THE NET AND NETIZENS:
The Impact the Net has on People's Lives
by Michael Hauben <hauben@columbia.edu>
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
-----------------
I. Preface
II. Introduction
III. Netizens' Uses of the Net
A. Critical Mass
B. Grassroots
C. Communication with New People
D. The Broadening Effect of the Net
E. Material Changes in People's Lives
F. The Net as a Source of Enormous Resources
G. Collective Work
H. Improving the Quality of Everyday Life
I. Improving Communication with Friends
J. Problems
IV. Conclusion
V. Appendix
VI. Bibliography
I. PREFACE
Welcome to the 21st Century. You are a Netizen (Net
Citizen), and you exist as a citizen of the world thanks to the
global connectivity that the Net makes possible. You consider everyone as
your compatriot. You physically live in one country but you are in
contact with much of the world via the global computer network.
Virtually you live next door to every other single netizen in the
world. Geographical separation is replaced by existence in the same
virtual space.
The situation I describe is only a prediction of the future,
but a large part of the necessary infrastructure currently exists.
The Net - or the Internet, BITNET, FIDOnet, other physical
networks, Usenet, VMSnet, and other logical networks and so
on - has rapidly grown to cover all of the developed countries in
the world. The only parts of the world yet to be connected via
E-mail are parts of Africa, Asia Minor, and South East Asia. (See
the Internet Society NEWS Vol 2 No 1 back page for reference.)
Every day more computers attach to the existing networks and every
new computer adds to the user base - at least ten million people are
interconnected today. Why do all these people "waste" their time
sitting in front of a computer typing away? They have very good
reason to! Ten million people plus have good reason not to be wrong.
We are seeing a revitalization of society. The frameworks
are being redesigned from the bottom up. A new more democratic
world is becoming possible. According to one user, the Net has
"immeasurably increased the quality of my life." The Net seems to
open a new lease on life for people. Social connections which
were never before possible, or which were relatively hard to
achieve, are now facilitated by the Net. Geography and time are
no longer boundaries. Social limitations and conventions no
longer prevent potential friendships or partnerships. In this
manner netizens are meeting other netizens from far-away and
close by that they might never have met without the Net.
A new world of connections between people - either privately from
individual to individual or publicly from individuals to the collective
mass of many on the net - is possible. The old model of central
distribution of information from the Network Broadcasting or Publication
Company is being questioned/challenged. The top-down model of information
being distributed by a few for mass-consumption is no longer the only News.
Netnews brings the power of the reporter to the netizen. People now have
the ability to broadcast his or her observations or questions around the
world and other people respond. The computer networks form a new
grassroots connection that allows the excluded sections of society to have
a voice. This new medium is unprecedented. Previous grassroots media have
existed for much smaller-sized selections of people. The model of the Net
proves the old way does not have to be the only way of networking. The Net
does not abolish the idea of networking - or making connections with
strangers that prove to be advantageous to one or both parties.
The complete connection of the body of citizens of the world the
Net makes possible does not exist as of today, and it will definitely be a
fight to make access to the Net open and available to all. However, in the
future we might be seeing the possible expansion of what it means to be a
social animal. Practically every single individual on the Net today is
available to every other person on the Net. Someone might suggest this
universal connection currently exists with the telephone network. However
the telephone companies charge more for the further you have to call. Use
of the Net is currently unmetered. International connection coexists on
the same level with local connection. Also the computer networks allow a
more advanced connection between the people who are communicating.
In order to locate someone's phone number, you need to either know
their name, or be given the number personally. With computer-communication
systems, information or thoughts are connected to people's names and
electronic-mail addresses. On the Net, one can connect to others who have
similar interests or whose thought processes they enjoy.
Connections not before possible, imaginable or feasible,
whether global (across the world) or just around the corner
(locally), are now happening everyday. People can meet others on a global
or local basis based on their interests and beliefs, rather than only
through personal introductions and pre-Net social networks.
Netizens make it a point to be helpful and friendly - if they feel
it to be worthwhile. Many Netizens feel they have an obligation to be
helpful and answer queries and followup on discussions to put their opinion
into the pot of opinions. Over a period of time the voluntary contributions
to the Net have built it into a useful connection to other people around
the world. Many people who replied to my "Is the Net a Source of
Social/Econ. Wealth?" post responded to my point calling the net a source
of accurate information. People corrected me and said it was mainly a
source of opinions. However, the reader can train himself to figure out the
accurate information from the breathe of opinions. I hoped to give an
example of this by grouping together in one document a wide sample of the
responses to my research. The Net can be a helpful medium to understand the
world. Only by seeing all points of view can any one person attempt to
figure out either their own position on a topic or the truth.
Net Society differs from off-line society by welcoming intellectual
activity. People are encouraged to have things on their mind and to present
those ideas to the Net. People are allowed to be intellectually interesting
and interested. This intellectual activity forms a major part of the
on-line information that is carried by the various computer networks.
Netizens can interact with other people to help add to or alter that
information. Brain-storming between varieties of people produces robust
thinking. Information is no longer a fixed commodity or resource on the
Nets. It is constantly being added to and improved collectively. The Net is
a grand intellectual and social commune in the spirit of the collectivity
from the origins of human society. Netizens working together continual
expand the store of information worldwide. One person called the Net an
untapped resource because it provides an alternative to the normal channels
and ways of doing things. The Net allows for the meeting of minds to form
and develop ideas. It brings people's thinking processes out of isolation.
Every user of the Net gains the role of being special and useful. The fact
that every user has his own opinions and interests adds to the general body
of specialized knowledge on the Net. Each Netizen thus becomes a special
resource valuable to the Net. Each user contributes to the whole
intellectual and social value and possibilities of the Net.
II. INTRODUCTION
The world of the Netizen was envisioned some twenty five years ago by
J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor in "The Computer as a Communication
Device" (Science and Technology, April 1968). Licklider brought to his
leadership of the Department of Defense's ARPANET a vision of "the
intergalatic computer network." Whenever he would speak of ARPANET, he
would mention this vision. J.C.R. Licklider was a prophet of the Net. In
his paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device", Licklider establishes
several helpful principles as to make the computer play a helpful role in
human communication. Licklider clarified his definition of communication as
a creative process by writing:
"But to communicate is more than to send and to receive. Do two
tape recorders communicate when they play to each other and record from
each other? Not really - not in our sense. We believe that
communicators have to do something nontrivial with the information they
send and receive. And to interact with the richness of living
information -- not merely in the passive way that we have become
accustomed to using books and libraries, but as active participants in
an ongoing process, bringing something to it through our interaction
with it, and not simply receiving from it by our connection to it...We
want to emphasize something beyond its one-way transfer: the increasing
significance of the jointly constructive, the mutually reinforcing
aspect of communication - the part that transcends 'now we both know a
fact that only one of us knew before.' When minds interact, new ideas
emerge. We want to talk about the creative aspect of communication."
Licklider defines four principles for computers to make a
contribution towards human communication. They are:
1) Communication is defined as an interactive creative process.
2) Response times needs to be short to make the "conversation"
free and easy.
3) The larger network would form out of smaller regional networks.
4) Communities would form out of affinity and common interests.
In this paper I will explore the uses Netizens have discovered for
the Net. Licklider's understandings from his 1968 paper have stood the test
of time, and do represent the Net today. In a later paper he co-wrote with
Albert Vezza, "Applications of Information Networks" (Proceedings of
IEEE, Vol 66, No 11, Nov 1978) Licklider explores possible business
applications of information networks. Licklider's survey of business
applications in 1978 come short of the possibilities he outlaid in his
earlier paper, and represent but a tiny fraction of the resources the Net
currently embodies.
Licklider focused on the Net comprising of a network of networks.
