The Amateur
Computerist
Webpage:
Summer 2012 May 1 Netizen Celebration Volume 22 No. 1
Table of Contents
Greetings on the 15
th
Anniversary . . . . . . . . . Page 1
Netizens and Communication.. . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5
Netizens Expose Distortions.. . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11
My thinking on Netizens.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14
[Editor’s Note: The following are greetings received
by May 1, 2012 and read at the celebration of the 15
th
Anniversary of the print edition of Netizens: On the
History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet by
Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben released on May
1, 1997.]
Greetings on the 15
th
Anniversary
of the Print Edition of
Netizens
1) From San Francisco, California
Dear Jay and Ronda:
I clearly remember the time when you both
shared with Larry and me the concept of Netizens and
the scope of the Netizen book. I was intrigued be-
cause it was so different, and Larry was immediately
captivated by what he called the ‘universality of the
concept’.
The three of you actually started a movement
that has circled the globe! Think about that. So few of
us ever make a contribution of that magnitude. As is
often recorded over time, the originators don’t always
get the credit for the best of ideas… although personal
credit was not ever high on your agenda. You have
the knowledge that your ideas indeed have caught
hold and are being replicated in many ways across the
world, improving communication in society and
challenging old parameters.
I congratulate you on your achievement!
With respect and love,
Margaret
2) From a Japanese Network activist who accompa-
nied Michael in 1995 when Michael was invited to
Japan
Dear Jay,
Thank you for your kind invitation.
I am doing fine, was asked to give a talk in
India a few weeks ago on “Netizen” at the Internet
Governance related conference and mentioned about
Michael and the Book, remembering you all.
I have cced this to Prof. Kumon and also Ms.
Chika Sekine who met Michael at the Hypernet
conference back in '95, I believe, when we invited
Michael.
Will try to send some words.
Best
Izumi
Later Izumi sent this greeting: “Netizen” is
really a special term for us, in the mid '90s when we
found the Internet, I felt “this is it.” The term Netizen
very much symbolizes what we have been looking for
– an active, free-spirited being, no specialist, crossing
the border of cultures, states and minds on the planet.
We owe a lot to people who coined this term and
nurtured the concept. Thank you,
3) From the Chairperson of the Internet Society of
China
Dear Jay,
Page 1
Netizens in China are happy to catch the
opportunity of Internet age to participate and improve
themselves from the participation. It’s a great histori-
cal process for the Chinese Nation!
This is what I’d write in honor of the 15
anniversary of the book “Netizen.”
Wish you and Ronda have a nice gathering
with friends.
Qiheng
4) From an Internet research scholar in France
Dear Jay, Dear Ronda,
Thank you for your message! I was very
happy to read about the luncheon you’re organizing to
celebrate the 15
th
anniversary of the publication of
Netizens, and if I had been in New York, it would
have been a pleasure to participate. So here’s my
small contribution to the event:
Sixteen years ago, I started working toward a
Ph.D. on the political uses of the Internet at Univer-
sity Paris 7. At the time, in France, few people were
connected to the Net outside universities, and I felt
the need to explain the origins of the network. But
where was I to find the books? Remember 1996: no
Amazon, no Google, and buying a book overseas
meant a lengthy mail-order process, often taking over
a month. So you can imagine my joy when I discov-
ered Netizens, available online on the University of
Columbia’s server, and for free, too! It was truly
amazing to me, and the very fact of finding it got me
thinking about the gift economy of the internet.
Netizens is a landmark study from which I learned
and quoted at length. Its worldwide readership testi-
fies to its importance in the field of Internet studies.
[I think I first came across Netizens as a
posting in one of the Usenet newsgroups I was fol-
lowing at the time (uspolitics, if I remember cor-
rectly). I was so happy to have found it that I printed
out entire chapters :-) ]
Happy celebration, and all the best from
Vivian
5) From Berlin, Germany
From me too, of course...the book was a real
milestone…we all also remember Michael fondly, of
course....
Ron
6) From Bloomfield Hills Michigan
Dear Ronda and Jay,
We thank you for your invitation to the
luncheon, and are sorry that geography prevents us
from being there. Don’t forget to put a blurb in your
local papers about the anniversary to get a little
publicity. The Netizen book was assigned to Tom in
an Information Technology class at the University of
Michigan. The professor believed that the internet
would be a universal vehicle of trading ideas, and of
course she was right.
Congratulations that your book is still as
relevant as it was 15 years ago. We are certain that
this ceremony is greeted as enthusiastically as the
original event.
Best wishes.
Tom and Olga
7) From Oita, Beppu Bay Japan
(15
th
Anniversary of the hardcover book Netizens
Celebration)
My dear old memory of Michael Hauben
In 1995 April, I heard that Mr. Michael
Hauben, the inventor of the word “Netizens,” was
scheduled to visit Oita, a small local city in southwest
part of Japan. I was very excited and decided to
welcome him. A boyish-looking young man who has
just grown up to an adult appeared through the con-
ference room door and said hello. It was Mr. Michael
Hauben from the USA.
First, I had sent him a welcome message
through the E-mail saying please come to Oita Japan.
Michael kindly checked the Internet in advance to
learn what I was and what I was interested in. He
prepared “A little New York Cookbook” and pre-
sented it to me. I was really delighted to see the
lovely, tiny book filled with beautiful illustrations of
cookies and other simple foods. I picked up some of
them and actually cooked them in home. I took the
pictures of the dishes and posted to the Internet.
Michel was delighted as well.
New York is my long-cherished city. In 1998,
I sent him a message to visit NYC and finally could
meet not only him but also his parents in the city. I
carried his book Netizens Japanese version with me
Page 2
and asked him to put the author’s message on it. I also
visited his apartment and exchanged greetings. This
was a great memory in my life.
I don’t like to use the subjunctive mood if he
were alive, but he had passed away too early, too
young. I wish him to watch the developing Internet
world and network citizens much and much more. If
he were here, he would have invented another new
concept of Netizens.
I highly value the memory of Michael Hauben
and pay my respects to Michael’s parents Jay and
Ronda who strongly promote the Netizenship all
around the world. I and my husband Ken are very
proud of being the everlasting friends of Michael
Hauben who is now smiling and silently watching us
from Heaven. Yes, Michael lives forever in our
hearts.
