Add to this soc.culture.japan on Usenet, the BITNET discussion list
JAPAN@NDSUVM1, the Japan Forum on CompuServe, and "JAPAN" on
RelayNet.
Did you say the former "Soviet Union?" Here are phone numbers
to some "local" bulletin board systems:
Moscow Fair (Moscow): +7 095 366 5209
SUEARN NIC BBS (Moscow): +7 095 938 3618
Kreit BBS (Leningrad): +7 812 112 2611
Amber Way BBS (Vilnius, Lithuania): +7 012 222 7194
UFO BBS (Riga, Latvia): +7 013 232 3983
Post Square #1 (Kiev, Ukrain): +7 044 417 5700
BITNET club TRAVEL-L (TRAVEL-L@TREARN) for those interested in tourism. ILINK and The Well have conferences under the name TRAVEL. Many conferences in online land concentrate on particular parts of the world. BALT-L@UBVM.BITNET is focusing on the Baltic states. In AFRICA-L@BRUFPB.BITNET they discuss Africa. On Usenet, the news group is called soc.culture.african. To brush up your Portuguese, consider joining BRAS-NET, It is a Brazilian mailing list/network. Send your subscription request to bras-net-request@cs.ucla.edu . For general information about other Brazilian interest groups, write LISTSERV@FAPQ.FAPESP.BR . For those who are into Spanish, why not check out CHILE-L (at LISTSERV@USACHVM1.BITNET), or FOLLAC, a mailing list about 'Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano y Caribeno'. To join, write Emily Socolov at owner-follac@ccwf.cc.texas.edu . Here are some other African sources: the French language Algeria News List (ALGNEWS) is on LISTSERV@gwuvm.gwu.edu. TUNISNET (on LISTSERV@psuvm.psu.edu) is The Tunisia Network. EGYPT-NET (write: egypt-net-request@das.harvard.edu) is the Egypt Discussion and News forum. Send mail to mcgee@epsilon.eecs.nwu.edu to get a list of Internet/Bitnet mailing lists that focus on African, African- American, African-Caribbean or African-Latin issues, and a list of African information sites. In the soc.culture hierarchy on Usenet, you'll find area codes like asian, african, arabic, asean, australian, bangladesh, british, canada, china, celtic, europe, filipino, french, german, greek, hongkong, indian, iranian, italian, jewish, korean, latin- american, lebanon, magyar, nepal, new-zealand, nordic, pakistan, polish, soviet, spain, sri-lanka, taiwan, thai, turkish, vietnamese and yugoslavia. In "argentina," you can read about how to make empanadas while sharpening up your Spanish before visiting Buenos Aires. (Contact: argentina-request@ois.db.toronto.edu). CompuServe's Travel Forum has sections called United States, Canada, Mexico/Central America, Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa/Middle East and Hawaii. If you're off to London, check out the UK Travel section in CompuServe's UK Computing Forum. Its library contains files with tips about affordable hotels, British road signs, and a list of London theatre shows with ticket-buying tips. If your destination is Germany, practice Deutch in the Deutches Forum (GO GERNET). Search for additional background information using CompuServe's Magazine Database Plus, if you don't mind paying a wee surcharge. Look up places to stay in the ABC Worldwide Hotel Listing. On America Online, you can research National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler Magazines online. You can look up your destination in the electronic Comptons Encyclopedia. GEnie has a Japan RoundTable and a Deutchland RoundTable. Both provide for interaction with users from those respective countries. If you are responsible for your company's business travels, check out the following newsletters on NewsNet: BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS, and TOUR & TRAVEL NEWS. (You can also search NewsNet's newsletters through CompuServe's IQuest, Dialog, and others). NewsNet has searchable newsletters focusing on the conditions in particular countries or parts of the world (news, travel and political risk analysis, political stability, etc.).
Politics ———— Many of these conferences and forums are filled to the brim with political discussions. For information about the United Nations, subscribe to UN (on LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU).
Chapter 5: Home, education and work ===================================
House, garden and finances ————————————— FidoNet has a long list of interesting conferences:
HOME-N-GRDN Home and Garden Questions
HOMEAUT Home Automation
HOMESCHL Homeschooling support
HOME_IMP Improvements around the house.
HOME_OFFICE Home Office
HOME_REPAIR Home Repair and Remodelling
ZYMURGY Beer Homebrewing
The EXEC-PC BBS has "Home Repair." The FUTUREHOME TECHNOLOGY NEWS newsletter is available through NewsNet. On ILINK, you will find the HOMEGARDEN conference. Usenet has misc.consumers.house . Here they discuss anything related to owning and maintaining a house. On the Well, check out "Homeowners." In Ziff-Davis' Magazine Database Plus you can search and read articles from the Good Housekeeping Magazine. This full-text article database is available from CompuServe and other services. Through UUCP you can get to the conference "Antiques" (Contact: antiques-request@swbatl.sbc.com). CompuServe also has the Gardening Forum. It is operated by the National Gardening Association, which publishes National Gardening magazine. The various services' software libraries contain many great shareware and public domain programs. You can download software that will help you prepare tax return forms, plan next year's taxes, calculate interests and down-payments on your loans. You'll find double-entry money-managing systems for non-accountants that will help you with personal bookkeeping and checkbook balancing. Other programs will help you plan and maintain your house. There are personal inventory programs (to help you keep track of belongings), and programs that can help you plan allocation of the space in your home. . . Join CompuServe's Investors Forum to learn how to play the stock and money markets, and other moneymaking 'instruments'. Discuss investment techniques with others, read reports about economical trends, and retrieve useful programs for your personal computer. RelayNet offers the international conference INVESTOR. Usenet has misc.invest . If you want to adopt a child, check out ADOPTION on FidoNet, or subscribe to a UUCP conference of the same name. For access, write adoption-request@think.com . The National Issues Forum on CompuServe has a message section called "Adoption Today." Addicted TV-viewers may be interested in alt.tv.twin-peaks or alt.tv.muppets on Usenet. "Mystery" on FidoNet and UUCP is for those preferring mystery novels by the fire place in the living room. There are even offerings for "the perfect house wife." I can think of no better pastime than origami, the traditional Japanese art of folding paper. (Contact: origami-request@cs.utexas.edu on UUCP). Oh, I almost forgot: The BONSAI conference is essential (on LISTSERV@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU). This is where to discuss the art and craft of Bonsai and related art forms. Bonsai is the Oriental Art of miniaturizing trees and plants into forms that mimic nature.
Education, teaching and the exchange of knowledge ————————————————————————- The list of conferences, forums, clubs, and other services focusing on education - in its broadest meaning of the word - is long. You are offered online courses, workshops, and seminars for students of all ages, databases to help you select a school for yourself or your kids, and all kinds of discussion forums for educators. Usenet, BITNET, Internet, and UUCP have long traditions in education. You'll find offerings for teachers within all subject areas, from finance and accounting, through history, languages and geography to technical subjects on all levels. Two guides listing forums of interest to Educators can be retrieved by anonymous FTP from the pub/ednet directory at nic.umass.edu . Use the following commands (see "FTP by email" at the end of Chapter 12):
get educatrs.lst get edusenet.gde