"With all of the information available on the Internet, how do you condense and digest it into a useable form? Further, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? These two tasks can be daunting indeed. In Chapter 18 Choosing Internet Applications we'll talk about search engines and some tools that can help you cut your searching time down considerably.
What we would like to discuss now is our "Instant Expert" method of Internet research. Generally this will work on any topic and will enable you to get up to speed very quickly on the concepts, lingo, and resources available. While we cannot guarantee that you will succeed in any undertaking this method will at least give you a big head start. In Chapter 20, "Taming Technical Support" we will discuss how to search out answers to specific technical questions quickly.
As always the most important thing to do is define what information you are looking for before setting out on a search. What is the topic of your inquiry? What information do you already know? What information do you know you need to know? Write these answers down and you'll be off to a great start.
Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Your Selected Topic
Start over at www.faqs.org where the FAQs for all of the Usenet Newsgroups are archived as shown in Figure 15.2. Be careful with the information and don't just accept it as true. Generally the more technical the subject the better the quality of the FAQ. The FAQ will be just what it says -- a list of the most questions most frequently asked to members of the newsgroup. Usually you will also find pointers to Web sites, books, mailing lists, and other helpful information. Use this as your jumping off point and you will already have the answers to the questions that will occur to you as you continue your research. Following all of the leads in a good FAQ can take quite some time and may be all the information you need on some topics.
Browse Through Newsgroups Associated with This Topic
Start at DejaNews (www.dejanews.com) where you can look through all of the postings to any particular group. You will have the names of the groups to look from the FAQ information.
When you look through the newsgroup postings here are the sorts of things you want to pay attention to:
- Pay attention to who answers questions thoroughly and
consistently.
- See which topics come up consistently as those are probably some
of the questions you'll be having soon. A combination of these
topics and the FAQ will answer 80% of the questions you'll have.
- Check the homepages of people who put a link in their posts. Often times the homepages will contain a good list of links relevant to your topic.
Start your own glossary when you are becoming the "Instant Expert." Make notes of acronyms, inside terms, and phrases that you don't understand. Your personal glossary will keep your time expenditures to a minimum.
- Start learning the lingo of the group. The more familiar you are
with the language used on a topic, the more you'll be able to
glean information as you read.
- Learn the personality of the newsgroup. Some groups have a certain "personality" where the members are able to joke with one another or they may even appear to be rude. Learn what is going on before you join in the group so you won't be surprised by the answers.
Unofficially When you look for information in Usenet newsgroups try to find a group that isn't in the "alt." hierarchy. The quality of information goes up dramatically and is more targeted in other groups."
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