While other researchers of the time focused on the sharing of computing
resources, Licklider kept an open mind and wrote:
"...The collection of people, hardware, and software - the
multi-access computer together with its local community of users - will
become a node in a geographically distributed computer network. Let us
assume for a moment that such a network has been formed....Through the
network of message processors, therefore, all the large computers can
communicate with one another. And through them, all the members of the
supercommunity can communicate - with other people, with programs, with
data, or with a selected combinations of those resources." (32)
His concept of the sharing of both computing and human resources
together matches the modern Net. The networking of various human
connections quickly forms, changes its goals, disbands and reforms into
new collaborations. The fluidity of such group dynamics leads to a
quickening of the creation of new ideas. Groups can form to discuss an
idea, focus in or broaden out and reform to fit the new ideas that have
been worked out.
Netnews, IRC, mailing lists and MUD/MUSH/MOO/M** (various of the
available discussion tools on the Net) are extremely dynamic. Most can be
formed immediately for either short or long term use. As interests or
events form, discussion groups can be created. (e.g.: 9NOV89-L about
Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Unification.)
The virtual space created on (non-commercial) computer networks is
accessible universally. This space is accessible from the connections that
exist. Whereas social networks in the physical world generally are
connected by limited gateways. So the capability of networking on computer
nets overcomes limitations inherent in non-computer social networks. This
is important because it reduces the problems of population growth.
Population growth now does not mean limited resources any more - rather
that very growth of population now means an improvement of resources. Thus
growth of population can be seen as a positive asset. This is a new way of
looking at people in capitalist society. Every new person can mean a new
set of perspectives and specialties to add to the wealth of knowledge of
the world. This new view of people could help improve the view of the
future. The old model looks down on population growth and people as a
strain on the environment rather than the increase of intellectual
contribution these individuals can make. However, access to the Net needs
to be universal for the Net to fully utilize the contribution each person
can represent. Once access is limited - the Net and those on the Net lose
the possible advantages the Net can offer. Lastly the people on the Net
need to be active in order to bring about the best possible use of the
Network.
Licklider foresaw that the Net allows for people of common
interests, who are otherwise strangers, to communicate. Much of the magic
of the Net is the ability to make a contribution of your ideas, and
then be connected to utter strangers. He saw that people would connect
to others via this net in ways that had been much harder in the past.
Licklider observed as the ARPANET spanned two continents. This physical
connection allowed for wider social collaborations to forms. This was the
beginning of Computer Data networks facilitating connections of people
around the world.
The Net is alive because of its use by ordinary people. Pioneering
research is happening, but the meat of the Net experience is the normal
everyday use of the Net. Thus I have included many of the responses to
my research in this paper. In response to another survey of Net uses,
Steve Cavrak <Steve.Cavrak@UVM.EDU> recently wrote the following to the
COMMUNET mailing list:
"The Internet is NOT a place of 'innovative stories.' Rather it
is a place of impressingly common, every day electronic activity. It is
not a hot bed of dangerous, high-tech, experimentation, it is a place
where pretty much ordinary people do their day to day work."
My research on and about the Net was very exciting for me. When I
posted my inquiries, I usually received the first reply within a couple of
hours. The feeling of receiving that very first reply from a total stranger
is always exhilarating! That set of first replies from people reminds me of
the magic of E-Mail. It is nice that there can be reminders of how exciting
it all is - so that the value does not become lost in the shuffle.
What follows is the collection and presentation of
but a little of the wonderful data that I received in the
process of my research utilizing the Net.
-------------------------------------------------------------
A. CRITICAL MASS
The collection of individuals add to the interests and
specialties of the whole. Most people can now gain something from the
Net, while at the same time helping it out. A critical mass has
developed on the net. Enough people exist that the whole is now greater
than any one individual and thus makes it worthwhile to be part of.
People are meshing intellects and knowledge to form new ideas. As Larry
Press said:
"I now work on the Net at least 2 hours per day. I've had an
account since around 1975 but it has only become super
important in the last couple of years because a critical
mass of membership was reached. I no longer work in LA, but
in cyberspace."
Many technical people on the Net think only "their type" currently
inhabit the Net. Many different kinds of people are now connected to the
Net. Even the original users of the Net (then several unconnected test-beds
of network research) were not only from exclusively technical and scientific
communities. The nets were only available in a few parts the world. Now
however, people of all ages, from most parts of the globe, and of many
professions make up the net.
From: Michael J.MacDonald <mikemac@unb.ca>
"One of the advantages that benefited a close friend of mine
was the immediate access to hundreds of people amateur and
professional. ...her [health] prospects are much better than
before the week of network monitoring."
The original prototype networks (e.g.: ARPAnet in the USA, NPL in
the United Kingdom, CYCLADES in France and other networks around the
world) developed the necessary physical infrastructure for a fertile
social network to develop. As Einar Stefferud wrote,
"The ARPANET has produced several monumental results. First,
it provided the physical and electrical communications backbone for
development of the latent social infrastructure we now call 'THE INTERNET
COMMUNITY.'" (ConneXions, Oct. 1989 vol 3 No. 10. pg. 21)
Many different kinds of people comprise the Net. The University
Community sponsers access for a broad range of people (students,
professors, staff, professor emeritus, etc) Many businesses are also
connected. A K-12 Net exists within the lower grades of education which
helps to invite younger people to be a part of our community. Special
Bulletin Board software (e.g.:Waffle) exists to connect Personal
Computer users to the Net. Various Unix bulletin board systems exist to
connect other users. It is virtually impossible to tell what kinds of
people connect to public bulletin board systems, as only a computer (or
terminal) and modem are the prerequisites to connect. Many if not all
Fidonet bbs's (a very common bbs type) have at least e-mail and many
also participate through a gateway to Netnews. Prototype Community
Network Systems are forming around the world (e.g.: Cleveland Freenet,
Wellington Citynet, Santa Monica Public Electronic Network (PEN),
Berkeley, Singapore) Access via this community systems can be as easy
as visiting the community library and membership is open to all who
live in the community.
In addition to the living body of resources this diversity of netizens
represent, there is also a continuingly growing body of digitized data that
forms another body of resources. Whether it is netizens digitizing great
literature of the past (e.g.: the Gutenburg Project), or it is people
gathering otherwise obscure or non-mainstream material (e.g.: Various
Religions, unusual hobbies, gay lifestyle, fringe.), or if it is netizens
contributing new and original material (e.g.: the Amateur Computerist
Newsletter), the net follows in the great tradition of other public
bottom-up institutions, such as the public library or the principle behind
public education. The Net shares with these institutions that they serve
the general populace. This data is just part of the treasure. Often living
netizens provide pointers to this digitized store of publically available
information. Many of the network access tools have been programmed with
the principle of being available to everyone. The best example is the
method of connecting to file repositories via FTP (file transfer protocol)
by logging in as "anonymous." Most (if not all) WAIS (Wide Area Information
Systems), and gopher sites are open for all users of the Net. It is true
that the current membership of the Net Community is smaller than it will
be, but the net has reached a point of general usefulness no matter who you
are.
All of this is exactly why the Net can not be allowed to be
taken over by commercial entities. Once the commercial interests gains
control, the Net will be perverted so as to make it no-longer powerful
for the ordinary person. Commercial interests vary from those of the
common person. They attempt to take profit from any available way.
Thus, the Netettiquite of being helpful will soon have a price tag
attached if commercial interests are allowed to gain control of
distribution and ways of access. Adam Smith writes about the difference
in interests between the common person and the business owner in "The
Wealth of Nations." Smith speaks about manufacturers when he writes:
It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never
exactly the same with that of the public, who have
generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress
the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occa-
sions, both deceived and oppressed it.
(Modern Library Edition., pg.250)
The Net has only developed because of the hard work and voluntary
dedication of many people. It has grown because the Net is in the control
and power of the people at a bottom-level, and because these people
developed it. People's posts and contributions to the Net have been the
developing forces. [See "The Social Forces Behind the Development of Usenet
News", Amateur Computerist Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 4/5]
B. GRASS ROOTS:
The Net brings people together. People put into connection with
other people can be powerful. There is power in numbers. The Net allows
an individual to realize his power. The Net, uncontrolled by commercial
entities, becomes the gathering, discussion and planning center for many
people.
