o further social causes or provide support to the community. Numer- ous online forums generate no revenue; they simply disseminate information on top- ics of interest. For example, new mothers living in Brooklyn, New York, organized a neighborhood mailing list using the Google Group application to set up the mailing Online Community Forums list and invite people to join. The list quickly grew to 120 mothers who all had babies around the same time and who live in the same neighborhood of mostly townhouses and a few apartment buildings. The following is an anonymous quotation from one of its members: It's a list-serve of moms who gave birth around the same time in my neighborhood. It's a great social and educational resource. Initially, it was mostly useful as a way to coordinate get-togethers right after all the babies were born and everyone was on maternity leave. Eventually, it also became an important resource/advice outlet. So if someone had questions about how to wean a kid, or that their kid wouldn't sleep, they would send an e-mail to the group, and people would write back with advice. We still coordinate some social outings using the list. I actually took an infant/child CPR class with one of the moms, who is an ER doctor. And another mom recently organized a talk about preschools with a leading local educator. I also just joined a baby- sitting co-op that was formed through the list-serve; 15 moms out of the about 120 moms on the list decided to join. Town E-mail Lists Can Keep Communities Informed Other examples of e-mail lists that provide a community forum are those organized around town issues and local services. One New England town, Framingham, Massa- chusetts, maintains an e-mail list called Frambors (short for Framingham Neighbors) to which residents can subscribe to hear news and announcements about local govern- ment and schools as well as opinions about ordinances up for a vote. The list addition- ally provides a place for people to ask for recommendations for service providers such as plumbers