First we need to make sure a newsgroup does not already exist which discusses the topic we want to see discussions about. The best way to do that is to go to Deja News ( http://www.dejanews.com/ ) and search to see if the topic is currently being discussed in some existing news group. Enter the words you want to see discussions about, and Deja News will list all of the newsgroups with messages containing those words. You can click on them to see the message found, and see whether what you want to discuss is being discussed anywhere already.

As an example I went to DejaNews and entered Monica Lewinsky, and found rec.travel.cruises, soc.penpals, alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.music.yes, dfw.general, alt.true-crime, talk.abortion, aus.radio.showprep, alt.conspiracy, alt.politics.clinton, alt.showbiz.gossip, sci.med.nursing, alt.politics.usa.republican, alt.movies.titanic, dc.general, alt.alt.alt.alt.alt, alt.impeach.clinton, rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs, alt.politics.gossip, alt.showbiz.gossip, misc.news.internet.discuss, alt.music.spice-girls, alt.fan.howard-stern, alt.music.mariah.carey, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, and probably a lot of others had discussions going about Monica Lewinsky. I did not have the time to go through all 5982 messages Deja News found.

At the July 28 General Meeting we had a very good presentation on Philips Speech Recognition. Let us see whether there is a news group where we could talk about it. DejaNews found discussions about Speech Recognition in comp.sys.newton.misc, comp.speech.users, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems, bit.listserv.edtech, alt.support.arthritis, microsoft.public.speech_tech.sdk, and comp.speech. If we really like the messages in comp.speech.users and microsoft.public.speech_tech.sdk we should read those groups regularly. The first step is to check to see if our internet service provider already carries those news groups.

ioNET carries both of them, but for the purpose of this discussion let me pretend that they did not carry microsoft.public.speech_tech.sdk. My next step would be to leave an email message for tech support (at support@ionet.net) and ask them if they would add that newsgroup. The odds are very good that they would do it, and then all I would have to do is subscribe to it (does not cost anything, it just means identifying to my news reader software that that is one group I frequently read). There seem to be a lot of different places to talk about just about anything. Do we really need another news group? But let us assume that someone can come up with a subject that needs discussion, and is not just a current news story (like the Monica Lewinsky matter, because by the time we went through the procedures to create a new group, it might no longer be topical), and we want to get a new news group created. Do we want to put it in the "alt" newsgroup category, or one of the more standard newsgroup catagories, like comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, or talk. It takes less work to get an alt news group created, but many ISPs do not automatically add each new alt group when it is created (and some are very reluctant to add new ones), while the "big 8" of comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, or talk may take a lot more work to get a news group created, but once it is created, most ISPs will automatically add it. Let us assume you want to create an "alt" group; the first step is to begin monitoring discussions in the newsgroup "alt.config", and also to read the following: http://www.faqs.org/usenet/alt/justify.html
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/a/asdamick/www/news/create.html
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/alt-creation-guide.html

If you want to create a newsgroup in one of the "big 8" categories, begin monitoring discussions in the newsgroup "news.groups", and check out ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news/creating-newsgroups/part1 and read the following "articles" which are posted at least once a month in the indicated newsgroup:

Subject: How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups

Subject: How to Write a Good Newsgroup Proposal
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups

Subject: Usenet Newsgroup Creation Companion
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers

Subject: What is Usenet?
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.admin.misc,news.answers

The problem with creating a new newsgroup, whether an "alt" news group, or one in the big 8, is that until that newsgroup becomes popular, i.e. until enough people start posting in it, and reading and responding to posts in it, it will just sit there. That is why it is often better to find a related, already existing, news group, and post there, and assign a Subject to your post that will attract the readers you want to reach.

Beginning with the next Internet meeting we will start a series of programs on web pages, including:

August 15	Building a Web Page
August 31	Running a Web Server
September 12	Running a Business on the Net

For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here