Reading the Newsgroup

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Usenet is like a huge discussion group broken down into thousands of areas called newsgroups . You can find a newsgroup on every topic imaginable, from home brewing to astronomy ”and among them is a newsgroup for SAP R/3. People post messages every day to share thoughts, ideas, and questions about SAP R/3 with other interested parties.

If you have a newsreader and your Internet service provider includes a news server, you can read or subscribe to an SAP R/3 newsgroup. Figure 21.2 shows WinVN, an example of a dedicated newsreader. Netscape Navigator and Outlook Express also contain newsreaders with which you can read newsgroups.

The newsgroup name is de.alt.comp.sap-r3 . The de (for Deutsch ) is used because SAP is a German company. Most de newsgroups are in German; however, most of the news in this particular group is in English.

Figure 21.2. Cruising the SAP R/3 newsgroup with WinVN.

This newsgroup isn't sponsored or officially supported by SAP. It's just an open forum for people involved in setting up and using SAP R/3. As you'll see, many postings seem to be posted by people looking for work or companies looking for people. There's also some technical and organizational information. As in any newsgroup, you can post your own observations or questions here, if you want.

In this lesson, you learned how SAP R/3 can facilitate business on the Internet. You also learned about the SAP home page and the Usenet newsgroup. In the next lesson, you learn about the different kinds of SAP R/3 business documents and how they're used.

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