Mieko
8) From Shanghai China and for this year NYC
Netizens change the world, especially China.
Thanks to the internet, we can make our voice now.
That’s what I want to say.
Hanting
9) From Beijing, China
It is an important celebration for the 15
th
anniversary of the book: Netizens: On the History and
Impact of the Usenet and the Internet. I am very glad
to give a greeting.
Netizens is a power of people. It is our
unprecedented option to impact the style of society,
more importantly, to create the ideal world existing in
all the peoples’ hearts around the world. Everyone
who uses the internet to make our world better, espe-
cially the pioneer who discovered the Netizen’s story,
turned the Netizen from a rhetoric word to a new
media, new life and new power. I want to give my
honor and respect for them, I know Michael is one of
them. I want to thank him, and I also will do my best
to continue this job without salary, only with my
conscience and responsibility.
Yunlong
10) From a Senior IT Professor, Lucian Blaga Univer-
sity, Sibiu, Romania
Dears Ronda and Jay,
I am very happy that this seminal and beloved
book is now a “surprisingly mature teenager” and I
greet from all my heart the initiative to pay tribute to
the book itself and to its authors. Moreover, I think
that the message is as important as it was from the
very beginning, I am proud to be a virtual participant
now at the Anniversary as well as an enthusiast reader
14 years ago (when I translated the key concept of
Netizen), and I look forward to similar influential
messages.
All the best,
Boldur
11) From a Professor in Political Science, Waseda
University, Japan
Congratulation of the 15 years of your book
on “Netizens.”
The word “Netizen “ became popular now in
Asia. My “Global Netizen College” in Japanese had
about 1.5 million accesses,
and there are over 2.5 million web sites which use the
Japanese word “Netizen” by Google search.
In South Korea, Netizen is one of the most
popular words for their communication, like “netizen-
ship,” “netizen vote” or even “netizen revolution.”
In China, the biggest internet country in the
world, made the new word “Netizens” in Chinese
Wikipedia, as Ms. Ronda Hauben reported in detail in
“China in the Era of the Netizen.”
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (This page links to the
netbook and to Michael’s netbook page)
http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in
_the_era_of_the_netizen/
Thus, we might be proud of our tasks as a
pioneer of the “Rights of Netizens”
I hope your further activity for the freedom of
expression and your good health.
Yours,
Tetsuro
Page 3
12) From Berlin Germany
Dear Jay and Ronda,
Wendy and I congratulate you to the 15
th
anniversary of _Netizens_.
The tools used by netizens have evolved enor-
mously over the course of time. Electronic communi-
cation has developed from bulletin boards through
mail lists and Usenet, on through Web-based forums
and text messaging, and now on to Facebook and
Twitter. Some of the older modes of communication
are still in use; others have, by and large, fallen by the
wayside. And it remains to be seen how the commer-
cial aspects of the newer forms will play out, as well
as how attempts by governments around the world to
regulate and control Internet communications will
affect our usage of electronic media.
Certainly these tools have been used to ad-
vance political goals (both admirable and, sometimes,
less admirable), and I am sure others will want to say
more about this topic.
From my perspective, electronic communica-
tions have also been an essential tool allowing me to
communicate with others who share my involvement
in a programming language called Max/MSP. This is
a system relatively few people are aware of outside of
the fields of computer music and digital audio produc-
tion. Indeed, it was originally known primarily only
in a handful of universities and research centers
studying acoustics and electronic music. The power of
Internet communication is that it has allowed people,
spread extremely sparsely around the world, to form
an intensely supportive community. We have shared
knowledge, helped each other solve problems, spread
news of exciting projects and even professional work
opportunities. And this vital community has continu-
ally provided a platform for more people to become
engaged, from new users of Max/MSP struggling with
their first projects through to highly experienced users
and the original developers of this software tool. And,
as this community has grown, so we are now seeing
Max/MSP being used to shape sound in radio and
television broadcasts, theaters, even by commercial
sound design for leading international enterprises.
The chances are that something you recently heard –
be it the ‘snap’ of some digital camera, sound effects
on a television program or on stage, or a hit record on
the radio – was shaped with Max/MSP. I was recently
involved in a project to develop ways of allowing
children with special needs, particularly extreme
physical disabilities, to actively participate in music
making. This would not have been possible without
the software tool
Max/MSP, but it would also not have been
possible without the dissemination of knowledge
about this software facilitated by netizenship.
Wendy and I wish Jay and Ronda continued
success in their work with actively encouraging
netizens to form new activities. We sincerely hope
that more and more of these will be forces for better-
ment – socially, scientifically, artistically, and politi-
cally – around the world.
With all best regards,
Peter and Wendy
13) From the Secretary General of the People’s
Solidarity for Participatory Democracy Seoul, South
Korea
Dear Ronda and Jay,
Congratulation on the 15
th
anniversary of the
release of “Netizen.” Nowadays, Netizens in the
world are playing a crucial role for changing the
world. Communication on line with internet has been
helping participatory democracy to develop.
Thank your family for excellent researches
and activities in promoting participatory democracy.
Best regards,
Taeho
14) From Yaoundé, Cameroon (West Africa) 2009
Dear Ronda,
I am happy to be in contact with an author I
did appreciate and lengthily quoted in an important
paper. As an anthropologist, I could only use a limited
aspect of your research. I do hope I will learn more
from you as far as connecting people around the
world is concerned. In the MOST program, the
concern is the linkage between research and public
policy, i.e., scientific results and decision making.
Netizenship is another scale of linkage among the
people around the world. Netizenship is therefore a
key point to raise and to work on, precisely as the
world is going as liberal as global. I must however tell
you how inspiring your book was to me for that
specific point.
Lets us keep in contact. And please, extend
my regards to your close friends or collaborators.
Best wishes.
Page 4
Charly
15) From Piscataway, New Jersey
The most striking thing to me about Netizens
is that it seemed to predict how the internet could be
used. When the book was written, the internet was not
part of the mainstream in the way it is now. There
were online communities, and it seems that there was
a togetherness and an openness online, which helped
inspire Michael’s ideas. But maybe those communi-
ties were more limited at the time, simply because
there were not as many internet users. Their impact
was harder to see in the world. Recently, we have
been seeing the internet used as a tool by movements
like the revolutionaries in Egypt and the Occupy
movement here.
