Usenet world is a continuously changing reality. Any report on this topic may be related only to a restricted time. Even the number of newsgroups are difficult to definite, because they are disseminated on thousand of servers and no one news-reader let us to access all.

We have collected some data on NG by connecting to various news-readers and consulting some public archives and the lists of NG posted on Usenet.

So we have detected 210 Neurosciences related NG ( approximately less than 1 % of all estimated NG). Among these, 43 can be of interest for neurologists.

The quality of messages is higher in the moderated NG: among the only 10 we collected as moderated, two are of support for patients.

All others NG are unmoderated ( we have not retrieved a precise indication).

Can actually Usenet actually contribute to the diffusion of the professional information in Neurosciences ? In some moderated NG the content is sometime of interest, but the level is fair low. The only useful contribute is the easy diffusion of announcements of Congress programs and Journal contents.

What Neuroscientist need ?

• at least one moderate professional NG for clinical Neurology
• a professional NG specific for Clinical Neurophysiology
• a clear suddivision of contents among professional and not professional NG

Pro and contra

Usenet, like any other area in Internet is easily accessible to all people. There is an easier access to Usenet than to any other information source (Television, Newspapers), but even written information can't be restricted to a selected people. So, we think there is no reason to refuse this media to spread scientific contents.

Case reports, is the more sensitive matter in the Usenet world. Detailed informations must not to be of public domain, so that clinical case debates are not reliable. More generic search of help can be a useful service of Usenet.

Usenet advantages versus WEB sites.

Everyone may publish easily. The grouping of informations means a great visibililty and easy access while in the WWW we can research every documents in their own site.

Mailing Lists (ML).

The use of electronic mailing lists (ML) is a growing phenomenon. Hundreds of these are devoted to psycology and psychiatry and other hundreds to neurology; part of these supported patients and their families, the other are reserved to professionals; some are all-comprehensive and other devoted to specific patologies.

Only one ML is specifically devoted to Clinical Neurophysiology:

Many lists are generically devoted to Neurology, others to a particular neurological or related interesting fields.

It seems that professional lists (in the field of neuroscience) are useful not only for patient support. This may be a mistake, because the retrieval of ML is difficult and a great amount of private support ML are not indexable.

Some considerations on NG and ML.

So called Usenet Newsgroups (NG, actually more than 30.000), represents today a controverse medium, mainly for the growing of spam, inappropriate postings and the poor quality of messages. It remain the preferred mainly for a wide diffusion of announces. Many hundred are of medical interest, but the majority serve as support to the patients; rarely are a tool for neuroscientists.
The Neuroscientist community dislike Usenet world (the most consistent trash of internet) and seems to use poorly ML (continue to prefer traditional ways of communication), but to our opinion Neuroscientist can consider ML and NG "another new" ways of communication not "an alternative" way of communication even in overcoming some traditional gaps (time, costs, distances). To enhance the value and role of electronic communication we hope: for NG, moderation in all cases, more specificity in information flow, adding images in messages body; for ML: become the heart of internet comunity, be the official channel for comunication in scientific Associations, propose more discussions on specific arguments.

Technical improvement of access procedures and speeding od transmision can enhance diffusion and use.

As clinical neurophysiologist, we need to know and to access to these important resources of the Net, shared among all the field of neurosciences.