Electronic Mailing Lists

 

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What are Mailing Lists and How do they work? How are people using them? Why choose a Mailing List? What do you need to Get Started?

These are some of the questions authors Maureen James and Liz Rykert attempted to explain in their book,  From Workplace To Workspace - Using Email Lists to Work Together.  Below Part 1 Getting Set Up of their book has been reproduced here with permission from the National Women's Justice Coalition. 

Following the excerpt you will find links to various email lists and information about how you can join. 

From Workplace To Workspace - Using Email Lists to Work Together by Maureen  James and Liz Rykert.  Part 1 Getting Set Up Copyright 1998 © Held by the authors 

Getting Set Up:

What Mailing Lists Are and How They Work

Email is the simplest and most readily available form of online communication. Because email concepts correspond closely to regular postal mail, even people who have never used the Internet before can learn email fundamentals and quickly become comfortable. From there, it's not too daunting to be part of a group working together using a mailing list. 

Mailing lists allow any number of people with email addresses to communicate amongst one another on issues of common interest. A mailing list is an automatic message-sending program that stores a list of the email addresses of all the people interested in a particular discussion. Participants "subscribe" to the list. If they decide they no longer want to receive messages from the list, they can "unsubscribe". Each discussion has its own email address (e.g., devel-l@american.edu). Each time a message is posted to the list address, everyone subscribed to the mailing list receives it.

How People Are Using Them 

Groups can do just about everything they do face-to-face using a mailing list, and often more. Here are just a few examples: 

Why Choose a Mailing List?

There are many different types of online group collaboration tools: basic email, WWW-based conferencing systems, newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), video and audio-conferencing, and Intranets, for example. Your group may want to explore some of these other methods if they are readily available to all of you. Regardless of the tool you choose, you'll need to facilitate your group's use of it. This guide focuses on mailing lists because they are an inexpensive, universal collaboration tool that anyone with an email account anywhere in the world can use. 

What You Need to Get Started

Successful mailing lists share these elements: 

You'll also need to find an Internet Service Provider that offers a mailing list service -- most do! 

There are different types of mailing list software, the most commonly used being: Majordomo, ListProc and Listserv. Which you have access to depends on your Internet service provider. (An Internet Service Provider is the computer network you connect to where your email account resides.) From a user/subscriber perspective, these different programs all perform similar subscription and message management functions, but each has unique commands and tools for doing so. 

If you would like more information relating to the topics below that are in the Book, From Workplace To Workspace - Using Email Lists to Work Together see: http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&Product_ID=177&DID=6 

Part 1: Getting Set Up -  Overview; Planning Your List; Setting Up Your List

Part 2: Working Together - Online Facilitation; Guidelines for Working Together; Keeping Your List Active; Step-By-Step Guide to Specific Activities 

Part 3: Resources

Source: Part 1, Getting Set Up of the Book, From Workplace To Workspace - Using Email Lists to Work Together by Maureen  James and Liz Rykert.  Copyright 1998 © Held by the authors 
 

 

Links to organisations offering Electronic Mailing Lists: 

 

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 

The Commission has recently implemented a new e-mail based mailing list service. These are a mechanism by which the Commission will let you know about current human rights issues both at a domestic and international level. Lists include:

CHILDREN&YOUTH (Human Rights of Children and Young people)
COMPLAINTS&LEGAL (Complaint Handling and Legal Issues)
DRUPDATE (Disability Rights Update)
HUMANRIGHTS (Human Rights Issues)
HRAWARDS (Human Rights Medal & Awards 2000 - information on nominations, the awards ceremony and the winners)
INDIGENOUS (Indigenous Social Justice and Native Title)
MEDIA (Media Releases and Updates)
PRIORITY (Receive ALL HREOC mailing list messages)
RACEDISCRIM (Racial Discrimination)
RURAL (Rural Issues)
SEXDISCRIM (Sex Discrimination)
WORKDISCRIM (Workplace Discrimination - other that race, sex and disability discrimination in the workplace)

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/mailing_lists/index.html 

National Women's Justice Coalition

At http://www.nwjc.org.au/womenslists.htm#Email%20newsletters%20- you will find a list of Australian women focused email lists and web forum. It includes Australian email lists; Email Newsletters, international email lists, web forums and information on how to establish a list.

If the above URL does not work then go to: http://www.nwjc.org.au/avcwl and look for Lists in the Menu.

Asia-Pacific Sub-region Beiking Plus 5 follow up email lists

At http://www.nwjc.org.au/beijinglists.htm you will find thirteen email lists which have been established to facilitate grass roots input and coordination for the Beijing Plus 5 follow up process. The lists are provided by CAPOW and ANCORW through the National Women's Justice Coalition.

If the above URL does not work then go to: http://www.nwjc.org.au/avcwl and look for Lists in the Menu.

National Foundation for Australian Women

At http://www.nfaw.org/ you will find numerous lists. Many lists are by invitation only. Your request to join a list is forwarded to the list facilitator for further action.

WELINK - Rural Women Networking Online
'Welink' is an electronic discussion list established in 1996,initially as part of a research project by the Queensland University of Technology in partnership with key industry and government bodies. 
Welink's initial aim was to enhance rural women's access to interactive communication technologies, however it has achieved much more.  Welink is now an established online community that provides
rural women with an electronic venue to explore the many ways in which communicating electronically may be of interest to them. 

 
More information about Welink and how to join is on the web at: http://www.bus.qut.edu.au/rwp/index.html

KooriNet for ATSI and Non-Indigenous Tertiary Students

The Koori Centre at the University of Sydney aims to increase the successful participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, develop the teaching of Aboriginal studies, conduct research in the field of Aboriginal education and to establish working ties with schools and communities.

KooriNet operates a number of e-mail mailing lists which act as channels of communication for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students and staff engaged in the support of those students, or the teaching of Aboriginal Studies. Although non-Indigenous people may be subscribers to a number of these lists, there is a clear assumption that all KooriNet lists are intended to facilitate communication by and between ATSI people. While subscription to some specific-purpose lists is only possible on application, others are available for self-subscription. Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander participants in tertiary education and their non-Indigenous colleagues are encouraged to join the lists as appropriate.

For more information about KooriNet and the lists availabe see:

http://www.koori.usyd.edu.au/mail.html