With the internet’s widespread use there
comes conflicts. There have been debates over net
neutrality, and in general, it seems to be more and
more commercialized. But also with such wide use,
and because it still does have an openness, it can be a
very effective tool for democratic movements.
Mitchell
16) Anonymous:
“Netizens around the world stand with you now”
Netizens and
Communication:
A new Paradigm
by Ronda Hauben
[Note: This is a slightly edited version of a talk
presented on May 1, 2012 at a small celebration in
honor of the 15
th
Anniversary of the publication of the
print edition of the book Netizens]
I. – Looking Back
Fifteen years ago on May 1, 1997, the print
edition of Netizens: On the History and Impact of
Usenet and the Internet was published in English.
Later that year, in October, a Japanese translation of
the book was published. Today we are celebrating the
occasion of the 15
th
Anniversary of this event.
In honor of this occasion I want to both look
back and look forward toward trying to assess the
significance of the book and of Michael Hauben’s
discovery of the emergence of the netizen. I want to
briefly look at what has happened in the interim of
these 15 years toward trying to understand what new
advance this development makes possible.
By the early 1990s, Michael recognized that
the Internet was a significant new development and
that it would have an impact on our world. He was
curious about what that impact would be and what
could help it to have a beneficial impact.
The book was compiled from a series of
articles written by Michael and by me which were
posted on the Net as they were written and which
sometimes led to substantial comments and discus-
sion.
The most important article in the book was
clearly Michael’s article, “The Net and Netizens: the
Impact the Net Has on People’s Lives.”
Michael opened the article with the prophetic
words, which appeared online first in 1993: “Wel-
come to the 21
st
Century. You are a Netizen (a 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.”
[Netizens, Chapter 1, p. 3]
Michael goes on to explain that what he is
predicting is not yet the reality. In fact many people
around the world were just becoming connected to the
Internet during the period in which these words were
written and posted on various different networks that
existed at the time.
But now fifteen years after the publication of
the print edition of Netizens, this description is very
much the reality for our time and for many it is hard
to remember or understand the world without the Net.
Similarly, in his articles that are collected in
the Netizens book, Michael looked at the pioneering
vision that gave birth to the Internet, he looked at the
role of computer science in the building of the
ARPAnet network, at the potential impact that the Net
and Netizen would have on politics, on journalism,
Page 5
and on the revolution in ideas that the Net and
Netizen would bring about, comparing this to the
advance brought about by the printing press. The last
chapter of the book is an article Michael wrote early
on about the need for a watchdog function over
government in order to make democracy possible.
By the time the book was published in a print
edition, it had been freely available online for three
years. This was a period when the U.S. government
was determined to change the nature of the Net from
the public and scientific infrastructure that had been
built with public and educational funds around the
world to a commercially driven entity. While there
were people online at the time promoting the privat-
ization and commercialization of the Internet, the
concept of netizen was embraced by others, by many
who supported the public and collaborative nature of
the Internet and who wanted this to grow and flourish.
The article “The Net and Netizens” grew out
of a research project that Michael had done for a class
at Columbia University in Computer Ethics. Michael
was interested in the impact of the Net and so he
formulated several questions and sent them out
online. This was a pioneering project at the time and
the results he got back helped to establish the fact that
the Net was having an important impact on a number
of people’s lives.
Michael put together the results of his research
in the article “The Net and Netizens” and posted it
online. This helped the concept of netizen to spread
and to be embraced around the world. The netizen, it
is important to clarify, was not intended to describe
every net user. Rather netizen was the word to de-
scribe those on the Net who took up to support the
public and collaborative nature of the Net and to help
it to grow and flourish. Netizens at the time often had
the hope that their efforts online would be helpful
toward creating a better world.
Describing this experience in a speech he gave
in Japan and which subsequently became the preface
to the Netizens book, Michael explained: “In conduct-
ing research five years ago online to determine peo-
ple’s uses of the global computer communications
network, I became aware that there was a new social
institution, an electronic commons, developing. It was
exciting to explore this new social institution. Others
online shared this excitement. I discovered from those
who wrote me that the people I was writing about
were citizens of the Net or Netizens.” [Netizens,
Preface, p. ix]
Michael’s work which is included in the book
and the subsequent work he did recognized the
advance made possible by the Internet and the emer-
gence of the Netizen.
The book is not only about what is wrong with
the old politics, or media, but more importantly, the
implications for the emergence of new developments,
of a new politics, of a new form of citizenship, and of
what Michael called the “poor man’s version of the
mass media.” He focused on what was new or emerg-
ing and recognized the promise for the future repre-
sented by what was only at the time in an early stage
of development.
For example, Michael recognized that the
collaborative contributions for a new media would far
exceed what the old media had achieved. “As people
continue to connect to Usenet and other discussion
forums, the collective population will contribute back
to the human community this new form of news,” he
wrote. [Netizens, Chapter 13, p. 233]
In order to consider the impact of Michael’s
work and of the publication of the book, both in its
online form and in the print edition, I want to look at
some of the implications of what has been written
since about netizens.
II. – Mark Poster on the Implications of
the Concept of Netizen
One interesting example is in a book on the
impact of the Internet and globalization by Mark
Poster, a media theorist. The book’s title is Informa-
tion Please. The book was published in 2006. While
Poster doesn’t make any explicit reference to the book
Netizens he finds the concept he has seen used online
to be an important one. He offers some theoretical
discussion on the use of the “netizen” concept.
Referring to the concept of citizen, Poster is
interested in the relationship of the citizen to govern-
ment, and in the empowering of the citizen to be able
to affect the actions of one’s government. He consid-
ers the “Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the
Citizen” as a monument from the French Revolution
of 1789. He explains that the idea of the Rights of
Man was one effort to empower people to deal with
governments. But this was not adequate and the
concept of the rights of the citizen, he proposes, was
an important addition.
