With more than 750,000 Web hits a week, a cyber debate is raging about war in Iraq on the largest academic listserv in the world.
More than 133,000 people subscribe to Humanities and Social Sciences Online, or H-NET, an independent scholarly society hosted by MSU's MATRIX humanities and technology center. H-NET subscribers post messages to talk about humanities including war.
"Every scholar yearns to communicate," H-NET's Vice President for Networks Peter Knupfer said. "The war intensifies the need to communicate with each other."
The site has a network of topics ranging from African studies to quilting and now, with the current conflict, general sites on war and diplomacy are being tailored to debate the war, Knupfer said.
Areas of the site, such as one called H-War, debate U.S. policy and strategy in Iraq, Knupfer said. The network is edited by a team of experts in American military history.
Other war-related sites include topics of discussion on the war's impact on Iraq's culture, conspiracy theories on the origins of war and American foreign policy and diplomatic history.
"This is a much more powerful forum for the expression of the views on war," he said, adding the site is a source of information outside the journalistic realm. The forum is moderated by scholars and experts from their respective fields of study.
"It's the edited nature of the lists that are really the appeal," H-NET executive director Mark Kornbluh said. "They raise the questions that will be debated and ask people to re-word things if their comments are inflammatory.
"They also look up and find more resources."
When people aren't insulting each other's views, a more civilized discussion is allowed to take place, Kornbluh said.
"It's not just professors," he said. "Our communities are involved in the larger educated public.
"It is a place to discuss these issues and share information."
Knupfer said there are representatives from every country contributing to the debates on the site.
"People who are working in places that don't have a good library or access to resources can now connect with their colleagues to share ideas to collaborate on projects and to discuss new issues," Knupfer said.
American Thought and Language Professor Jeff Charnley edits two lists on the Web site.
He said he thinks the lists are an important way to discuss war in Iraq.
"I think it's very important, especially when it focuses on the individual list," Charnley said. "There is a problem when people try to use the list to promote a political agenda. We try to avoid having it become purely political in orientation."
For more information, visit www.h-net.msu.edu
