Internet commentary

Citation

Andrew, A.M. (2002), "Internet commentary", Kybernetes, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2002.06731aag.001

Internet commentary

Keywords: Mailbase, Cyperspace-and-society, London-AI, British Library, Medicine, Search engines, YAG laser, Cancer

AbstractWays of obtaining medical information from the Internet are reviewed. These include standard online reference works such as the Merck Manual, and less formal sites devoted to particular diseases, as well as the Medscape facility for disseminating research findings. Reference is made to a new book on the topic of which a review will also be prepared. Changes in the arrangements for the UK Mailbase are outlined, with particular reference to the cyberspace-and- society list and the London-AI one. The availability of free Internet access from the British Library is discussed, along with details of a new copy of the WOSC website in web space provided within this facility. Two other subdivisions of the same personal website are introduced.

Medical information

The Internet has many sources of medical information, and anyone having access to it is likely to want at some time to track down items having a bearing on ailments of friends and relations and possibly her/himself. When this source of medical information was discussed recently on television, a doctor interviewed was not embarrassed to admit that her patients who used the Internet were sometimes better informed than she was on a specific complaint. That this is no reflection on her competence is shown by the figures given by James (1995) indicating the vast number of ways the living system can malfunction.

It is often useful, or at least comforting, to check on the details of prescribed drugs, since all drugs have effects additional to the intended remedial action. A useful printed reference is Parfitt (1999), but the Internet gives access to essentially the same information in various locations, and for example the Merck Manual Home Edition can be searched at: http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual-home/search.htrn.

It is often not necessary to choose a specific source such as this, and simply submitting the name of a disease or drug to a standard search engine usually produces useful results. Often, in fact, this leads to a relevant page of a source such as the Merck Manual, showing that these sources have been comprehensively linked to the search engines.

A search engine I have found to be convenient and effective, though it is one among many, is that incorporated in the home page of the Freeserve ISP, at: http://www.freeserve.net/. This can be used irrespective of whether access is through Freeserve or another ISP. However, to initiate a search with a focus on medical resources it can be advantageous to use the Yahoo facility at http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/, or the British Library collection of medical sources at: http://www.britishlibrary.net/medicine.html. A quite overwhelming amount of material is available at the latter. Other medical resources are given by Kiley (2000).

Medical topics can have strong commercial implications, as I became aware when, at the request of a friend, I looked into the treatment of cataract of the eye by what is termed a YAG laser. The laser treatment is sometimes needed some time after an initial cataract operation has been performed, to puncture a film that can form under the lens, obscuring vision. Many of the sites that were found by a search belonged to American clinics claiming to be able to provide laser treatment (both for this eye condition and for a skin condition) with comfort and effectiveness.

Despite the commercial bias, all the information at these sites seemed to be valid, and my friend was encouraged to have the laser treatment, which was carried out virtually instantaneously and successfully and without pain or discomfort. Two useful sites givingdetails are: http://www.steen-hall.com/treatcat.html and http://www.eyesearch.com/yag.laser.capsulotomy.htm.

Strangely, none of the sites explained the meaning of the acronym YAG. It in fact denotes the material of the laser, as yttrium aluminium garnet, allowing generation of pulses of suitable infrared radiation.

Support groups

Apart from sources of "hard" medical information, there are sites associated with charities concerned with particular diseases, and others maintained by individuals. These provide a very useful service, with social and general newsletter features. One admirable example is an American site associated with a fortunately rare complaint similar to Parkinsons disease, termed Multiple System Atrophy, or striato-nigral degeneration or Shy–Drager Syndrome (because an early paper describing it was by workers called Shy and Drager).

The site, at: http://www.hooked.net/~ccjm/shy-drager/links.html, is maintained by someone called Jeff whose father died from the disease, and it provides social contacts as well as news from relevant medical conferences and links to other sites. In Britain, an organisation giving information and support is the Sarah Matheson Trust, with the website: http://glaxocentre.merseyside.org/msa2.html. My reason for looking into this particular rare disease is that a distant relative has had the great misfortune to contract it.

