ORTHO BYTES

The use of computers, computer programs, and other computerized equipment to assist in the orthodontic practice will be reported under this section of the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics. Manuscripts, comments, and reprint requests, unless otherwise noted, may be submitted to Dr Martin Abelson, 14720 N Shotgun PI, Tucson, AZ 85737; e:mail docabelson@juno.com

Electronic communication and discussion forums: News groups and mailing lists

Yossi Bar-Zion, DDsa Gainesville, Fla

Information dissemination and accessibility is of great importance in science-related and health-related fields. As clinicians we tend to rely on various avenues of conven­tional information distribution: books, journals, publica­tions, and recently World Wide Web pages. Although these distribution methods do provide an excellent medium for dissemination of bulk information, they allow very little in the way of reader interaction, feedback, and colleague dis­cussions.

With the growing popularity of computers and computer users, more and more individuals are looking into cyberspace for information. In dentistry, and specifically in orthodontics, colleague communication with respect to a broad range of issues is vital and invaluable. Such issues may range from experiences with new materials to patient management issues. Given the opportunity for rapid communication, we could benefit from the experience of others as well as con­tribute our own. Such a forum for colleague communication is available through the growing use of electronic discussion groups.

Electronic discussion groups allow individuals to exchange information via electronic cyber-channels. The ser­vices are set up to permit all subscribers to contribute, review, and reply to any of the group's topics. There are two main types of electronic discussion groups: News groups and Mail­ing lists.

NEWS GROUPS

News groups are a service in which messages are sent to and stored on a designated server. The news group center is accessed through a newsreader and requires a "news feed" from the local Internet Service Provider (lSP). Although most ISPs offer news feed, some do not. Individuals who want to access the news groups but do not have news feed available, may access the group using a World Wide Web Gate (WWW Gate).

For practical purposes news groups are much like bulletin boards. There is a specific interest for the board and all indi-

"Orthodontic reSident, College of Dentistry, University of Florida; and modera­tor of the Orthodontic Resident Communication Forum mailing list. Reprint requests to:, Yossi Bar-Zion. DDS, Department of Orthodontics, Col­lege of Dentistry, University of Florida, Box 1004444, JHMHC, Gainesville, FL 32610-0444; e-mail, ybarzion@dental.ufl.edu

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viduals with related interest can reply or post messages to the board. Each posted message has a topic, and when the read­er notices a topic of interest, he or she can access and read that message. If a specific reply is made to a posted message, it will be organized with respect to the original message in a stacked manner known as threads.

The most popular and practical way to participate in news groups is via the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP). NNTP uses a discussion group software that sorts discussions based on subject titles (threads). Options in the discussion group software allow the user to control such things as whether all the articles in the news group will be visible, or perhaps only the new articles that have appeared since the last time the news group was accessed.

Another option for participating in news group discus­sion for people who don't have or don't like to use the dis­cussion group software is the WWW Gate. The WWW Gate is a web interface to the discussion group that enables the user to participate in news group discussion through the use of their web browser software. Accessing the groups through the WWW Gate may present some potential inconveniences such as inability to suppress the display of articles already read. These inconveniences may prove to be rather minor as the newer browser software can be configured to facilitate reasonable integration between the browser software and the WWWGate.

Using news groups

To begin using the news groups, the user needs a con­figured newsreader or NNTP, a WWW Gate, and the news group's electronic address. The software necessary may include Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Outlook Express, or other mail reader software for the Network News Transport Protocol, or a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or others for the WWW Gate linkup. (These programs may be pur­chased from a software distributor, available as free/share­ware on the Internet, or may be included with the present operating system).

Configurations for the NNTP newsreader software are often unique and are usually specific to the ISP's specifica­tions. Information as well as instructions for configuring your NNTP news reader are often found on the ISP's home page, and can also be obtained by contacting the ISP's tech support.

