Audio and video conferencing is less widely used in the academic field than in the business field, but the ICT convergence has made both more possible. However for communication within and outside the profession, email discussion lists and net news groups continue to be very important. Allstat, managed from the CTI Centre for Statistics, is the largest Mailbase list, with about 2700 members and 4 messages per day. This membership reflects the wide interest in statistics outside statistics departments. For the many users of statistical methods joining an email list is virtually cost free, and provides access to both information and advice.
Most lists act as notice boards for conference and job announcements.
Lists such as STAT-L and its linked news group, sci.stat.consult, provide a remarkably philanthropic consultancy resource to readers. Full details of the 100 or more lists related to statistics in its my aspects and areas of application are available in the List of Statistics Lists. A recent trend is the growing use of lists for data collection, either by circulating a questionnaire, or by asking readers to visit a web page to complete an online form. Other features of the web culture are the online publication of research on WWW pages, by individuals and departments. These can supplement or replace traditional printed discussion paper series.