The combined efforts of people interested in communication has
led to the development and expansion of the global communications
system. Ithiel de Sola Pool in Technologies Without Boundaries wrote:
"The system becomes part of the largest machine that man has
ever constructed - the global telecommunications network.
The full map of it no one knows; it changes every day."
(Cambridge, 1990, p 56)
What's on the net? Well - Usenet News, Freenet, Email, Libraries, FTP
sites, free software, electronic newsletters and journals, Multi-User
Domain/Dungeon (MUD)/MUSH/MOO, Internet Relay Chat (irc) and other kind of
data banks. Different servers, like WAIS and Gophers attempt to order and
make utilizing the vast varieties and wide spread information easier.
There exist both public and private services and sources of information.
The public and free services often come about through the voluntary efforts
of one or a few people. These technologies allow a person to help make the
world a better place by making their unique contribution available to the
rest of the world. People who have been overlooked or have felt unable to
contribute to the world, now can. Also, these networks allow much more open
and public interaction over a much larger body of people than available
before. The common man has a unique voice - which is now being aired in a
new way.
The emphasis is this new machine introduces every single person
as someone special and in possession of a useful resource.
"Simple - by access to a vast amount of information and an
enormous number of brains!" From: Brian May <Brian.May@mel.dit.csiro.au>
"For a geographically sparse group as it is, MU* allows people to
get to know one another, the relevant newsgroup gives a sense that
there's a community out there and things are happening, and an
associated ftp site allows art and writing to be distributed."
Simon Raboczi
" In summary, nets have helped enormously in the dissemination of
information from people knowledgeable in certain areas which would be
difficult to obtain otherwise." Brent Edwards
"I get to communicate rapidly and cheaply with zillions of people
around the world." From: Rosemary Warren <rwarren@topaz.concordia.ca>
The following examples help to show how this is possible.
People are normally unprotected from the profit-desires of large
companies. Steven Alexander from California is using the Net to try to
limit the power of otherwise money-hungry oil companies. This is an
example of the power of connecting people to uphold what is fair and in
the best interest of the common person in this society:
From: stevena@triangle.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Steven Alexander)
"I have started compiling and distributing (on the newsgroup ca.driving)
a list of gas prices at particular stations in California to which many
people will contribute an keep up to date, and which, I hope, will allow
consumers to counteract what many of us suspect is the collusive (or in
any case, price-gouging) behavior of the oil companies."
Someone else from Germany also reported to be about using
the Net to muckrake. He writes:
"A company saying they where an e.V. - which means that they
do not make profit but do it all for the public (eingetragener
Verein). They did not give their phone number, but their address.
They offered a mailbox-account including service for 70,00 DM
and said they would like to connect you to others - it was
clearly aimed at people which do not know anything about the
existing networks, thinking this was something new.
Asking publicly about this company resulted in the following:
Someone looked them up in the e.V.-Register, where everyone
must be named before he can call himself e.V. (and pay less
taxes), they did not exist there.
And they did not exist in the IHK, where any company must be
named before they can claim to be one.
Another one said, that he had contact with the person which
send the letter before, only another company-name, and that he
simply ignored this person since it looked like swindlers.
So they are swindlers, and people from the net proved it to us,
we then of course did not engage with them at all.
Worst part is - they look like they might be a suborganisation of
Scientology, which where recently discovered to try infiltrating
public-institutions by writing software for them containing
backdoors for their informal-organisations..."
The Net has proved its importance in other contemporary critical
situations. As the only available line of communications, the Net
forestalled the attempted coup in the ex-Soviet Union in 1990. The
members of the coup either did not know about or understand what RELCOM
was, or the connections proved resilient enough for info about the coup
to slip around the inside and out of the country in time to inform the
world and encourage resistance to the coup. (See comp.risks article by
Larry Press from 6 Sep 91)
The Net has also proved its value in providing a useful medium for
students to use. Students participating in the Chinese Pro-Democracy
movement have kept in touch with others around the world via their
fragile connection to the Net. The Net provided an easy way of evading
government censors to get news around the world about events in China
and to receive back encouraging feedback. Such feedback is vital
support to keep the fight on when it seems impossible or wrong to do
so. Students in France used the French Minitel system to organize a
successful fight against attempted tuition raises by the French
government.
The information flow on the Net is controlled by those who use the
Net. People actively provide the information that they personally and
other people want. This control is much more active than what is
provided by other forms of mass media. Television, radio, magazines
are all driven by who owns them and who writes for them. The Net gives
people a media they can control. This control of information is a great
power that has not been available before to the common everyday person.
Declan McCreesh explains this by talking about access to the most up to
date info:
From: DECLAN MCCREESH
"You get the most up to date info. that people around the world
can get their hands on, which is great. For instance, the media report
who wins a Grand Prix, what happened and not a great deal more. On the
net, however, you can get top speeds, latest car and technology
developments, latest rumours, major debates as to whether Formula 1 or
Indy cars are better etc."
The Net helps to make information available more accurate because
of the many-to-many or broadcast & read and write capability. That new
capability (which is not normally very prevalent in our society) allows an
actual participant or observer to report something. This capability gives
the power of journalism or the reporter to individuals. This new medium
allows the source to report. This is true because the medium allows
everyone on-line to make a contribution while the old media control who
reports and what they say. The possibility of eyewitness accounts can make
the more information accurate. Also this opens the possibility for a
grassroots network. Information is passed from person to person around the
world. Thus a German citizen learned about the Chernoble explosion from
the Net before the German government decided to release it to the public
via the media. The connection is people to people rather than governments
to governments. Citizen Journalists now have distribution to others than
those they know personally. The distribution of the writings of ordinary
people is the second step after the advent of the inexpensive personal
computer in the early 1980s. The personal computer and printer allowed
anyone to produce mass quantities of documents. Personal publishing is now
joined by personal wide-distribution.
Not only is there grass-roots reporting, but filtering is
no longer needed. People can learn to sort through the various
themselves. Steve Welch disagreed with my first point, but agrees
with discriminatory reading skills. <smw@columbine.cgd.ucar.EDU>
"When you get more information from diverse sources, you don't
always ... get more accurate information. However, you do
develop skills in discerning "accurate information"... Or
rather, you do if you want to come out of the infoglut jungle
alive."
Governments who rule based on control of information have been
and will be undermined from the bottom up, if they have not already and
will succumb the the tides of democracy. As Dr. Sun Yat-Sen of the
Chinese Democracy Movement once said, "The worldwide democratic trend
is mighty. Those who submit to it will prosper and those who resist it
will perish." The Net reintroduces the basic idea of democracy as
people power to Netizens. Governments can no longer keep information
from their people.
Many groups which do not have a strong established form of
communications in society have found the Net to be a powerful tool. It
has proved a fertile ground for groups which are not firmly established
in their local culture. For example, for people far away from their
homeland, the Net provides a new link.
From: Con Hennessy
"One use of email is to send a weekly Irish news letter to those
interested with email addresses. This letter is to keep those Irish
(and others) up to date with what has been in the news in Ireland for
the last 7 days. The amount is usually around 40k and it is sent to
over 1,500 addresses, with some of these addresses forwarding and
faxing further so that the estimate of final recipients is 10,000."
From: Godfrey Nolan <G.Nolan@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
"The net has immeasurably increased the quality of my life. I am
Irish, but I have been living in England for the past five years. It
is a lot more difficult to get information about Ireland than you would
expect. However a man called Liam Ferrie who works in Digital in
Galway, compiles a newspaper on the weeks events in Ireland and so I
can now easily keep abreast of most developments in Irish current
affairs, which helps me feel like I'm losing touch when I go home about
twice a year. It is also transmitted to about 2000 Irish people all
over the first and third worlds."