“Human rights and citizenship,” he writes,
“are tied together and reinforce each other in the
Page 6
battle against the ruling classes.” [Information Please,
p. 68] He proposes that “these rights are ensured by
their inscription in constitutions that found govern-
ments and they persist in their association with those
governments as the ground of political author-
ity.”[Ibid., p. 68]
But with the coming of what he calls the age
of globalization, Poster wonders if the concept “citi-
zen” can continue to signify democracy. He wonders
if the concept is up to the task.
“The conditions of globalization and net-
worked media,” he writes, present a new situation “in
which the human is recast and along with it the citi-
zen.”[Ibid., p.70] “The deepening of globalization
processes strips the citizen of power,” he writes. “As
economic processes become globalized, the nation-
state loses its ability to protect its population. The
citizen thereby loses her ability to elect leaders who
effectively pursue her interests.” [Ibid., p. 71]
In this situation, “the figure of the citizen is
placed in a defensive position.” [Ibid.] There is a
need, however, to find instead of a defensive position,
an offensive one.
Also, he is interested in the media and its role
in this new paradigm. “We need to examine the role
of the media in globalizing practices that construct
new subjects,” Poster writes. “We need especially to
examine those media that cross national boundaries
and to inquire if they form or may form the basis for
a new set of political relations.” [Ibid., p. 77]
In this context, for the new media, “the impor-
tant questions, rather are these,” he proposes: “Can
the new media promote the construction of new
political forms not tied to historical, territorial pow-
ers? What are the characteristics of new media that
promote new political relations and new political
subjects? How can these be furthered or enhanced by
political action?” [Ibid., p. 78]
“In contrast to the citizen of the nation,” he
notices, the name often given to the political subject
constituted on the Net is “netizen.” While Poster
makes it seem that the consciousness among some
online of themselves as “netizens” just appeared
online spontaneously, this is not accurate.
Before Michael’s work, netizen as a concept
was rarely if ever referred to. The paper “The Net and
Netizens” introduced and developed the concept of
“netizen.” This paper was widely circulated online.
Gradually the use of the concept of netizen became
increasingly common. Michael’s work was a process
of doing research online, summarizing the research,
analyzing it and then putting the research back online,
and of people embracing it. This was the process by
which the foundation for the concept of “netizen” was
established.
Considering this background, the observations
that Poster makes of how the concept of “netizen” is
used online represents recognition of the significant
role for the netizen in the future development of the
body politic. “The netizen,” Poster writes, “might be
the formative figure in a new kind of political rela-
tion, one that shares allegiance to the nation with
allegiance to the Net and to the planetary political
spaces it inaugurates.” [Ibid., p. 78]
These new phenomena, Poster concludes,
“will likely change the relation of forces around the
globe. In such an eventuality, the figure of the netizen
might serve as a critical concept in the politics of
democratization.” [Ibid., p. 83]
III. – The Era of the Netizen
While Poster characterizes our period as the
age of globalization, I want to offer a different view.
I want to propose that we are in an era demarcated by
the creation of the Internet and the emergence of the
netizen. A more accurate characterization of this
period is as the “Era of the Netizen.”
The years since the publication of the book
Netizens have been marked by many interesting
developments that have been made possible by the
growth and development of the Internet and the
spread of netizens around the world. I don’t have the
time to go into these today but I will refer to a few
examples to give a flavor of the kind of developments
I am referring to.
A recent article by Vinay Kamat in the
Reader’s Opinion section of the Times of India
referred to something I had written. Quoting my
article, the Times of India article said, “Not only is the
Internet a laboratory for democracy, but the scale of
participation and contribution is unprecedented.
Online discussion makes it possible for netizens to
become active individuals and group actors in social
and public affairs. The Internet makes it possible for
netizens to speak out independently of institutions or
officials.” [See “We are looking at the Fifth Estate,”
by Vinay Kamat, Reader’s Opinion, Times of India,
December 16, 2011, p. 2.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-
p a g e / W e - a r e - l o o k i n g - a t - t h e - f i f t h -
Page 7
estate/opinions/11133662.cms. The quote is taken
from, The Rise of Netizen Democracy: A Case Study
of Netizens’ Impact on Democracy in South Korea by
Ronda Hauben. For the URL, see:
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/misc/korean-
democracy.txt]
Kamat points to the growing number of
netizens in China and India and the large proportion
of the population in South Korea who are connected
to the Internet. “Will it evolve into a fifth estate?” the
article asks, contrasting netizens’ discussion online
with the power of the 4
th
estate, i.e., the mainstream
media.
“Will social and political discussion in social
media grow into deliberation?” asks Kamat. “Will
opinions expressed be merely ‘rabble rousing’ or will
they be ‘reflective’ instead of ‘impulsive’?”
One must recognize, the article explains, the
new situation online and the fact that it is important to
understand the nature of this new media and not
merely look at it through the lens of the old media.
What is the nature of this new media and how does it
differ from the old? This is an important area for
further research and discussion.
IV. – Looking for a Model
While I was in South Korea in 2008, a friend
asked if there is a model for democracy that could be
helpful for South Korea – like in some country
perhaps in Scandinavia. Thinking about the question
I realized it was more complex than it seemed on the
surface.
What I realized is that it isn’t that one can take
a model from the period before the Internet, from
before the emergence of the netizen. It is instead
necessary that models for a more democratic society
or nation in our times be models that include netizen
participation in the society. Both South Korea and
China are places where the role of netizens is impor-
tant in building more democratic structures for the
society. South Korea appears to be the most advanced
in grassroots efforts to create examples of netizen
forms for a more participatory decision making
process.
1
But China is also a place where there are
significant developments because of the Internet and
netizens.
2
In China there have been a large number of
issues that netizens have taken up online which have
then had an impact on the mainstream media and
where the online discussion has helped to bring about
a change in government policy.
In looking for other models to learn from,
however, I also realized that there is another relevant
area of development. This is the actual process of
building the Net, a prototype which is helpful to
consider when seeking to understand the nature and
particularity of the evolving new models for develop-
ment and participation represented in the Era of the
Netizen.
3
V. – Nerves of Government
In his article comparing the impact of the Net
with the important impact the printing press had on
society, Michael wrote: “The Net has opened a
channel for talking to the whole world to an even
wider set of people than did printed books.” [Netizens,
Chapter 16, p. 299]
In my presentation today I want to focus a bit
on the significance of this characteristic, on the notion
that the Net has opened a communication channel
available to a wide set of people.