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Table I. Functions and commands of popular automated mailing lists hosts

Function Listserv

Subscribe subscribe [listname] f.name l.name Unsubscribe unsubscribe [listname]

Digest set[listname] digest

Cancel Digest set [listname] nodigest Stop mail set [listname] nomail

Resume mail set [listname] mail

Subscribers list review [listname]

Receive copy of posts set [listname] repro

Table II. News groups and mailing lists search engines

Search engine address News-group search

http://WWW.DEJANEWS.COM Yes http://WWW.SUPERNEWS.COM Yes

http://WWW.REFERENCE.COM Yes http://WWW.TILE.NET Yes http://WWW.LSOFf.COM No

http://WWW.LISZT.COM No

MAILING LISTS

Mailing lists are essentially a centralized "bulk" electron­ic mailing and are simply a method for many people to get the same message at the same time. A mainframe computer, using a special software package, manages most mailing lists. The list owner, or moderator, preprograms certain commands that tell the mainframe computer how to manage all incom­ing and outgoing mail, subscribers' preferences, and general operation of the mailing list.

Basically, all mailing lists work the same way. A list of subscribers is stored along with their specific mail-receiving preferences. When mail is sent to the list, it automatically gets sent to all of the list's subscribers. An important advan­tage of mailing lists is the fact that participation is by way of an e-mail account. This makes it suitable not only for indi­viduals using conventional accounts from pay ISP, but also allows users of free e-mail accounts, such as JUNO, 1 to access these types of discussion groups.

For mailing lists to work there needs to be some sort of way to distribute the messages. One way is to have an indi­vidual manually send out the list. Another, and the most com­mon, is to have a computer manage the list. Automated lists are controlled by one of three popular software applications: listserv, listproc, and majordomo. The differences between the three are rather technical with respect to how they man­age the list, their operation, and user interface, however, they are all somewhat similar.

Automated mailing lists have two separate e-mail addresses: one for the list's automated administrator to which all commands are sent (such as subscribing, un-sub­scribing, preferred way of receiving mail, etc), and a second

Listproc Majordomo

same as listserv subscribe [iistname] e-mail same as listserv unsubscribe [listname] set [listname] mail digest subscribe [listname ]-digest set [Iistname] mail nodigest unsubscribe [listname ]-digest set [listname] mail postpone N/A set [Iistname] mail ack N/A recipients [listname] who [listname] set [listname] mail ack N/A

Mailing-lists search Allows WWWgate

No Yes No Yes

Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No

address for the list itself to which all mail gets sent. It may appear confusing at first, however, it is important to send commands to one and mail to the other so it is imperative to distinguish between the two. The Jist itself, to which mail gets sent to, starts with the list name followed by the @ sign (for example: listname@domain.com) while the automated administrator's address begins with either listserv, listproc, or majordomo.

Using mailing lists

To join a mailing list the user must subscribe to the list by sending a subscribe command to the automated administra­tor's address:

TO: administrator's_address@domain.suffix SUBJECT: Leave this line blank. MESSAGE: SUBSCRIBE listname yourfirstname yourlastname

All commands are sent in this manner. Some lists require confirmation. If one subscribes to such a list, a message will soon be sent back to the subscriber asking them if they indeed want to join the list, to which a reply of "OK" is sent back to confirm the subscription (detailed instructions are sent along with the confirmation request). This is done to ensure that the subscription request is in fact valid and that mail will not be sent to an invalid address. Most subscription confirmations must be replied to within a few days, otherwise the user will have to resubscribe. After the confirmation request reply, the subscriber will receive a "welcome" message, briefly describing the list and its general commands.

Once subscribed, all messages posted to the list will auto-

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Table III. Dentistry-related mailing lists with orthodontics relevance

List name List's subject area Automated administrator

ORTHOD-L ORTHORES-L DENTAL-SLEEP CBR-L

Electronic Study Club for Orthodontics2

Orthodontic Residents Communication Forum Dentistry's role-sleep-breathing disorders Craniofacial biology

listproc@usc.edu listserv@lists.ufl.edu listserv@idf.stat.com majordomo@po.cwru.edu mailserv@ldc.lu.se listserv@grizzly.uc1a.edu listserv@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu listserv@idf.stat.com listserv@idf.stat.com listproc@bite.db.uth.trnc.edu

FORDENT ORADLIST BBOPLIST DENTAL-STAFF MANAGED-CARE DENTAL_CE

Forensic dentistry Oral diagnosis Bulletin board of oral pathology Dental staff mailing list Discussion in dentistry Dental continuing education

matically be sent to the subscriber. To receive the messages, the subscriber needs to check for new mail, and the new mes­sages can be accessed from the mail reader's in-box. To reply to any message, one can either select the reply option on their mail reader or send a new message to the list:

TO: liscname@domain.suffix SUBJECT: Topic of new message MESSAGE: The body of the message