From: Madhur K. Limdi <limdi@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
"I read your above posting and wanted to share my experience with
you. I have been a frequent reader of news in usenet groups!!
Such as soc.culture.indian misc.news.southasia and both of these
keep me reasonably informed about the happenings in my home
country india."
For example in the United States, the Net has been proved as stable
communications for people of various religious and sexual persuasion
(homosexual people, Buddhists, Universalists, etc).
From: Carole E. Mah
"For me and many of my friends, the net is our main form of
communication. Almost every aspect of interpersonal communication on
the network has a gay/lesbian/bi aspect to it that forms a tight and
intimate acquaintanceship which sometimes even boils over into
arguments and enmities. This network of connections, friends, enemies,
lovers, etc. facilitates political goals that would not otherwise be
possible (organizing letter-writing campaigns about the Gays in the
Military Ban via the ACT-UP list, being able to send email directly to
the White House, finding out about activism, bashing, etc. in other
states and around the world, etc)."
From: Greg "Wolves" Woodbury <ggw@wolves.durham.nc.us>
" We will be going to a march on Washington and are coordinating our
plans and travel with a large number of other folks around the country
via email and conversations on Usenet."
From: Jann VanOver <jevo@halcyon.com>
"I'm a member of a Buddhist organization and just found a man in
Berkeley who keeps a Mailing List that sends daily guidance and
discussions for this group. So I get a little religious boost when I log
on each day."
Many other communities have also found the Net to be a
excellent medium to help increase communications:
From: Rob Dean <robdean@access.digex.net>
"As a member of the science fiction community, I've met
quite a few people on the net, and then in person."
--
C. COMMUNICATION WITH NEW PEOPLE
In many of the netizens' lives the Net has alleviated feelings of
loneliness which seem extremely too prevalent in today's society. The
Net's ability to help people network both socially and intellectually makes
the Net valuable and unreplaceable in people's lives. This is forming a
group of people who want to keep the Net accessible and open.
The Net brings together people from diverse walks of life, and
makes it easier for these people to communicate. It brings them all
together into the same virtual space and removes the impact or
influence of first impressions.
Malcolm Humes writes,
"I'm in awe of the power and energy linking thousands into a virtual
intellectual coffee-house, where strangers can connect without the
formalities of face to face rituals (hello, how are you today...) to
allow a direct-connect style of communication that seems to transcend
the 'how's the weather' kind of conversation to just let us connect
without the bullshit."
Strangers are no longer strange on the Net. People are freed to
communicate without limits, fears or apprehension. As people new to
the Net find out quickly, there is a rather generous atmosphere that
thrives on the Net. People are happy to help others, and eventually get
help in return.
From: Jean-Francois Messier <ad599@freenet.carleton.ca>
"My use of the net is to get in touch with more people around the world.
I don't know for what, when, how, but that's important for me. Not that I'm
in a small town, far from everybody, but that I want to be able to
establish links with others. If fact, because of those nets I use, I would
!NOT! want to go to a small town, just because the phone calls would be too
expensive. I've to say that I'm not an expressive people. I'm not a great
talker, nor somebody who could make shows..... I'm more an
"introverti"....."
But yet Jean-Francois has made contact with me. This is an example of the
social power of the net.
From: Laura Goodin
"Last summer I was traveling to Denver and I used a listserv
mailing list to find out whether a particular running group I run
with had a branch there. They did, and I had a wonderful time
meeting people with a common interest (and drinking beer with
them); I was no longer a stranger."
--------------------------
D. BROADENED & WORLDLY PROSPECTIVE:
Easy connection to people and ideas from around the world has a
powerful effect. Awareness that we are just member of the human species
that spans the entire globe changes a persons point of view. It is a
broadening perspective. It is very easy for people to assume a limited
point of view if they are only exposed to certain ideas. The Net brings
the isolated individual into contact with people, opinions, and views
from the rest of the world. Exposure to many possible opinions gives
the reader a chance to actually think something over before making a
decision as to a personal opinion. Having access to the "Marketplace of
Ideas" allows a person to make a reasoned judgement of something. Both
James Mill and Flint auto workers involved with their local union
newspaper believed in this principle. (see "The Computer as
Democratizer", Amateur Computerist, Fall 1992, Vol 4 No 5 and "The
Story of the Searchlight," Flint Michigan, 1987)
From: Jean-Francois Messier <ad599@freenet.carleton.ca>
"Since that, my attitudes to other peoples, races and religions
changed, since I had more chances to talk with other peoples around the
world. When first exchanging mail with people from Yellowknife, Yukon,
I had a real strange feeling : Getting message and chatting with people
that far from me. I noticed around me that a lot of people have
opinions and positions about politics that are for themselves, without
knowing others.
Because I have a much broader view of the world now, I changed and am
more conciliant and peaceful with other people. Writing to someone you
never saw, changes the way you write, also, the instantaneity of the
transmission makes the conversation much more 'live' than waiting for the
damn slow paper mail.
Telecommunications opened the world to me and changed my
visions of people and countries....."
From: Anthony Berno <aberno@godel.questor.wimsey.bc.ca>
"I could not begin to tell you how different my life would be
without the Net. My life would be short about a dozen people,
some of them central, I would be wallowing in ignorance on
several significant subjects, and my mind would be lacking many
broadening and enlightening influences."
From: Henry Choy
"More things to look at. Increased perspective on life. The computer
network brings people closer together, and permits them to speak at will
to a large audience. I recommend that the telecommunications and computer
industry make large scale computer networking accessible to the general
public. It's like making places accessible to the handicapped. People
brought closer together will release some existing social tensions.
People need to be heard, and they need to hear."
From: Paul Ready
"You don't have to go to another country to meet people from
there. It is not the same as personally knowing them, but I
always pay special attention to information from people outside
the states. They are likely to have a different perspective on
things."
From: Leandra Dean
"I love to study people, and the net has been the best possible
resource to this end. The net is truly a window to the world,
and without it we could only hope to physically meet virtually
thousands of people every day to gain the same insights. I
shudder to think about how different and closed in my life would
be without the net."
E. MATERIAL CHANGES TO PEOPLE's LIVES and Lifestyles.
We live in the physical real world material space. The Net forms a
virtual space of information. The connections, interfaces or
collaborations between these two worlds forms an interesting area of
study. Netizens attest to the power of the net by explaining the affect
the Net has had on their lives. Because of the information available
and the new connections possible, people have both changed the way they
live their lives and material possessions they have. There are examples
of both changes in the material possessions and changes in lifestyle.
The changes to lifestyle are probably the more profound changes, but
the new connections made possible are important. Often the material
gains are not financial, but rather the redistribution of worthwhile
goods that might have lost personal value but circulate among others
who it would be worthwhile for.
From: William Carroll
"Primarily because of the information and support from rec.bikes,
three years ago I gave up driving to work and started riding my
bike. Its one of the best decisions I've ever made."
--
A Response I received via E-Mail:
"When I started using ForumNet (a chat program similar to IRC,
but smaller -- [Now called ICB]) back in January 1990, I was
fairly shy and insecure...I had a few close friends but was slow
at making new ones. Within a few weeks, on ForumNet, I found
myself able to be open, articulate, and well-liked in this
virtual environment. Soon, this discovery began to affect my
behavior in "real" face-to-face interaction. I met some of my
computer friends in person and they made me feel so good about
myself, like I really could be myself and converse and be liked
and wanted.
Of course, computer-mediated social interaction is not properly a
crutch to substitute for face-to-face encounters, but the ability
to converse via keyboard and modem with real people at the other
end of the line has translated into the real-life ability for me
to reach out to people without the mediating use of a computer.
My life has improved. I wouldn't trade my experience with the
Net for anything."
