An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the web application software used to provide the facility. Web-based forums, which date from around 1995, perform a similar function as the dial-up bulletin boards and Internet newsgroups that were numerous in the 1980s and 1990s. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of different topics .

Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion forums, discussion groups, bulletin boards (but see also dial-up bulletin boards), fora (the proper Latin plural) or simply forums.

Culture

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Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. In terms of countable posts, Japan is far in the lead with over two million posts per day on their largest forum, 2channel. The United States does not have any one large forum, but instead several hundred thousand smaller forums, the largest of which are GameFAQs, Gaia Online, and IGN. Other countries such as China, the Netherlands, and France are also home to hundreds of independent forums. Some countries such as Finland and Sweden do not have many prevalent forums despite having open and easily available Internet access. As of yet no study has been done on the prevalence of forums in countries around the world. It is also dubious as to whether any country has its own fora, as - especially in the English language - contributors to a forum often come from outside the country in which the forum is hosted. There is often not a 1-1 relationship between languages and countries: for example, English language fora are contributed to by people all over the world, whilst Japanese language fora are likely to be contributed to only by Japanese people, but Japanese people also contribute to English language fora, so there is no 1-1 relationship between Japanese language fora and Japanese people contributing to fora.

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NPR Topics: Technology

Fast, Citywide WiFi Launches In Baltimore
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:19:00 -0400
The nation's first rollout of WiMax has launched in Baltimore. Host Steve Inskeep talks to tech commentator Mario Armstrong about the fourth generation Internet service. It's a wireless connection that is fast and allows a subscriber to roam across the city.
New Solar Cell Easy As Pizza To Make
Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:16:00 -0400
The iJET is a new type of solar cell that's cheap and easy to make, requiring not much more than a pizza oven, some nail polish remover, and a common inkjet printer. Australian scientist Nicole Kuepper describes her invention.
SpaceX Celebrates First Successful Rocket Launch
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
SpaceX's flagship Falcon1 rocket has successfully launched from an island in the central Pacific, becoming the first privately-developed rocket to orbit the planet. NASA has already contracted SpaceX to begin private space flight missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2010.

L.A. Times - Technology News

An evolution from talk to text
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The U.S. cellphone industry has changed dramatically since that first call 25 years ago. Bob Barnett's phone call launched a nearly $150-billion-a-year industry.
Boeing military satellite bid a 'must win,' analysts say
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The unit has been hurt by a drop in commercial sales. A contract to build the next generation of communication satellites could be worth $15 billion. At Boeing Co.'s sprawling satellite-making complex in El Segundo, engineers for decades pioneered space systems that helped vastly alter the way we communicate by telephone and watch television today.
High-tech surveillance greets junior hockey fans in Tri-Cities, Washington
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
At the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Western Hockey League crowds are scanned from afar for bombs and more. But this is only a test. The modest junior hockey arena in this small eastern Washington agricultural hub is an ideal gathering place for local families.

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