Talk and talk on newsgroup upenn.talk

Sick of the DP? There's another forum where you can instantly voice your opinion to thousands of people and receive personal responses – ranging from furious to flattering – within seconds. The forum is upenn.talk, an electronic mail newsgroup accessible to all members of the University community on e-mail who simply type, "rn read upenn.talk" at the appropriate prompt. The group virtually bursts at the seams of its Internet thread with opinions on topics ranging from Bosnia to bikes on the Locust Walk. But the group focuses on University issues, with hard-hitting commentary posted by staff and students alike. The newsgroup was started last year by Engineering sophomore Meng Weng Wong, who was interviewed – appropriately enough – via e-mail. "As a freshman new to the net, I discovered the thousands of newsgroups available on Usenet," he said. "I saw a lack of forum for unrestricted discussion. "So I went ahead and requested upenn.talk, an unmoderated group for discussion about everything and anything related to Penn," he said. And everything and anything does come up, from race relations on campus to School of Arts and Sciences department cuts. "Well, it's definitely an interesting newsgroup," College junior Keith Keller said. "I'm quite surprised that it still is an intellectual forum. I thought that it would quickly degenerate to just a blabbering of silly frosh saying how little beer there is at Penn." "It's very random," Engineering sophomore Deborah Fox said. "People post about Barney, about how the granite on Locust Walk is cut the wrong way?if no one wants to talk about the topic, no one will respond." And many have been surprised at the wide range of discussion, ideological positions and dialogue that take place on the newsgroup. "Last summer, there was a long debate on the ROTC issue which is kind of surfacing again," College sophomore Eric Krangel said. "As a member of ROTC, I think I was able to offer a viewpoint some people didn't have." Sandy Smith, an administrative assistant in the graduate division of the School of Arts and Sciences, said he's learned about University students through his own participation in the newsgroup. "There is a small community of students who do enjoy give and take, and are willing to engage people who hold views opposite to their own and argue," Smith said. "I think it would be interesting if more people at Penn did that." But many members of the University community hover above upenn.talk's conversations. Associate Vice Provost Larry Moneta is such a "lurker." "I'm a lurker," Moneta shamelessly admits. "The only way one can really get the pulse of the campus is through Letters to the Editor, individual conversations and these unique little pockets of conversation." And while upenn.talk is a much more fluid medium than the DP, it isn't perceived as a rival. "They're different types of media," Fox said. "One entertains talking and rapid response, and the other reads better sitting down." "I don't think they're in competition with each other – I think they complement each other," she said.