From: Jack Frisch <frischj@uwgb.edu>
" I must begin my comments on the Internet with one simple
yet significant statement: the availability and use of the
Internet is changing my life profoundly."
--
From: Carole E. Mah
" I also used to facilitate a vegetarian list, which radically
altered many people's lives, offering them access to mail-order
foods, recipes, and friendship via net-contact with people who
live in areas where non-meat alternatives are readily available."
From: Charles Bandes <bdnee@silver.lcs.mit.edu>
"I've spent three of my four years here at the Rhode Island
School of Design actively hooked into the net, and I've got to
say that it's been of great influence to me. I've met a number
of correspondents with whom I've swapped art and ideas, as well
as finding MUDS and MUSHes, where I was able to test out my ideas
on vast quantities of people. The ability to access information
instantly has changed my outlook on art to a certain degree, I've
become very interested in networked art, email-art, hypertext,
multimedia, and mail art in general, and the net is at least
partially to thank for it. I have swapped snail mail mail-art as
well as digital images across the country with artists I met
online, as well as collaborating on written projects via the
net."
From: Jann VanOver <jevo@halcyon.com>
" Well, the first thing I thought of is purchases I've made
through the net which have "changed my life" I drove my Subaru
Station wagon until last fall when I acquired a VW Camper Van
that I saw on a local net ad.
I wasn't looking for a van, wasn't even shopping for another
vehicle, but the second time this ad scrolled by me, I looked
into it and eventually bought it. I will certainly say that
driving a 23 year old VW camper Van has changed my life! I
thought I would be ridiculed, but have found that people have a
lot of respect and admiration for this car!
Through the Net, I heard that Roger Waters was going to perform
"The Wall" again, an event I had promised myself not to miss, so
I made a trip to Berlin (East and West) in 1990 to see this
concert. This was CERTAINLY a life changing event, seeing Berlin
less than one week after the roads were open with no checkpoints
required. I don't think I would have known about it soon enough
if not for the Net."
From: Rob Dean <robdean@access.digex.net>
"As for me, my main hobby is and was playing wargames and role-
-playing games. Net access has allowed me to discuss these games
with players across the world, picking up new ideas, and gather-
ing opinions on new games before spending money on them. In
addition, I've been able to buy and sell games via net connec-
tions, allowing me to adjust my collection of games to meet my
current interests, and get games that I no longer wanted to
people who do want them, whether they live down the road from me
in Maryland, or in Canada, Austria, Finland, Germany or Israel.
I have also taken an Esperanto course via email, and correspond
irregularly in Esperanto with other interested parties world
wide."
--
From: Caryn K. Roberts <ckr2196@aw2.fsl.ca.boeing.com>
"Usenet & Internet (what I think you meant by "Net") is available
to me at work and by dialup connection to work from home. I have
been materially enriched by the use of the Net. I have managed to
sell items I no longer needed. I have been able to purchase items
from others for good prices. I have saved money and am doing my
part to recycle technology instead of adding burdens to the
municiple waste disposal service.
Using the Net I have also been enriched by discussions and
information found in numerous newsgroups from sci.med to
sci.skeptic to many of the comp.* groups. I have offered advice
to solve problems and have been able to solve problems I had by
using information in these forums."
F. The Net as a source of enormous resources:
Before the Net was known as an enormous social network, it was
developed to provide a sharing of resources. Many people originally
joined in order to take advantage of those information resources they
had heard about. The following are some examples of ways Netizens
utilize the information resources available on the Net.
Sender: TIM NORTH
"I'm faculty here at ... University and I use the net as a major source
of technical information for my lectures, up-to-date product information, and
informed opinion. As such I find that I am constantly better informed than
the people around me. (That sounds vain, but it's not meant to be. It's simply
meant to emphasize how strongly I feel that the net is a superb information
resource.)"
From: white@silver.DL.EMBL-Heidelberg.DE (RJ White)
"I used the net to find parts for my 1971 Opel GT. I was living
in North America at the time, and going through the normal channels, like
GM, are no good. The net was like an untapped resource."
--------------------------------------
From: John Harper
"Uses of the network
(1) I once asked a question about an obscure point in history of maths. on
the sci.math newsgroup and got a useful answer from Exeter, UK. Beforehand I
had no idea where anyone knowing the answer might be. I had drawn a blank in
Oxford.
(2) I asked a question about a slightly less obscure point on comp.lang.fortran
which generated a long (and helpful) discussion on the net for a
week or two."
--
From: Paul Ready
"Yes, it is a worldwide rapid distribution center of information, on
topics both popular and obscure. It may not make the information more
valuable, but it certainly increases the information, and the propagation
of information. To those connected, it is a valuable resource. Flame
wars aside, a lot of generally inaccessible information is readily available."
--
From: Lee Rothstein
"Usenet and mailing lists create a group of people who are motivated and
capable of talking about a specific topic. The software allows deeply
contextual conversations to occur with a minimum of rehash. As experience
develops with the medium, each user realizes that the other that he talks to
or will talk to generally help him/her, and can do him/her no harm because of
the remoteness imposed by the cable."
--
From: Lu Ann Johnson <ai411@yfn.ysu.edu>
"Hi! Usenet came to my rescue--I'm a librarian and was working with a group
of students on a marketing project. They were marketing a make-believe product
--a compact disc of "music hits of the 70's". They needed a source to tell them
how much it cost to produce a cd--without mastering, etc. I exhausted
all my print resources so I posted the question in a business newsgroup.
Within hours I learned from several companies that it cost
about $1.50 to produce
a cd :) The students were very grateful to get the information."
From: Laura Goodin
" I teach self-defense, and just yesterday in rec.martial-art someone
posted information about a study on the effectiveness of Mace for
self-defense that I had been looking for for years."
From: Cliff Roberts <cliffr@cc.bellcore.com>
"I have been using Internet through a program in New Jersey to
bring the fields of Science and Math to grammar school
children grades K - 8.
We have implemented a system where the class rooms are equiped
with PC's and are able to dial in to a UNIX system.
There they can send email and post questions to a KidsQuest
ID. The ID then routes the questions to volunteers with
accounts on UNIX. The scientists then answer or give advise
of where to find the information they want.
Another well accepted feature is to list out the soc.penpals list
and email people in different countries that are being studied
in the schools."
From: Joe Farrenkopf
"I think Usenet is a very interesting thing. For me, it's mostly just a
way to pass (waste :-) time when bored. However, I have gotten some very
useful things from it. There is one group in particular called
comp.lang.fortran, and on several occasions when I've had a problem writing
a program, I was able to post to this group to get some help to find out
what I was doing wrong. In these cases, it was an invaluable resource."
------------------------------
G. COLLECTIVE WORK
As new connections are made between people more ideas travel over
greater distances. This allows either like-minded people or
complementary people to come in touch with each other. The varied
resources of the networks allow these same people to keep in touch even
if they wouldn't have been able to be in touch before. Electronic Mail
allows enough detail to be contained in a message that most if not all
communications can take place entirely electronically. This medium
allows for new forms of collaborative work to form and thrive. New
forms of research will probably arise from such possibilities. Here are
some examples:
From: Wayne Hathaway <wayne@auspex.com>
"One 'unusual' use I made of the net happened in 1977. (Yep, it
existed and had most of the e-mail infrastructure in place by then.)
Along with five other 'Net Folks' I wrote the following paper:
'The ARPANET TELNET Protocol: Its Purpose, Principles, Implementation,
and Impact on Host Operating System Design,' with Davidson, Postel,
Mimno, Thomas, and Walden; Fifth Data Communications Symposium,
Snowbird, UT; September 27-29, 1977.
What's so unusual about a collaborative paper, you ask? Simply that
the six of us never even made a TELEPHONE call about the paper, much
less had a meeting or anything. Literally EVERYTHING -- from the
first ideas in a 'broadcast' mail to the distribution of the final
'troff-ready' version -- was done with e-mail.
