JV Valdez

Dealing with a health condition is often hard especially if it is a serious or rare illness. Bonding with someone who is going through a similar state can create a world of difference. Usenet is an excellent venue to make that connection. With numerous newsgroups catering to every medical field and condition, it is easy to find a group that can hear you out and give you advice.

In 1979 two students from Duke University envisioned a network to send email and transfer files in a structured approach under topical groupings similar to a forum. The duo teamed up with another student from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to put up three computer sites which they tagged as the ‘poor man's ARPANET' in what is to become as the first three groups on Usenet. Today this online community has evolved into a vast network of newsgroups catering to every interest.

The celebrated case in 2008 initiated by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in coercing the five biggest ISPs in America to curb access to numerous newsgroups or even the entire Usenet society had practically maimed this online community. The goal was to stamp out child pornography. Of course, Usenet traditionalists block this extreme measure. For Usenet to forsake its unsavory repute caused by a minority it has to police itself. Filtering keywords employed by its users is a good step.

Child pornography is a worrying issue that has pulled down the repute of many licit Usenet newsgroups. Authorities and newsgroup advocates have clashed opinions about the latter's legitimacy, but the real culprits are child porn contributors that have silently flouted the three legislations passed in 1996 and 1998 to protect the rights of children online. This multi-billion dollar problem calls for a blockage and to achieve this a filtering system at the administrator level is called for.

Don't count Usenet out just yet. While doomsayers have been spelling its demise for the past decade, Usenet has proven that it is organic, capable of adapting to the times. The layman is particularly averse to the complicated language related to it—codes, protocol and the Usenet reader. To make it appealing to the uninitiated, and to sustain its relationship with its loyal subscribers, web based Usenet came into being. Now readers can just pull up a browser and make it the Usenet browser.