In his study of the Net and Netizen, Michael
recognized the new that was emerging. In trying to
understand what impact the Net was having and
would have on society, he also kept in mind that the
technical processes of building the Net were impor-
tant.
In order to have a conceptual framework to
understand what these technical processes are, I
recommend the book by Karl Deutsch titled, The
Nerves of Government.
In the preface to his book, Deutsch writes:
“This book suggests that it might be preferable to
look upon government somewhat less as a problem of
power and somewhat more as a problem of steering;
and it tries to show that steering is decisively a matter
of communication.”[Nerves of Government, p. xxvii]
To look at the question of government not as
a problem of power, or of democracy, but as one of
steering, of communication, I want to propose is a
fundamental paradigm shift.
What is the difference?
While power has to do with force, with the
ability to exert force on something so as to affect its
direction and action, democracy has to do with the
participation and effect of people on the decisions
made for society. Steering and communication, how-
ever, are related to the process of the transmission of
a signal through a channel. The communication
process is one related to whether a signal is transmit-
Page 8
ted in a manner that distorts the signal or whether it is
possible to transmit the signal accurately. The com-
munication process and the steering that it makes
possible through feedback mechanisms are an under-
lying framework to consider in seeking to understand
what Deutsch calls the “Nerves of Government.”
According to Deutsch, a nation can be looked
at as a self steering communication system of a
certain kind and the messages that are used to steer it
are transmitted by certain channels.
I want to propose that some of the important
challenges of our times relate to the exposure of the
distortions of the information being spread. For
example, the misrepresentations by the mainstream
media about what is happening in Libya and Syria.
3
The creation and dissemination of channels of com-
munication that make possible “the essential two way
flow of information” are essential for the functioning
of an autonomous learning organization, which is the
form Deutsch proposes for a well functioning system.
To look at this phenomenon in a more practi-
cal way, I want to offer some considerations raised in
a speech given to honor a Philippine librarian, a
speech given by Zosio Lee. Lee refers to the kind of
information that is transmitted as essential to the well
being of a society. In considering the impact of
netizens and the form of information that is being
transmitted, Lee asks the question, “How do we detect
if we are being manipulated or deceived?” [“Truth-
fulness and the Information Revolution” JPL 31
(2011), p. 105]
The importance of this question, he explains,
is that, “We would not have survived for so long if all
the information we needed to make valid judgments
were all false or unreliable.” [Ibid.] Also, he proposes
that “information has to be processed and discussed
for it to acquire full meaning and significance.” [Ibid.,
p. 106]
“When information is free, available and
truthful, we are better able to make appropriate
judgments, including whether existing governments
fulfill their mandate to govern for the benefit of the
people,” Lee writes. [Ibid., p. 108]
In his article “The Computer as a
Democratizer” Michael similarly explores the need
for accurate information about how government is
functioning. He writes, “Without information being
available to them, the people may elect candidates as
bad as or worse than the incumbents. Therefore, there
is a need to prevent government from censoring the
information available to people.” [Netizens, p. Chap-
ter 18, p. 316]
Michael adds that, “The public needs accurate
information as to how their representatives are fulfill-
ing their role. Once these representatives have abused
their power, the principles established by Paine and
Mill require that the public have the ability to replace
the abusers.” [Ibid., p. 317]
Channels of accurate communication are
critical in order to share the information needed to
determine the nature of one’s government.
4
While in general I have focused on the impli-
cations of the concept of Netizen that have emerged
in the decade and a half since the publication of the
print edition of the book, it is also important to realize
that not everyone is friendly to the concept of
Netizen. An article in the online newsfeed section of
Time magazine proposed that the word netizen should
be banished from the media.
Katy Steinmetz, who does an online column
for Time claimed, “The word has been around for
almost three decades ([sic] it is less than two decades-
ed), but the likes of the Los Angeles Times were using
it as recently as last month. Perhaps it’s time to give
it a rest….”
In the same article, she proposed to banish
“occupy” and “# [the hashtag].” [See “POLL: What
Words Should Be Banished in 2012? NewsFeed
Time.com,” Time magazine, January 11, 2012.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/11/poll-what-wo
rd-should-be-banished-in-2012/]
The following week she acknowledges that
there is very little sentiment to ban the word netizen.
5
VI. – Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to point to an article in
a blog at the Foreign Policy Association website
which has the title: “Institutions and New World
‘Netizens’: Act 1”
The author, Oliver Barrett, reminds his readers
of a quote from Mohandas Gandhi: “First They Ignore
You – Then They Ridicule You — Then They Fight
You – Then You Win”
Barrett asks, “Will technology fundamentally
change the relationship between the nation state and
citizens? He asks if Net connected citizens are “a
threat or opportunity for government?”
In response to this question, he writes, “But I
am not convinced that government officials, even in
industrialized countries, are cognizant of how techno-
Page 9
logical innovations like social media have forever
robbed them of their positions as trusted sources of
timely and legitimate information…. I dare say that
netizens have started to short-circuit the politico-
corporate communications wiring, raising the political
and social justice consciousness of the hyper-con-
nected citizen in a way that might not be in the
interest of the governing classes.”
“How will governments will respond to this
situation?” he asks.
6
“I look forward to witnessing how Act 2 of
Revolution 2.0 will unfold,” he concludes.
Barrett focuses on the opinions of those in
government. Instead I propose that the important
challenge is for Netizens. Netizens need to understand
the conceptual nature of the information and commu-
nication changes represented by the Era of the
Netizen so they will be able to successfully meet the
new challenges these represent for our society.
7
Notes
1. In South Korea there are many interesting examples of new
organizational forms or events created by netizens. For example
Nosamo combined the model of an online Fan club and off line
gathering of supporters who worked to get Roh Moo-hyun
elected as President in South Korea in 2002. Also, OhmyNews,
an online newspaper, helped to make the election of Roh Moo-
hyun possible in 2002.
Science mailing lists and discussion networks contributed to by
netizens helped to expose the fraudulent scientific work of a
leading South Korean scientist.