Subscribers may want to modify the way they receive messages. For example, the mailing list may be set to send out all mail as it arrives. This could result in an overwhelm­ing daily flood of e-mail messages and may prove to be quite bothersome. This could be avoided by subscribing to the digest version, if one is available. A digest is the compilation of all the messages that are received by the group sent out in one document. The same messages are still received, but they'll be packed into a single e-mail per digest period, most often daily. Additional user controlled settings include the option to receive a copy of posted mail, receiving acknowl­edgement of posted mail, reviewing the list of subscribers, temporarily stopping mail, or un-subscribing. Table I lists user commands and their function. While Listserv is the most common type of mailing lists administrator, the commands for Listproc and Majordomo managed lists are also included (Table I). Note that [listname] should be replaced with the list's name without the brackets.

Searching for news groups and mailing lists

Currently there are several WWW driven search engines for news groups and mailing lists. The search is performed with respect to the group's name as well as topics of the post­ed messages. This allows for a broad search for groups of interest, however, it also identifies groups that may not be of any relevance. Some of the search engines, listed in Table II, may also be used for WWW Gate news groups viewing.

For news groups' search engines that allow WWW gate viewing, the news group will be highlighted in blue, which represents a link to the group. A bookmark could then be cre­ated to log onto the news group directly. The search engine for mailing lists will display both the automated computer­ized administrator address as well as the list's name. To sub-

scribe the commands need to be sent to the administrator's address as previously described.

News groups and mailing lists of orthodontic relevance

Dentistry related news groups include the following: med.dentistry; han.scLdentistry; ntu.dep.dentistry; and sci.med.dentistry.

At this time there are only a few dentistry-related news groups with topics that may be of interest to orthodontists. These news groups carry a wide variety of topics related to all dental specialties, as well as entries from patients and questions from the general public. The mailing lists, howev­er, are more topic specific and are more consistent with the specified subject (Table III).

Some of the mailing lists described in Table III experience quite a bit of "traffic," and the user may want to set their sub­scription to digest. Some mail reader software may not be able to interpret the digest format sent from certain mailing lists. If you experience such a problem, you may need to change the digest setting to a different format, or contact the list's mod­erator. Changing the format is accomplished by mailing the following command to the list's automated administrator's address: set listname nomime. Most mailing lists automatical­ly detect the user's mail reader software capabilities and set the digest's format accordingly.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

With the rapid increase of computers and computer users it is inevitable that such communication forums may some­day dominate conventional methods. These discussion groups are economical, rapid, and can potentially attract a broader spectrum of subscribers. It's not uncommon for a dentistry-related discussion group to have subscribers of var­ious dental specialties, contributing their associated perspec­tives on a common subject. This type of interaction is rarely seen in a discipline-specific journal.

The news groups, specifically, may have greater future potential not only in colleague discussions, but also in edu­cating the general public by responding to their posted questions. With the potential of restricting the news groups

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to membership viewing and postings, and with the growing popularity of computer users, we may see a shift from mail­ing lists toward news groups. Mailing lists, on the other hand, are easier to maintain and can be manually adminis­tered. Manually administered mailing lists are ideal not only for smaller scope specific discussion groups, but could also potentially be used to disseminate information to all patients of a certain orthodontic practice, much in the same way of a newsletter, only with the added potential for patient interaction.

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What the future may hold for electronic discussion forums is difficult to predict while in the midst of this infor­mation revolution. Perhaps the best way to find out is keep current with the growing trend, slowly adapting to new inno­vations, and avoiding one day becoming overwhelmed by giant technological leaps.

REFERENCES

1. Abelson MN. Potpoum Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 1998;114:110-3. 2 Zerruk JH The ElectroDlC Study Club and electronic media In orthodontiCS Am J

Orthod Dentofaclal Orthop 1996;109.454-6.

Notice to Potential OrthoBytes Column Contributors

The ubiquitous computer is now used in almost every phase of orthodontic practice. New techniques and uses are being uncovered every day. The AJOIDO solicits contributions from readers and practice manage­ment services that can enhance the efficiency of patient care. If you have a particular use that you feel other practices might benefit from, send it in a 700 to 1200 word double-spaced document with an accompanying disk to Dr Martin Abelson, AJOIDO Ortho Bytes Editor, 14720 North Shotgun Place, Tucson, Arizona 85737 or e-mail docabelson@juno.com