These days this might not be such a deal, but it was interesting back
then."
From: Paul Gillingwater
"About the most interesting thing here in Vienna was an on-line computer
mediated art forum earlier this month, with video conferencing between
two cities, plus an on-line discussion in a virtual MUD-type conference
later that evening."
A Response I received via E-Mail
"In response to your question about having fun on the net, and being
creative, one incident comes to mind. I had met a woman on ForumNet (a
system like IRC). She and I talked and talked about all sorts of things.
One night, we felt especially artistic. We co-wrote a poem over the
computer. I'd type a few words, she'd pick up where I left off (in the
middle of sentences or wherever) and on and on. I don't think we had any
idea what it was going to be in the end, thematically or structurally.
In the end, we had a very good poem, one that I would try to publish
if I knew her whereabouts anymore..."
H. IMPROVING QUALITY OF EVERYDAY LIFE.
Information flow can take various shapes. The strangest and perhaps
most interesting one is how emotion can be attached to information flow.
They often seem like two very different things. I received a large number
of responses that reported real-life marriages arising from Net meetings.
The Net facilitates the meeting of people of like interests The newness of
the Net means we can not fully understand it as of yet.
From: Caryn K. Roberts <ckr2196@aw2.fsl.ca.boeing.com>
"I have found friends on the Net. A lover. And two of the friends I met, also
met online and got married. I attended the wedding (in
California)."
--
From: Scott Kitchen
"I think I can add something for your paper. I met my fiancee 4 years
ago over the net. I was at Ohio State, and she was in Princeton, and
we started talking about an article of hers I'd read in rec.games.frp.
We got to talking, eventually met, found we liked each other, and the
rest is history. We'll be marrying soon.
Scott Kitchen (email)
Jennifer Doyle (email)"
--
From: jj@research.att.com
"Well, I met my spouse by having an argument with her
about how to make piecrust in net.cooks.recipes (this
was a while ago, needless to say)."
--
From: Greg "Wolves" Woodbury <ggw@wolves.durham.nc.us>
"I met the woman who became my wife when I started talking to the
folks at "phs" (the third site of the original Usenet) during the
development of NetNews. I would not have been wandering around that
area if I hadn't been interested in the development of the net."
--
From: Laura Goodin
"And now, the BEST story: about eight months ago I was browsing
soc.culture.australia and I noticed a message from an Australian composer
studying in the US about an alternative tune to "Waltzing Matilda." I was
curious, so I responded in email, requesting the tune and just sort of
shooting the breeze. We began an email correspondence that soon
incorporated voice calls as well. One thing led inexorably to another and
we fell in love (before we met face to face, actually). We did eventually
meet face to face. Last month he proposed over the Internet (in
soc.culture.australia) and I accepted. Congratulatory messages came in
from all over the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Houston
(that's his name) and I keep our phone bills from resembling the national
debt by sending 10 or 12 emails a day (we're well over 1400 for eight
months now), and chatting using IRC. A long-distance relationship is
hellish, but the pain is eased somewhat by the Internet."
--
From: Chuq Von Rospach <chuq@apple.com>
"(oh, and in the "how the net made my non-net life better" category, I met my
wife via the net. Does that count?)"
---
WORK
The fluid connections and the rapidly changing nature of the
networks make the Net a welcome Media for job hunters and job placers.
The Networks have a large turnover of people who are looking for jobs.
The advertising is free and can be perpetuated as long as the job is
offered. E-mail allows for the quick and easy applications by sending
resumes in the e-mail. Companies can respond quickly and easy to such
submissions, also by e-mail.
Besides finding work, the Net helps people who are currently
working preform their job in the best manner. Many people utilize the
net to assist them with their jobs. Several examples of both follow:
From: Laura Goodin
"My division successfully recruited a highly-qualified consultant
(a Finn living in Tasmania) to do some work for us; the initial
announcement was over Usenet; subsequent negotiations were
through email."
--
From: jj@research.att.com
"I've hired people off the net, and from meeting them in MUDS, when I
find somebody who can THINK. People who can think are hard to find
anywhere."
From: Diana Gregory <diana@wetware.com>
"I have learned to use UNIX, and as a result may be able
to keep/advance in my job due to the 'net."
--
From: Neil Galarneau
"It helps me do my job (ms-windows programming) and it helps me learn new
things (like C++)."
--
From: KIERAN CLULOW <u1036254@csdvax.csd.unsw.edu.au>
"the internet access provided me by the university has greatly
facilitated my ability to both use and programme computers
and this has had the direct result of improving my grades as well as
gaining me a good job in the computer field.
long live the internet
(and make it possible for private citizens to get access!)"
--
From: Mark Gooley <gooley@netcom.com>
"I got my job by answering a posting to a newsgroup."
--
From: Anthony Berno <aberno@godel.questor.wimsey.bc.ca>
"I develop for NEXTSTEP, and the Net is very useful in getting useful
programming hints, info on product releases, rumours, et cetra."
--
From: Greg "Wolves" Woodbury <ggw@wolves.durham.nc.us>
"Due to contacts made via Usenet and email, I got a job as a
consultant at BTL in 1981 after I lost my job at Duke. Part of the
qualifications that got me in the door was experience with
Usenet."
--
From: Carole E. Mah
" Lastly. the network helped my best friend get a job, helped me find
an apartment one year."
I. IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS WITH FRIENDS
Another way of improving daily life is by making communications
with friends easier. The penning of a computer letter is making the art
of letter writing no longer a thing of the past. However, the immediacy
of e-mail means less care is made in the process of writing. E-mail,
IRC and netnews allows keeping in touch with friends outside one's
local area much easier.
From: Carole E. Mah
" It also facilitates great friendships (most of my friends, even in my own
town, I met on the network. This can often alleviate feelings of loneliness
and "I'm the only one, i must be a pervert" feelings among queer people
just coming out of the closet -- they have a whole world of like-minded people
to turn to -- on Usenet, on Bitnet lists, on IRC, in personal email, on
bbs and AOL-type conferences, etc."
From: Bill Walker
"I also have an old and dear friend (from high school) who lives in the San
Francisco area. After I moved to San Diego, we didn't do very well at
keeping in touch. She and I talked on the phone a couple of times a year.
After we discovered we were both on the net, we started corresponding via
email, and we now exchange mail several times a week. So, the net has
allowed me to keep in much closer touch with a good friend. It's nothing
that couldn't be done by phone, or snail mail, but somehow we never got
around to doing those things. Email is quick, easy and fun enough that we
don't put it off."
From: Anthony Berno <aberno@godel.questor.wimsey.bc.ca>
"Incidentally, it is also one of my primary modes of communication
with my sister (who lives in NZ) It's more meditative than a phone
call, faster than a letter, and cheaper than either of them."
From: Jann VanOver <jevo@halcyon.com>
"Apart from purchases, I have been contacted by:
1) a very good friend from college who I'd lost track of. SHE got
married to a man she met in a singles newsgroup (they've been married 2
years+)
2) someone who went to my high school, knew a lot of the same people I
did, but we didn't know each other. We are now "mail buddies"
3) an old girlfriend of my brothers. They went out for eight years, but
I learned more about her from ONE email letter than I had ever learned
when meeting her in person."
From: Godfrey Nolan <G.Nolan@gdr.bath.uk.ac.uk>
"Above all it helps me keep in touch with friends who I would
inevitably lose otherwise. The net helps those that move
around for economic reasons to lessen the worst aspects of
leaving your friends in the series of places that you once
called home.
Its the best thing since sliced bread."
J. PROBLEMS
With all of the positive uses and advantages of the Net, it is
still not perfect. The blind-view of people on the Net seems to shield
everyone, but women. There is a relatively large male to female
percentage population on the Net. The women feel the effects of this
difference. Women who have easily identifiable user names or ids are
prone to be the center of much attention. While that might be good in
itself, much of that attention can be of a hostile or negative nature.