In 2008 there were 106 days of candlelight demonstrations
contributed to by people online and off to protest the South
Korean government’s adoption of a weakened set of regulations
about the import of poorly inspected U.S. beef into South Korea.
The debate on June 10-11 over the form the demonstration
should take involved both online and offline discussion and
demonstrated the generative nature of serious communication.
See for example, Ronda Hauben, “On Grassroots Journalism and
Participatory Democracy”
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/netizens_draft.pdf
2. Some examples include the Anti-CNN web site that was set up
to counter the inaccurate press reports in the western media about
the riot in Tibet, the murder case of a Chinese waitress who
killed a Communist Party official in self defense, the case of the
Chongqing Nail house and the online discussion about the issues
involved. See for example, Ronda Hauben, “China in the Era of
the Netizen”
http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in_the_era_o
f_the_netizen/
3. See for example “Libya, the UN and Netizen Journalism,” The
Amateur Computerist, Vol. 21, no. 1, Winter 2012.
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/Back_Issues/Back_Issues%5b2011-
2015%5d/ACn21-1.pdf
Jay Hauben, “On the 15
th
Anniversary of Netizens: Netizens
Expose Distortions and Fabrications”
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Book_Anniversary/present
ation_2.doc
4. As Michael explains in Netizens:
“Thomas Paine, in The Rights of Man, describes a fundamental
principle of democracy. Paine writes, “that the right of altering
the government was a national right, and not a right of the
government.” (Netizens, Chapter 18, p. 316)
5. Katy Steinmetz, “Wednesdays Words: Readers’ Choice for
Banned Words of 2012 and More,” Time Newsfeed, January 18,
2012. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/18/wednesday-words-
readers-choice-for-banished-word-of-2012-and-more/
6. “Will the officials that govern the modern nation state engage
their respective societies in meaningful ways, or will they
continue to hide their heads in the sand? From what I’ve learned
from history and the very erudite Mohandas Gandhi – I think I
know the answer.” Oliver Barrett
http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2012/01/12/institutions-and-new-
world-netizens-act-1/ (4/25/2012)
7. See for example: Ronda Hauben, “The Internet Model of
Socio-Economic Development and the Emergence of the
Netizen”
http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/11/02/the_internet_model
_of_socio-
economic_development_and_the_emergence_of_the_netizen/
Ronda Hauben, “In Cheonan Dispute UN Security Council Acts
in Accord with UN Charter”
http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/09/05/in_cheonan_dispute
_un_security_council_discovers_un_charter/
Bibliography
Oliver Barrett, “Introduction to the New World ‘Netizens’ Act
I,” Foreign Policy Blog, April 25, 2012
http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2012/01/12/institutions-and-new-
world-netizens-act-1/
Karl Deutsch, Nerves of Government, The Free Press, New York,
1966.
Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben, Netizens: On the History
and Impact of Usenet and the Internet, IEEE Computer Society
Press, Los Alamitos, 1997.
Online edition:
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120
Ronda Hauben, “The Rise of Netizen Democracy in South
Korea.”
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/misc/korean-
democracy.txt
Page 10
Vinay Komat, “We’re Looking at the Fifth Estate,” Reader’s
Opinion, Times of India, December 16, 2011, p. 2
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/We-
are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/opinions/11133662.cms
Zosimo E. Lee, “Truthfulness and the Information Revolution,”
Journal of Philippean Librarianship (JPL 31): p. 101-109
http://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/jpl/article/viewFile/2779/
2597
Mark Poster, Information Please, Duke University Press,
Durham, 2006.
Katy Steinmetz, “POLL: What Word Should Be Banished in
2012?”, Time Newsfeed, January 11, 2012,
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/11/poll-what-word-should-be-
banished-in-2012/
Katy Steinmetz, “Wednesdays Words: Readers’ Choice for
Banned Words of 2012 and More,” Time Newsfeed, January 18,
2012.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/18/wednesday-words-readers-
choice-for-banished-word-of-2012-and-more/
On the 15
th
Anniversary of
Netizens:
Netizens Expose Distortions
and Fabrications
by Jay Hauben
I chose for this presentation an example of
netizen activity in China. But to be sure there is
netizen active in virtually every society. I will share
with you one case study based on a paper I wrote in
2008 (
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/j-
paper.doc). The case study is of the Anti-cnn website
put online in April 2008. I will add an epilogue about
the Syrian crisis.
I. Background
On March 14, 2008, Tibetan demonstrators in
Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in
China, turned violent. A Canadian tourist and the one
or two foreign journalists who witnessed the situation
put online photos, videos and descriptions document-
ing the ethnically targeted violence of the rioters
against citizens and property.
1
That was even before
the Chinese media started to report it. The Chinese
media framed the story as violence against Han
Chinese and Muslim Chinese fomented by the Ti-
betan government in exile. Much of the mainstream
international media like BBC, VOA, and CNN
framed the violence as the result of discriminatory
Chinese rule and Chinese police brutality.
Wide anger was expressed by many Chinese
aboard when they discovered that some of the media
in the U.S., Germany, France, and the U.K., were
using photos and videos from clashes between police
and pro-Tibetan independence protestors not in China
but in Nepal and India to support that media’s claim
of violence by Chinese police. A digital slide show
that contained a narrated presentation of 11 misla-
beled photos inappropriate for the articles with which
they appeared spread widely in cyberspace in and
outside China. You can see the slide show at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= uSQnK5FcKas. It
contains some of the photos that were put online to
show the distortions and false narrative of many
international mainstream media. Very crudely, the
major media used photos like theses to support their
false story of Chinese police brutality. Until today
there is no evidence of such police brutality in Lhasa
in March 2008.
II. Anti-cnn
Within a few days of the appearance of the
inaccurate reports, Rau Jin a recent Tsinghua Univer-
sity graduate launched the Anti-cnn website
(
http://www.anti-cnn.com). He explained that after
being part of netizen anger and discussion, he wanted
to “speak out our thoughts and let the westerners learn
about the truth.”
2
The top page of Anti-cnn featured articles,
videos and photos documenting some of the alleged
distortions in the coverage of the Tibet events. The
website also had forum sections first in Chinese then
also in English.