The Internet Tourbus for 13th November 2000 refers to some websites associated with cancer. Alternate issues of the Tourbus areproduced by Bob Rankin and Patrick Douglas Crispen, and this one is by the latter. Patrick was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago, and recovered, and with each of his Tourbuses between October 16 (the anniversary of his diagnosis) and December 24 (that of his last dose of chemotherapy) he will review a selection of websites associated with cancer. Many of these are run by admirable people who are living with cancer and able to give encouragement and support to other victims. Details and archives of the Tourbuscan be found at http://www.TOURBUS.com.

Medscape

To receive information on research developments, it is possible to "subscribe" (free of charge) to Medscape, under any of a number of specialities, of which Neurology is the most relevant to Cybemetics. This is a facility for dissemination of new findings rather than for general consultation. A subscriber receives automatic periodic e-mail postings, and is invited to edit a personal "profile" so that the content of the postings can be matched to his interests. The entries in the postings consist of very brief summaries along with web addresses to be accessed for further details.

An address to obtain details of this valuable service is: http://www.medscape.com/profile.

New book

An extremely comprehensive book on medical information on the Internet is by Kiley (2000) and will be reviewed in Kybernetes. It is aimed at health professionals, so is mainly concerned with sources of "hard" information, rather than with, for example, listing of informal support groups. In any case, the nature of the Internet is such that informal groups may come and go, and it is more useful to introduce readers to search engines so that they can explore for themselves, and this Kiley does. Also, despite his focus on professionals, the second edition of the book has a chapter on consumer health information that includes, for instance, sites where a patient can obtain help in contacting others suffering from the same disease.

An important aspect treated in the book is the reliability of information on the Internet. Inevitably, given that it is not regulated in any way, there are some completely dishonest sites, as well as some that are set up in good faith but may not be well founded. There are also sources, including some associated with major drug companies, where the information, though probably not actually wrong, comes from a source that has an undeclared commercial interest. All of these aspects are investigated and discussed by Kiley. With care, a great deal of useful medical information can be obtained from the Internet.

Changes to Mailbase

Changes in the arrangements for the UK Mailbase are announced in a message from Steve Rennie, owner of the cyberspace-and society list, in a message circulated to members of that list on 2nd November 2000 The message was an advance notice that the changes would come into effect on 27th November. There will however be a sixmonth "handover" period from that date, presumably till late May 2001, during which the old addresses can be used and messages will be forwarded automatically. The changes are described with reference to the cyberspaceand-society list, but apply to all lists hosted by mailbase, of which the other that has received particular attention here is the extremely useful London-AI list.

Mailbase is now to be managed by JISC, standing for Joint Information Systems Committee, under auspices of the CLRC or Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, based at the Appleton-Rutherford Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire. Information on JISC can be found on their homepage at http://www.jisc.ac.uk, and information referring specifically to the transfer of the Mailbase facilities is at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/transition.htm.

The changes in procedure are quite simple as far as subscribers to the lists, and enquirers wanting to consult the archives, are concerned. (For list owners or prospective list owners there are some slight extra complications.) To send messages for distribution to the cyberspace and society list the address to be used is now: cyberspace-and-society@jiscmail.ac.uk instead of the earlier version with "mailbase" instead of "jiscmail".

Messages to the list owner, not for automatic distribution, go to: cyberspace-and-society-request@jiscmail.ac.uk, and user commands, for such purposes as joining or leaving lists (subscribing or unsubscribing) should be sent to: jiscmail@jiscmail.ac.uk. There are some minor changes to the commands to be used, as mentioned below.

Likewise, the web address for archives of the list is now: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyberspace-andsociety instead of the earlier version with "mailbase" instead of "jiscmail".

London-AI

The London-AI list is slightly different in that its main throughput is not automatically distributed as submitted but is assembled into a calendar of events, as a valuable public service, by the list owner, Sunny Bains. Messages about events to be included (referring not only to London itself but to the wider area including Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford, Reading etc.) should therefore be sent to: london-airequest@.jiscmail.ac.uk.

The calendar automatically gives inforrmtion on events initiated by the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence the Simulation of Behaviour (with its own website at: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/aisb/index.html) and the UK Cyberneties Society with website: http://www.eybsoc.org/.

