which covers scientific topics
* misc. which sweeps up the hard to categorise