The organizers set as the goal of Anti-cnn to
overcome media bias in the western media by foster-
ing communication between Chinese netizens and
netizens outside of China so that the people of the
world and of China could have accurate knowledge
about each other. They wrote on their website, “We
are not against the western media, but against the lies
and fabricated stories in the media.” Anti-cnn was
chosen as the site name, one of the organizers, Qi
Hanting said, “because CNN is the media super-
power. It can do great damage so it must be watched
and challenged when it is wrong.”
3
But the site was
Page 11
not limited to countering errors in the reporting of
CNN. It invited submissions that documented bias or
misrepresentations of China in the global media.
Rau Jin quickly received from net users
hundreds of offers of help to find examples of media
distortions. He gathered a team of 40 volunteers to
monitor the submissions for factualness and to limit
emotional threads. Rau Jin and his group decided on
some rules. Name-calling or attacks on individuals or
groups were to be deleted. Emotional posts were not
allowed to have follow-up comments.
Forum discussions were started on the topics:
“Western Media Bias,” “The Facts of Tibet” and
“Modern China.” In the first five days the site at-
tracted 200,000 visits, many from outside of China.
Over time serious threads contained debates between
Han Chinese and both Westerners and Tibetan Chi-
nese and Uyghur Chinese trying to show each other
who they were and where they differ or where they
agree.
Many visitors from outside China posted on
Anti-cnn their criticism of Chinese government media
censorship. In the responses to such criticism, some
Chinese posters acknowledged such censorship but
argued it was easy to circumnavigate, that all societies
have their systems of bias or censorship and that
netizens everywhere must dare to think for them-
selves and get information from many sources. One
netizen with the alias kylin wrote, “I can say free
media works the same way as less-free media. So
what’s most important? The people I’d say — …. If
people dare to doubt, dare to think on their own, do
not take whatever comes to them, then we’ll have a
clear mind, not easily be fooled. I can say, if such
people exist, then should be Chinese… the least likely
to be brainwashed, when have suffered from all those
incidents, cultural revolution, plus a whole long
history with all kinds of tricks.”
4
Often there are expressions of nationalist
emotions in Chinese cyberspace, for example calls for
boycotting Japanese or French products. After the riot
in Lhasa, there was an upsurge of nationalist defense
of China including on Anti-cnn. At least some moder-
ators on Anti-cnn however were opponents of nation-
alism, arguing that it is a form of emotionalism and
needs to be countered by rational discourse and the
presentation of facts and an airing of all opinions. The
moderators often answered Chinese nationalists with
admonitions to “calm down and present facts.” While
nationalist sentiment and love of country and anger
appear often on the Anti-cnn forums, the opportunity
for a dialogue across national and ethnic barriers is an
expression of the internationalism characteristic of
netizens.
Chinese citizens in general know that the
mainstream Chinese media have a long history as a
controlled and propaganda press. On the other hand,
there was a wide spread assumption among people in
China that the mainstream international media like
CNN are a more reliable source of information and
alternative viewpoints. The widespread online expo-
sure of distortions and bias in major examples of the
international mainstream media called into question
for many Chinese people their positive expectation
about Western media. The exposures also attracted
the attention of others who questioned whether the so
called Western mainstream media is any less a propa-
ganda or political media than the Chinese mainstream
media.
Over its first year, the Anti-cnn Web site had
become a significant news portal. After a year there
was a debate to determine its future. Some of the
founders left. The site continued with separate forum
sections in Chinese and English but became less
focused than it was before on exposing media bias.
Today, the April Media Group founded by
Rau Jin is a continuation of Anti-cnn. It has Chinese
and English language websites both known as M4
(http://www.m4.cn/, http://www.4thmedia.org/).
Recently M4 had its comment section closed while
the Chinese government decided how it would deal
with a political scandal of a big significance.
For me the special significance of Anti-cnn
was that it took up the important task of a media
watchdog, but especially a watchdog over the most
powerful media like CNN and BBC. Michael argued
in his article “The Computer as a Democratizer” for
the crucial role in a society of a watchdog press. In
every society, major sectors of the media serve the
current holders of power. That there is an emerging
media and journalism which tries to serve the whole
society by watching and criticizing the abuses of
those with power is an optimistic sign. The net users
who launched Anti-cnn took for themselves a public
and international mission, using the net to watch
critically the main international media. In the process
there was discussion and debate on important social
and political questions. They and those from China
and around the world who took up the exposures and
discussion and debate are examples for me of
Page 12
netizens.
I want to add a short epilogue to the story of
Anti-cnn. This is about Syria.
III. Epilogue
Some time in early March 2011, protest dem-
onstrations in Dara’a in Southern Syria were given a
violent component. On March 17 or 18
th
armed people
maybe from within the demonstration attacked Syrian
police, killing seven. Media reports said at least four
other people were killed at that time.
5
The Syrian state
media framed the story as “armed gangs attacking
security forces and public property.” Western and
Gulf satellite media quickly framed the story that “the
Syrian government is killing its own people.”
This time there was from very early a massive
use of videos and photos purporting to document the
“crimes of the Syrian government,” not only in or on
the Western and Gulf satellite media, but also on
websites and Facebook and Youtube and with
Tweeterd links. As in the case of Tibet, many net
users realized that much of this so called documenta-
tion was suspicious. Using online search engines,
original sources were found and posted online to
prove that many supposed “crimes of the Syrian
government” were distortions and fabrication. Often
crimes were traced to the armed opposition itself.
I briefly did an online search on the phrase
“Syria Distortions.” I found net users and groups in
the U.S., Tunisia, Palestine and Syria and elsewhere
who were able to show that many of the videos and
photos were from many places other than Syria. At
http://tunisianquestfortruth.wordpress.com/2012/02/
06/samples-of-media-distortion-of-facts-about-syria-
1-fake-pictures/ is an example of what was found in
photos by a group called Uprooted Palestinians
(http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/) and
posted on their own and on the TunisiansQuestfor-
Truth Facebook pages and websites. Links were sent
out as tweets as well. These photos then also appeared
on many websites. The photos were found to be from
the Civil War in Lebanon, from gang murders in
Mexico, from Israeli atrocities in Palestine, rebel
crimes in Libya, but they were all labeled as Syrian
government atrocities. Some were found to be photos
of mass demonstrations in support of the Syrian
government doctored to claim these were in support
of the armed uprising.