Subscribers to the list receive periodic updates of the calendar of events. A home page, which includes a copy of this calendar and other relevant informalon, is at: http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~sbalns/londonai/index.html. The fact that this is associated with the University of Chicago, although the list refers to the London aga, emphasises the international character of the Internet. The home page with this address is for London-AI only, and Sunny Bains has her own domain name and home page at: http://www.sunnybains.com. Clicking on a "London-Al link within the latter opens the page hosted by the University of Chicago. The Sunny Bains home page contains a great deal of other interesting information relevant to optoelectronics and fundamental issues in computing.

Details of changes

Some of the user commands to be sent to the address: iisccmail@jiscmail.ac.uk now have to be formed somewhat differently. To suspend mail from a list the command is now: "set LISTNAME nomai1" instead of: "suspend mail LISTNAME" and to resume the command is: "set LISTNAME mail" instead of: "resume mail LISTNAME". The changes are all made clear on a reference card that http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/ref-downloaded and printed from the address: cards. htm.

Three reference cards are offered, each with the option of downloading in Acrobat, HTML or Word format. In each case, the Acrobat version consists of two pages, meant to be printed on both sides of an A4 sheet that can then be folded in three to make a handy reference slip. One card is a guide for users (or subscribers), and another is directed at list owners, while the third deals with rather more specialised topics connected with managerrent of files associated with lists. One particular change noted in the card aimed at users is in the means of terminating a list of commands. There is actually no need for a special termination if the body of thee-mail consists exclusively of command lines, but if the message ends with an automatic signature the list of commands has to be terminated first. For the original Mailbase, termination was by a line containing the word: "stop", but the new convention is a line with the pair of symbols: "––" (without the quotes), i.e. two dashes as normally used as hyphens.

List owners

The reference card aimed at list owners indicates a formidable set of options for specification of list management, such that a list can have not only one or more owners, but possibly separate editors and moderators and someone supervising what goes into the archives, as well as means of controlling membership (since not all lists are open).

It is emphasised that all lists are subject to review by JISC and must facilitate discussion of high quality that benefits higher education (HE), further education (FE), and research in the UK. The principal list owner should be employed by a UK institution concerned with HE or FE, or a Research Council, normally with an "ac.uk" style e-mail address. A significant proportion of members of any list should have similar affiliations.

JISC is prepared to consider setting up lists that do not fulfil these conditions, for payment. Details of this can be found at: http://www.jisemail.ac.uk/docs/newlistpay.html.

LISTSERV^®

In its new form, the "works" of Mailbase is the software package denoted by the registered trade name LISTSERV^®, from L-soft international, Inc. Information on this package and on the company, including comprehensive manuals to be consulted online or downloaded, is given on the website: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/index.html.

The term "LISTSERV" refers specifically to this powerful and widely-used package, and is not, as sometimes assumed, a jargon term for any scheme for automated management of discussion lists. The first version of LISTSERV^® was written in 1986 by Eric Thomas who is now L-softs Manager of Technical Services.

British Library ISP

The British Library now offers free access to the Internet. This is of course in addition to various other free Internet Service Providers, of which the best known is Freeserve. I have to report that in the limited use I have made of Freeserve it has been highly satisfactory, but the British Library option has the attraction of its pleasant academic association. An added attraction is that the British Library home page gives ready access to a vast amount of reference material (though in this respect the advantage of actually registering with the British Library is marginal since the home page at: http://www.britishlibrary.net can be opened using a connection through any ISP).

The simplest way to register is by getting the appropriate CD ROM from the Library, either by requesting it in person at the reception desk or by applying to thee-mail address: BritishLibrary-net@bl.uk company Easynet, of which details can be found by following a link from the website: http://www.bl.uk/.

Like many other ISPs, the British Library one offers free web slace, and the WOSC http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alexandrew/wosc.htm has been copied (with some minor enhancements) to the address: http://pages.britishlibrary.net/alexandrew/wosc.htm. A personal home page can be found using the same address shorn of the "wosc.htm", and other subdivisions can be reached by following links from this or by replacing "wosc" in the first address by either "phyto" or "wayne".

The "phyto" page refers to the English-language journal of the Russian Phytopathological Society (J. Russ. Phytopath. Soc), and the "wayne" page to the adventures of a young man who set out to travel round the world by motor cycle. The topic of phytopathology, or plant disease, is strongly linked to mycology, which was treated in a recent Commentary. The adventures of Wayne Sibley have no strong connection with Cybernetics but make exciting and interesting reading.

Alex M. Andrew