A mailing list on the Internet is a program that distributes a copy of every electronic
mail (E mail) that the program receives to everyone who has subscribed to the list. You
use E mail to subscribe to the mailing list, and to ask for help, cancel your subscription,
and a variety of other things. Some mailing lists are moderated (someone reviews
each E mail received to determine if it is appropriate material for the discussion group
before the E mail is distributed to everyone on the mailing list). Others are not
moderated (everything goes directly to everyone on the mailing list).
The barley Newsgroup is a moderated group and this introduces a significant level of
additional complexity. Non moderated news groups are accessible to all Internet users
and all postings sent are posted immediately. Postings are not immediately posted in
moderated newsgroups. The posting goes to the host news computer which sends a
message to the moderator. The moderator reads and approves the posting before it
actually posts.
The Barley project implemented both a Newsgroup (ab.gov.agriculture.barley) and a
mail Listserv (barley_l). The Newsgroup purpose was to allow for a retained repository
of barley related information. Interested farmers, etc. could post information and
discuss issues among themselves. News information was to remain on the computer
system for weeks, to allow farmers to track an information discussion. New farmers
could "join" the newsgroup at anytime and be able to read past postings. The host
newsgroup computer stored information postings. There were a number of difficulties
in making this feature functional. As a result the newsgroup started to late in the
project to be properly evaluated.
The mail Listserv provided a way for interested participants to "subscribe" to an
information service and a computer would forward mailings, like E-mail, to all
subscribers. Subscribers received this E-mail and could save it on their own
computers. The listserver became active in mid-July.
Software Alberta Society (SAS) together with Price Waterhouse, implemented barley_l
on SAS computers. APWSS implemented the Newsgroup on APWSS computers. Both
services still reside on the initial host computers at SAS and APWSS. The AFRD WEB
home page has a "discussion group" link to both our Listsrv and our Newsgroup. This
link assists users to subscribe to services and explains the services.
It was relatively easy to implement the Listserv. Some farmers had difficulty
understanding the SUBSCRIBE procedures, but with AFRD assistance, farmers were
soon posting messages and receiving Listserv mail.
It was not easy to implement the Newsgroup. This was a learning experience for both
AFRD, APWSS and all others involved in the barley project. Implementing our
newsgroup required that:
major news feed providers be notified of the new group. If this is not done, a
newsgroup does not propagate throughout the Internet. APWSS handled this
notification and alerted U of Alberta.
a line of code be placed in service provider news software. This was not
understood early in the implementation and was only recently completed for
Alberta Supernet and CCInet. How to notify service providers outside the barley
project scope is unknown at this time. It would be an impossible task to alert all
providers around the world.
APWSS develop software to notify the barley newsgroup moderator that a
posting had been received.
ITSD develop a procedure and process to read the post on the AS/400, to
determine whether or not to approve the posting, then connect to the APWSS
server to actually approve and post the posting.
ITSD acquire software in order to connect the PC workstation to the APWSS
UNIX server for the approval process.
In project barley, an additional element was introduced in that the newsgroup
moderator was not connected to the host APWSS UNIX computer, rather used AS/400
facilities. The APWSS machine sends a message to the AS/400 alerting the moderator
that a posting was received. This operation was not as simple as initially expected.
Several weeks were required for staff to develop and implement the software to
communicate postings to the AS/400. The software was not in place until early August.
Currently postings can only be received from the gov.ab.ca domain and from Alberta
Supernet and CCInet customers. Any Internet user can read posted articles. It is
necessary to discuss the moderated posting procedures with the Internet Society
before postings can be received from other Internet users. Using a moderated
newsgroup is not a well understood process, APWSS contacted several companies but
was not able to obtain assistance. This is a learning process and is not yet complete.