I found an ongoing online war between the
fabricators and the exposers. The exposures often
attract a set of comments supporting the effort to have
an accurate narrative. But I have not yet found where
the exposures have been turned into discussion
forums as happened on Anti-cnn.
In my short search I also found the website
Moon of Alabama likely in the U.S.
(http://www.moonofalabama.org/). On that site a
detailed exposure appeared when the U.S. Govern-
ment distributed satellite photos claiming to show
military shelling of Homs. Moon of Alabama looked
at Google Maps and Google Earth satellite photos to
demonstrate for example that some of the satellite
photos were of a Syrian military base not of shelling
of Homs. Similarly the blogger argued each of the
claims by the U.S. government about these photos
was false. The same blog also viewed a video pur-
ported to be a one hour live video cast from the
shelling of Homs. The blogger wrote a script to guide
viewers so that the level of fabrication was apparent.
IV. Netizen Journalism
In addition to the research bloggers who find
and expose fabrications and distortions, there is a
growing number of journalists, websites and news
sources which provided an alternative account and
critique of the Western and Gulf state and media
narrative about Syria. Among these are the Center for
Research on Globalization, Voltairenet, Syria360, RT,
Prensa Latina, to name a few. A serious analytic,
research journalism with a public purpose is emerging
which attempts to give a solid base so net users can
arrive at an accurate understanding of crisis and
situations like that in Syria. Ronda interprets such
journalism as netizen journalism. Michael wrote that
the net makes it possible for every netizen to be a
journalist. For me, Michael’s vision and the Netizens
continue to be relevant and powerful as the net
continues to empower people toward a greater partici-
pation in more and more aspects of their societies.
Notes
1. Riot in Tibet: True face of western media posted by
dionysos615 on YouTube on March 19, 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas
2. Quoted in China Daily, April 2, 2008:
h t t p : / / w w w . c h i n d a i l y . c o m . c n / c h i n a / 2 0 0 8 -
04/02/content_6587120_2.htm
3. Interview with Anti-cnn webmaster Qi Hanting, April 19,
2008, translated from Chinese. See Ronda Hauben, “Netizens
Defy Western Media Fictions of China”
Page 13
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no
=382523&rel_no=1
4. http://www.anti-cnn/forum/en/thread-2316-1-1.html
5. See, May 1, 2011, The Center for Research on Globalization
in Canada video at:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24576 and
May 3, 2011, article at:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24591
My thinking on Netizens
In 1999, when I went to college, it was the
first time for me to touch the internet. I still remember
clearly the experience that day. I carefully got access
into a website and browsed some news. Later I
registered an e-mail address and sent my first e-mail.
Afterwards I learned to chat online. The first time is
always very fresh and exciting. But after, the excite-
ment diminished, I thought that the internet did not
change our lives as much as what was described by
others. I still remember I told to my roommate of my
disappointment. He was an amateur with the com-
puter thinking that the internet could not do any more
than e-mail and browsing news. I admitted that the
internet did make our lives much more convenient
and more fast than before, but it just substitutes for
the role of newspapers, radios, and televisions. These
inventions did not change the historical trail, neither
did the internet. This was my opinion at that time.
In recent years, with the popularization of the
internet, the internet was more and more necessary in
our lives. I roughly spend a quarter of a day in
internet. What is more important, we witness the
power of the internet and social media in some big
things, like the major railway crash in China, Arabic
Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement and so on.
I gradually realize that I underestimated the impact of
the internet before. I am not sure if the internet will
change the trail of human history, but I am sure that
the internet does change the structure and manage-
ment of human society. Why? First, the internet gives
us another spacious space. In the cyber space, the
demarcation of nations, classes, parties, groups and
professions becomes vague. Identities and status of
people are not set by the society. Second, the internet
gives us another source of power. This power is not
less than the invention of the atomic bomb. But the
internet is different from the atomic bomb. The latter
can be monopolized by a few people. The former
should be shared by everyone. Actually, the bigger
the power is, the fewer people have the atomic weap-
ons, while the bigger the power is, the more people
share the internet. Each internet user is both a source
and a holder of the power. With great power comes
great responsibility. In tradition, a few elites manage
the society and make decisions. Now everyone can
participate in the management and influence the
decision-making process.
Let me go back to Michael and Ronda’s book,
Netizens. I have to admit the book is very visionary.
It was not just because it foresaw the drastic social
changes brought by the internet in early 1990s before
I touched the internet, but what more important is that
the book offers us a blueprint or a way for our future
society based on the internet, that is the netizen.
What is the netizen? According to the
Haubens’ introduction to me, the netizen does not
equate to the internet user. Only those internet users
who abide by a set of moral norms and do good things
are netizens. They imagine that the netizens would be
the mainstream in the cyber society and it would give
birth to a good and equal society in reality which
would break away from the traditional minority-
ruling-majority model. Marx and many Communists
once tried to construct such a perfect society. They
failed in practice. The internet and netizen probably
provide a technological tool and a different way to
realize the dream. This is our best wish.
However, we also should know it is a long
way to the theory applying to the practice. The
formation of the civil society in a real world tells us
we cannot expect a netizen society would form very
soon. Like the civil society is based on the rule of
law, the netizen also should be based on a set of
norms. But the formation of norms must be a free,
open and voluntary process. Any government and
organization should not make out such norms in the
name of netizens, or the netizen society would repeat
the tradition model.
May 1, 2012
The opinions expressed in articles are those of their
authors and not necessarily the opinions of the Amateur
Computerist newsletter. We welcome submissions from
a spectrum of viewpoints.
Page 14
ELECTRONIC EDITION
ACN Webpage:
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/
All issues of the Amateur Computerist are on-line.
Back issues of the Amateur Computerist are available at:
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/Back_Issues/
EDITORIAL STAFF
Ronda Hauben
William Rohler
Norman O. Thompson
Michael Hauben (1973-2001)
Jay Hauben
The Amateur Computerist invites submissions.
Articles can be submitted via e-mail:
Permission is given to reprint articles from this issue in
a nonprofit publication provided credit is given, with
name of author and source of article cited.
Page 15
