Educom Review
March/April 1998
New & Noteworthy section

Reviewed by Bill Sanders

Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet
Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben
IEEE Computer Society Press, 1997

   "Two general uses of the term Netizen have developed. The first...
anyone who uses the Net...The second use is closer to my understanding...
people who care about Usenet and the bigger Net and work towards building 
the cooperative and collective nature which benefits the larger world....
But with the increasing commercialization and privatization of the Net, 
Netizenship is being challenged. During such a period, it is valuable to 
look back at the pioneering vision and actions that made the Net possible 
and examine the lessons they provide."---Michael Hauben

   Few if any ideas concerning the social impact of the Internet appear 
in these pages that will not be familiar to Netizens of either type. 
However, this weave of selective history, studied bias and high hopes 
comes to us at a time when the growing tide of commercialism on the 
Internet increasingly obscures its largely academic, "public good" origins.

   The Haubens obviously have spent a lot of time on Usenet--a LOT of 
time. They trace its development--ARPA, Bell Labs, and Unix, Duke 
University, et. al.--  highlighting key people and events with a liberal 
lacing of insightful, illustrative quotes from Usenet correspondence. 
However, their focus is not so much the technology and its history as 
the network community, its philosophy and values: openness, egalitarianism, 
and its potential for a town meeting type of global democracy.

   At the heart of the matter is the transition from NSFnet--a subsidized 
public good--to the Internet emerging as a set of private commercial goods. 
Can the best of that public good survive, or will all that promise 
simply go the way of radio, television and other media?

   Long time networkers, particularly academics, will identify with the 
Haubens; but newcomers who have, as Ralph Nader puts it, "grown up 
corporate" and who never knew the pre-1995 Net, likely will miss these 
issues completely and never know the difference.

   Yes, it's a book with a bias, but well worth the reading -- and some 
thinking.