News from the Internet

Citation

Wynder, N. (1998), "News from the Internet", Internet Research, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr.1998.17208bab.001

News from the Internet

On-line conferencing and discussion has already revolutionised how we communicate globally. E-mail lists and newsgroups have been around since the start of the Internet for distribution of information to a targeted group of people.

There are now as many as 20,000 newsgroups and the list is greatly expanding. Imagine, that is 20,000 potential discussions, with between two and a 1,000 people per group. That is a lot of people. A small percentage of these newsgroups are not populated, but we are still talking about a vast amount of discussion.

Along with that, there are over 85,000 e-mail lists too. That gives the possibility of literally millions of e-mails travelling to mailboxes every day.

Now, we have two types of hybrid. A mailing list that is archived on the Web and a Web-based discussion that is posted out to subscribers via e-mail. Both are becoming more popular as time passes and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these hybrids already running worldwide.

All this focus on international discussion has sparked a thought at a number of companies in the USA and UK. The Virtual Conference Company (http://www.virtual-conference.com/), for example, runs targeted virtual conferences for companies and organizations. MCB University Press, our beloved publisher, has been running virtual conferences since 1995, sponsored by its journals, the proceedings written-up by the convenors and published in the sponsoring journal.

It has been found, however, that virtual conferencing follows along the same lines as ones in reality ­ the convenors end up doing all the talking and the delegates simply listen, not contributing to the discussion. MCB are trying to break the mould and make virtual conferences as successful as newsgroups and mailing lists.

With all this talk of virtual conferencing, and Internet research being at the cutting-edge of Internet technology, you'd think we would run one ourselves, right? Correct!

The Literati Club, MCB's group of authors who have contributed to MCB journals, is running the Virtual Luncheon 1998 sponsored by Internet research, to coincide with its face-to-face luncheon in London on 30 April 1998.

Containing a number of sub-themes, the conference aims to define the role and impact of the Internet and Internet editors to publishing strategy and delivery worldwide. The conference is a Web-based discussion with contributions posted to an e-mail list.

If you are interested in the conference, we encourage you to visit the site and contribute. Subscribe to the e-mail list, read the themes and submissions within, then post your message. Conference proceedings will be written-up and published in this journal ­ it is your opportunity to contribute towards the future of electronic publishing and virtual conferencing.

In other news Microsoft, in its continuing battle with the Department of Justice in the USA, has had some good fortune. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the "special master" in charge of fact-finding and reporting in the case, Lawrence Lessig, should be suspended. Microsoft called for Lessig to be suspended at the end of 1997 because he seemed to be prejudiced against the company, but was ruled against.

The case is still ongoing. Hearings will be carried out throughout Q1 1998 and are expected to continue well towards the end of the year.