On this page are the assignments for Thursday of Week Five. 

DEADLINES: You should have your assignments completed by Monday, at 7 p.m. And a heads up: You should start work on your final research project, due next Thursday, Week Six, Day Two, the last day of first summer session classes. See Grading for more details.

Newsgroups & Listservs

Long before Facebook and MySpace, newsgroups and listservs were essential parts of online life. They are places where people talk online and exchange information, usually about a very specific topic, such as a music group, a particular car or something like that.

They have emerged as important tools for Internet research.They are actually not good sources of factual news or information. But they are wonderful sources for people, stories, anecdotes and trends in particular subject areas.

For example, if you wanted to know about online journalism, one of the best places to find experts on the topic would be an online journalism listserv.

Many of these groups, especially .rec and .alt groups, were collected by -- who else? -- Google.

You should know how to tap into the power of newsgroups and listservs. You should understand the depth and variety of these "virtual communities."

For now, I would like you to get familiar with how newsgroups and listservs work. Please read this presentation:

5-Listservs

Then I would like you to go to the amazing collection of groups at Google. Go to Google and click on Groups. You may not have noticed that link before on the home page. You will be amazed at the thousands of groups available. Learn how to search for a particular group and learn how to search within many groups.

For example, I am a big Bob Dylan fan. I can search for groups about Dylan. I can also search for mentions of Dylan in other groups, such as alt.gossip.celebrities.

I would like you to pick a topic and search for groups and group discussions about the topic. Send me an email discussing what you found. How are newsgroups and listservs useful? Do you belong to any? How can they be useful for research?

You should also begin preparations for your final research project described at the Grading link on our class home page. If you would like, you can clear your topic with me.

Remember, an important part of the paper is to use as many of your class skills as you can -- compose a good research strategy; draw upon search engines; use subject directories; use public records, specialized tools, online databases and groups and listservs, and finally evaluate your research sources. Again, more information at the Grading page.

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