The amount of information shared daily in the thousands of usenet newsgroups is extremely vast. Luckily, there are many high-quality newsreaders that allow for quick sorting and finding of the desired subject. Since newsgroups are arranged hierarchically, it is easy to find certain groups. For example if someone was looking for information on artificial intelligence, they would look under the computer (comp) hierarchy and find comp.ai. However, in some cases it is not that simple. When searching for virtual reality, it was discovered that there was no appropriate listing under the comp hierarchy. The only plausible reference was found after searching for the word 'virtual' in a listing of all groups, which returned sci.virtual-worlds.
Sci.virtual-worlds is a moderated, general discussion area regarding virtual reality technology. Unfortunately, as is the case with news, you only get what is served on your plate. At present, the vast majority of the articles in the group relate to certain games and hardware products available for sale. Nonetheless, the effort was not completely fruitless. In one of the postings was a URL for the FAQ, which outlined the purpose of the newsgroup and also provided a link to the reference FAQ. This reference FAQ provided, in turn, various links to related readings concerning virtual reality.
Given the brief time frame involved in this research, Usenet news is not really a practical tool to use. If time were not a concern, this facility would allow for useful interaction with a group of people that are knowledgeable in the subject. This kind of interaction would definitely permit a richer understanding of the matter, given that one is not just reading someone else's ideas, but is also able to pose questions to clarify any misunderstandings or new angles.