Electronic Bulletin Boards for Economists: Realizing Their Potential

Abstract

Electronic bulletin boards (EBBS) have become a mainstay in economic research by providing access to archived data, manuscripts, articles, and computational software. Most EBBS are free and open to the public, and many of them are accessible over the Internet. The proliferation of government agencies' involvement, individualized offerings, and interconnected resources have significantly enhanced the benefits and operations of EBBS. These recent developments have inspired numerous economics instructors to introduce EBBS into their electronic classrooms. Although the economics profession does heavily utilize EBBS, it has not taken full advantage of the available technology. Keywords electronic bulletin boards, Internet, economic research, computer-assisted instruction.Communication and access to information are vital ingredients to economic research. Researchers span the globe in search of economic data, research manuscripts, journal articles, and computational software. They also reach out to their colleagues for help and to discuss new ideas and concepts. Until the mid-1980s, most of these activities were conducted in the library, through the mail, and by phone. Today, researchers and students are turning to their personal computers to accomplish in a half day what used to take weeks. They use their Pcs to connect to the many electronic bulletin boards (EBBS) around the world either by using modems and phone lines or by use of the Internet.l I Realizing the importance of EBBS and electronic connectivity has recently gained the attention of many. The Clinton administration initiated a campaign to establish a national information network, and 28 firms joined to develop the information superhighway in America (Wired, 1993). In addition, many economics instructors are strengthening their learning-by-discovery teaching methods by providing students access to the Internet.2 Students are now able to access economic forecasts and outlooks, econometrics software, databases, and government documents and to participate in various electronic discussion groups contained on EBBS.

Computer Network Resources for Economists

“…Perhaps the most common destination for non-Internet academic mail is Bitnet. 4 Currently, there is no Internet-wide directory of users, although there are many limited ones and work is proceeding on a complete one. Thus, it is easiest to find a potential recipient's host and userid by other means.…”