NetNews
(public conferences)

Features

• Central news server operated by ISC.
• Newsgroup established in upenn hierarchy for each class.
• Posting is open to all individuals accessing from a permissable upenn.edu host. (Although newsgroups can be moderated to control posting, a variety of technical loopholes allow this to be bypassed by an experienced user.)
• Discussion is left on line for the course of an academic year. All messages are purged before the start of the fall semester.
• Mono- or bi-directional gateways are possible between NetNews and electronic mail distribution lists or listservs.

Strengths

• Newsreaders easy to use.
• Easy to post information, especially text.
• upenn newsgroups offer near real-time discussion.
• No additional load on campus electronic mail servers (unless gateways used).
• "Threads" of specific conversations easy to follow with most newsreaders and very well documented.
• A variety of media may be posted and understood by most newsreaders.
• NetNews can be integrated into the Web in a variety of ways (archival or real-time).
• Relatively low user of server resources, so relatively large messages may be posted.

Weaknesses

• An active means of communication: reader must log on to NetNews to see if there is any new information.
• Discussions via NetNews are inherently public in nature.
• Newsreader software not as widely used as e-mail.
• Easy to forge postings.

Strategies for Effective Use

• Faculty should expect NetNews activity from students at all hours of the day (and especially) night, and may want to check from home at night to facilitate this discussion.