USE r's Net work of machines that exchange information tagged with labels called "newsgroups" which are transmitted between individuals at universities, secondary schools, government agencies, home computers, etc. Databases are available on many topics, from foreign hotels to kite flying. USENet traffic can be carried on the Internet, but is not restricted to the Internet. Internet users can exchange papers and lengthy data files. Anyone putting up a USENet newsgroup will discover that it is somewhat tedious.
Probably the least understood and least used resources on the Internet is Usenet (as opposed to the popular www). A nice article appears in "A Network for the World" by Richard Koreto in the Journal of Accountancy, August 1998, 33-35.
There are a variety of search engines that specialize in newsgroup searching, but few offer original content - most pull information from the DejaNews index. Tile.net at http://www.tile.net , however, provides special functions you wont find in standard search engines and that can prove very useful in resear ching newsgroup information. Tile.net is a Web site designed to make USENET newsgroups easy to find. Tile.nets advantage over other newsgroup indexes is that it helps you search for newsgroups rather than individual messages. Tile.net also provides statistics and other information about newsgroups and provides a link directly to each newsgroup, which will launch your Web browser newsreaders. Newsgroups in Tile.net are organized by index, description, and newsgroup hierarchy. Tile.net also provides information about listservs, FTP sites, and computer product vendors.
One of the more frequently posted questions is "How can I create a new newsgroup?" Briefly, creating a new newsgroup in the comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc or talk hierarchies involves first proposing the newsgroup in news.announce.newgroups, then conducting a "vote" among those Usenet readers who have an opinion on the proposed group. The entire process can take up to three months. For additional details see http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/8211/newgroup.html See Chat Lines and IRC .