This attention might be detrimental to women being active on the Net.
Net harrasment can spread against other users too. People with
unpopular ideas need to be strong to withstand the outlash of abuse
they might receive from others.
The worst non-people problem seems to be information overflow.
Information adds up very quickly and it can be hard to organize it all
and sort through. This problem should be able to be solved as the
technology is developed to handle what is now possible. As my last
quote in this section describes, users can be harassed by other users
for whatever purposes, and by the inactivity of the power structure to
respond to such problems. This is a problem that will be hard to deal
with as it concerns politics and power, but one of the most important.
From: Scott Hatton <hatton@ddwizard.dundee.ncr.com>
"There is a problem with this brave new world in that a lot of people don't
appreciate there's another human being at the other keyboard. Flaming is a
real problem - especially in comp.misc. This is all a new facet of the
technology as well. People rarely trade insults in real life like they do on
internet. There's a tendency to stereotype your opponent into categories.
I think this is because you're not around to witness the results.
I find this more on Internet newsgroups than on Compuserve. I think this is
down to maturity - a lot of folk on the Internet are students who aren't
paying for their time on the system. Those on CompuServe are normally slightly
older, not so hot-headed and are paying for their time. Damn. Now I'm at
stereotyping now. It just goes to show..."
From: Joe Farrenkopf
"There is something else I've discovered that is really rather fascinating.
People can be incredibly rude when communicating through this medium. For
example, some time ago, I posted a question to lots of different newsgroups,
and many people felt my question was inappropriate to their particular
group. They wrote to me and told me so, using amazingly nasty words.
I guess it's easier to be rude if you don't have to face a person, but can
say whatever you want over a computer."
---
From: kepley@photon.phys.unca.edu (Brad Kepley)
"I get a little irritated with people always claiming someone else is
"wasting bandwidth" because they disagree with them. About half the
time it turns out that the person being told to shut up was right after
all. Then again, when you look at things like alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
and other "non-bandwidth-wasting" activities, it seems almost comical to
me when someone says this. There is nothing more wasteful than 95% of
what Usenet is used for. It's a joke to say that a particular person
is "wasting" it. To say that they are off-topic makes more sense.
I guess this is just a gripe rather than what you are looking for. Wasting
bandwidth again. :)"
--
From: Patt Leonard <pjlg9746@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
"In response to your request for examples of harassment on the net, I
would point you to some of the older (four months? five months?)
discussion on the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.soviet. To generalize
grossly, some of the male Russians and Russian emigres are really savage
toward women on the net, and willing to gleefully hound them off with
obscenities and hostile messages. There was an American women (signed her
name Patricia Schwartz, I think, though her mail header said Margaret --
or maybe I have that backwards) -- there was this American woman, staying
in Moscow, posting her impressions of the city, and some poetry, and
whatever else she felt like. I didn't care for her poetry, but some of
her observations were interesting. The Russian men (not all of them --
some of them defended her) were merciless to her. She posted a note
saying she had had a miscarriage, and some man wrote back, saying he
wished that she had bled to death. Their harassment was not of me
*directly*, but these messages created an environment so hostile, that I
am reluctant to post anything on that group. It is a very male-dominated
discussion, and that is due, in part, to the fact that some men posting
on it are so unrestrained in their misogyny."
IV. CONCLUSION
Despite the problems, for people of the World, the Net provides a
powerful way of peaceful assembly. Peaceful Assembly allows for people
to take control over their lives, rather than control being in the
hands of others. This power has to be honored and protected. Any medium
or tool that helps people to hold or gain power is something that is
special and has to be protected. (See "The Computer as Democratizer)
J.C.R. Licklider argued that access to the then growing
information network should be made ubiquitous. (Licklider B, 57) His
argued that the Net's value would depend on high connectivity. In his
earlier article, Licklider argues that the impact upon society depends
on how available the network is to the society as a while. He wrote:
"For the society, the impact will be good or bad depending mainly
on the question: Will `to be on line' be a privilege or a right? If
only a favored segment of the population gets a chance to enjoy the
advantage of `intelligence amplification,' the network may exaggerate
the discontinuity in the spectrum of intellectual opportunity." (40)
The Net has made a valuable impact to human society. As my
research has demonstrated, people's lives have been substantial
improved via their connection to the Net. This sets the basis for
providing access to all in society. Society will improve if net access
is made available to people on a whole. Only if access is universal
will the Net itself advance. The ubiquitous connection is necessary for
the Net to encompass all possible resources. One Net visionary
responded to my research by calling for universal access. Steve Welch
<smw@sage.cgd.ucar.edu> writes:
"If we can get to the point where anyone who gets out of high
school alive has used computers to communicate on the Net or a reasonable
facsimile or successor to it, then we as a society will benefit in ways
not currently understandable. When access to information is a ubiquitous
as access to the phone system, all hell will break loose. Bet on it."
Steve is right, "all hell will break loose" in the most
positive of ways imaginable. Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau, those
responsible for the Bill of Rights and French Declaration of the Rights
of Man, and the all fighters for democracy would have been proud.
As Licklider predicted, the Net is fundamentally changing the
way people live and work. Summing up the important potential of the
Net, Paul Ready observed:
"News and transfer of data are revolutionary in their speed and the way
they are done. It is likely to change the way things are produced in
the future just as other advances in communications in the past did:
roads, printing presses, relayed "pony express" mail, railroad, cars,
airplanes, tv/radio, and the telephone have all dramatically changed
the way things were done, and computers already are too."
V. APPENDIX
-----------
A) Is the Net a Source of Social/Econ. Wealth?
B) The Magic of E-Mail - Beginnings.
C) Does the Net bring Real-Life advantages?
D) Looking for Exciting Uses of the Net.
E) Connecting Others to the Net.
F) Looking for stories of Net Harrasment.
G) Does the Net help you be Creative or Have Fun?
A) Is the Net a Source of Social/Econ. Wealth? & Other thoughts
POST
----
Newsgroups:news.misc,alt.culture.usenet,alt.amateur-comp,sci.econ,comp.misc,
soc.misc,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Is the Net a Source of Social/Econ. Wealth? & Other thoughts
There are some notes I have made in trying to form a proposal for a
paper I am writing for an Independent Project in College. I would
appreciate any any ideas or suggestions in e-mail. Please send
e-mail to me at:
hauben@cs.columbia.edu
The points I would most like some feedback on are 1 - 6.
However, it might be useful if anyone is interested in the
question of whether or not the Net (and its users) is a source of
creation of economic, social, or intellectual wealth. This might
make an interesting discussion via public followups.
MY PROPOSAL:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I want to understand this idea of Internetworking and cooperative
attitude. The social connections and collaborations that the Internet
and other parts of the global computer network make possible are
new and very important. This more widespread communication brings
the general populace of the world in better intersection/ global
social intercourse.
Question about Battle for use and right to utilize. And people
have taken the battle up in order to keep access open and for
all. Forces for restriction and censorship. Only through battle
that net has stayed open. Net *inherently* allows people choice to
speak.
Is it secret that Usenet did restrict corporations/private from
abusing Net as it is research-oriented and developed only via
because it was an experiment? (NOT A FLAME)
*****1. What does communication over the networks mean? Is
it "value-added" somehow in that any response might bring
something added into the amount of information or value. Does
communication via the Net represent the quicker building by
people on other people's work thus representing advancements (in
ideas, products, production, etc)
*****2. Does the Net represent intellectual wealth? Does the net
represent the growth and increase in Gross National Product
/Wealth or Wealth of Nations? [What if any theoretical background
is there to this?] William Petty maybe Bacon, or Royal Society.
***3. What does the Net make possible? Is the "Communication" on
the net different than normal/before modes of communication? DOes
the widespread of connections and zero-time [Ability to
turnaround information and/or publication or exchange of
information in almost no time] of producing things prove
revolutionary?
***4. Provides a Forum that facilitates Intellectual Ferment
*****5. Net makes knowing real conditions of society possible - because
you have a "direct" connection to "many" people - the masses.
*****6. Accurate Information [similar to point 5]
7. How does the network make these "connections" possible easier
than before? [These connections being finding people in the world
to enjoy exchanging information, debating, connecting
intellectually or whimsically - helping to find people who you
can or want to interact/communicate with.]
8. Who has access and can gain the advantage of this
service/connection/resource/revolution? Is this only an advantaged
group of people, or is it growing quickly? Or should it grow
quicker? What direction is access going towards for? What is
Clinton/etc doing? [Business?] Is there a fight against the
continued openness and/or growing openness of letting the great
body of people communicate accurate information that is normally
controlled in normal modes of mass media.
Thanks
-Michael Hauben
-------------------------------------------------------------------
B) The Magic of E-Mail - Beginnings.
POST:
-----
Subject: The Magic of E-Mail - Beginnings
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,alt.amateur-comp,alt.folklore.computers,
soc.college,alt.culture.usenet,news.misc
Do you remember the first email message you sent? Do you remember
the first email you replied to? Do you remember the first
response you received in email? Do you remember the first email
response you received seemingly before you sent out the original
message? <chuckle> -- Do you remember the magic? --
Excitment is a key word, as is immense usefulness. Whether you
are a scientist, a student or a casual user, person-to-person
communication via the computer is *VERY* exciting. Remember your
first time and write it down. Keep your memory and save it for
posterity. You...We... are all part of what is a realtivly early
period of the computer communications revolution. Save your
experience in order to help recognize and remember this period of
change - this beginning.
---
And if you do write down (or type in) your first (or first
couple) of real *exciting* e-mail beginnings please email them to
me. I will try to post a summary to usenet. And talk about e-mail
from e-mail or e-mail in response to Usenet, or e-mail in
connection with something before the current e-mail or what you
think might come in the future.
Thanks,
-Michael
----------------------------------------------------------
C) Does the Net bring Real-Life advantages?
POST:
-----
Article 891 of alt.amateur-comp:
Newsgroups: soc.singles,rec.autos,soc.college,alt.amateur-comp,
soc.culture.usa,comp.misc
From: hauben@cs.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben)
Subject: Does the Net bring Real-Life advantages?
Message-ID: <C5II5B.KJr@cs.columbia.edu>
Summary: Has the Net improved or broadened your off-line world?
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1993 06:31:58 GMT
How has the Net changed your life? Has anyone who has
used the Net actually been able to add to their off-line life
successfully? I am doing research for a paper for college, and I
am interested in the material changes that the Net helps develop
through the increased communication.
Has access to the Net and your participation on it
allowed you to do something that you wouldn't have done before -
offline? Anything would be interesting - meeting people/ new
friends, marrying someone from on-line, joining groups, certain
opportunities that were there because of the connection via the
Net, etc. I am interested in hearing about actions caused by use
of any part of the Net (Usenet, talk, e-mail, etc). The *KEY*
point is that the cause or facilitator of the event needs to be
because of the Net somehow. If you have any interesting, or
useful stories, or ideas please either e-mail them to me, or post
a follow-up to this message!
Thanks,
-Michael
-----------------------------------------------------------
D) Looking for Exciting Uses of the Net.
POST:
----
Subject: Looking for Exciting Uses of the Net
I am doing research for a paper for a college independent study
about the net and communications. I would appreciate hearing
about using any part of the net: Usenet News/Netnews, irc, e-mail,
mailing-lists, Freenets, ftp, wais, gopher, etc.
I would like to know about people's uses of the network(s) that
have been especially interesting, valuable and/or exciting. I
want to hear about people's delights and also about
disappointments using the Net. Please do NOT send me information
about use by businesses or corporations for commercial purposes.
I am NOT interested in commercial or proprietary uses. I AM
interested in uses that serve the public, that are open, that
serve science, research, education, and social aims and
objectives. I am also interested in uses that serve to help
people personally on their work (programming, et al) or hobbies.
Either email me at hauben@cs.columbia.edu or post a public
followup. Both if possible.
Thanks,
-Michael Hauben
---------------------------------------------------------
CONNECT POST:
-------------
Subject: Connecting Others to the Net
Newsgroups: news.misc,alt.culture.usenet,alt.amateur-comp,comp.misc,soc.misc
Hi,
I would like to hear from people the various ways in how
they have introduced others to Usenet and the Internet. What ways
have been sucessfull and relatively inexpensive or res in getting
family, friends, and other associates connected?
I am interested because I am interested in people's
attempts (consciously or unconsciously) to further the expansion
of the Net.
To the further expansion of the Net! :)
-Michael Hauben
--------------------------------------------------------------
F) Looking for stories of Net Harrasment.
POST:
-----
Subject: Looking for stories of Net Harrasment
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,news.misc,comp.mail.misc,
alt.amateur-comp
Have you ever experienced harrasement on the net? Have you tried
to utilize the communicative aspects of Usenet, Email or other
computer networking capabilities but wound up discoraged? Please
let me know if you have been the victim of censorship, harassment
or some kind of blocking at some point in your usage of computer
vfacilitated communication. If so, do you think this
"discouragement" was wrong or vicious, or malicious.
Thank you,
-Michael
And lastly maybe it would be helpful to find out why you thought
you were treated such.
-----------------------------------------------------------
G) Does the Net help you be Creative or Have Fun?
POST:
-----
Subject: Does the Net help you be Creative or Have Fun?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,talk.bizarre,alt.mud,alt.irc,news.misc,
alt.culture.usenet,alt.amateur-comp,rec.music.misc,rec.arts.misc
I am conducting research for an independent study about computer
and communication for college. So far I have asked and received
many "serious" answers and replies dealing with work, keeping in
touch with friends around the world, etc. However I am also
interested in what effect the Net (Netnews, the Internet, other
Nets, ftp, irc, gopher, etc) has on either creative endevors you
might have, or just plain silly or fun things. Has access to the
Net helped you in any creative hobbies you might have, or just
given you a chance to have fun?
For example. have your music tastes expanded, or do you know
about more plays happening, have you learned about other who are
musicians, or artists or writers? And if so, have you gotten a
chance to jam, paint, write, or somehow help each other? Have
there been any on-going creative collaborative music/art/literary
experiments? How has the computer assisted communication helped
you be creative or expanded your boundaires?
The other side is, have you found more ways to just have fun, or
of news ways of having fun.
As I am not exactly sure where to post this message, I would
appreciate any suggestions as to other groups to post the
message to.
Thanks!
-Michael Hauben
=====
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hauben, Michael, "The Social Forces Behind the Development of
Usenet News", The Amateur Computerist Newsletter, Vol 5 No 1-2
Winter/Spring 1993
Hauben, Michael, "The Computer as Democratizer", Amateur
Computerist, Vol 4 No 5, Fall 1992
Licklider, J.C.R and Albert Vezza, "Applications of Information
Systems", Proceedings of the IEEE, Nov 1978
Licklider, J.C.R. and Robert Taylor, "The Computer as a
Communication Device" from "In Memoriam: J.C.R. Licklider
1915-1990," Aug. 7, 1990, p. 40; reprinted by permission from
Digital Research Center; originally published as "The Computer as
a Communication Device," in "Science and Technology", April,
1968, pg. 40
"Personal Computing", October 1989, (Special Issue "Computing in America IV"),
"Fighting City Hall at 2400 Baud", pg. 170-172
Quarterman, John, "The Matrix", Digital Press, Bedford, Mass., 1990
Smith, Adam, "The Wealth of Nations", London, 1776
Stefferud, Einar, in "ConneXions", Vol 3 No 10, October 1989, pg. 21