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Netizens: On The History And Impact Of Usenet And The Internet

by Michael Hauben And Ronda Hauben


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About Book

Amazon.com
A netizen, as Ronda and Michael Hauben use the term, is more than just somebody who uses the Internet. It is somebody who has demonstrated a devotion to being a good citizen of an online community. Some have been involved in constructing parts of the Net and forming it into a major social force. Others are simply members of mailing lists and discussion groups, quietly lending a helping hand to others and sharing information, support, and aid through the wires. The Haubens tell the history of the Internet through netizens.

While it was technical necessity and political desire that made the Net happen, it was the often idealistic vision of the netizens that shaped it. The Haubens look at both sides--the technical problems being faced and the social ideas that guided the developers. They take both the outside developments in computing technology and governmental regulatory issues into account.

Most of the emphasis of the book is on Usenet, the vast array of bulletin board-like message areas where people can find discussions about everything from the most esoteric scientific work in progress to the mundane necessities of daily life to off-the-wall treatments of pop culture. They show how it developed as a form of "poor man's ARPANET" to become a backbone of international conversation. The authors hold Usenet up as an example of user-controlled communication, showing how communities can be successful even in an area lacking formal rules--or lacking the means to enforce the rules. And while they stop short of exploring Usenet's current problems with commercial junk posts, they do explore the many previous predictions of the "imminent death of the Internet," showing how a devoted population of netizens has repeatedly been able to work around threats to its community's existence.

Book Description
Netizens, one of the first books detailing the Internet, looks at the creation and development of this participatory global computer network. The authors conducted online research to find out what makes the Internet "tick". This research results in an informative examination of the pioneering vision and actions that have helped make the Net possible. The book is a detailed description of the Net's construction and a step-by-step view of the past, present, and future of the Internet, the Usenet and the WWW.

The book gives you the needed perspective to understand how the Net can impact the present and the turbulent future. These questions are answered: What is the vision that inspired or guided these people at each step? What was the technical or social problem or need that they were trying to solve? What can be done to help nourish the future extension and development of the Net? How can the Net be made available to a broader set of people?

Book Info
Looks at the creation and development of the participatory global computer network: The Internet. The fascinating story of how the Internet came to be. DLC: Internet (Computer network) - History.

From the Inside Flap
Netizens looks at the creation and development of the participatory global computer network: The Internet. Michael and Ronda Hauben conducted research online to find out what makes the internet "tick" resulting in this fascinating examination of the pioneering vision and actions that have helped make the Net possible. Netizens is a detailed description of the Net's construction and a step-by-step view of the past, present, and future of Usenet and the Internet.

The book gives you the needed perspective to understand how the Net can impact the present and the future of our society.
Netizens answers these questions:

  • What is the vision that inspired or guided these people at each step?
  • What was the technical or social problem or need that they were trying to solve?
  • What can be done to help nourish the future extension and development of the Net?
  • How can the Net be made available to a broader set of people?


From the Back Cover
Netizens is an ambitious look at the social aspects of computer networking. It examines the present and the turbulent future, and especially it explores the technical and social roots of the Net.—Thomas Truscott, co-developer of Usenet

While working on my own history of the Net, I watched the Haubens' documentation of Net development evolve and grow as they posted it to the Net itself. Now, with a hardcopy version of their work out, the authors have given us a valuable shelf reference to complement their online work.—Katie Hafner, coauthor of Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet

Inspired by the writings of Thomas Paine and Jean Jacques Rousseau, Michael and Ronda Hauben sketch an=out a provocative declaration of Netizen rights in their appendix to this engrossing, well-researched, and very useful book. The Haubens reserve the term Netizen for positive contributors to the Net, the good citizens whose heroic precursors from the 1960s are reicly chronicled in a flowing historical and sociological account that is not to be missed.—Martin Greenberger, Director of the Center for Digital Media, UCLA

About the Author
Michael Hauben has participated in online communities since the early 1980s. He has worked at the University of Detroit/Mercy and Columbia University helping people use and understand computers. He is a graduate of Columbia University with a BA in Computer Science. Through his pioneering interactive online research, Michael coined and introduced the tern "Netizen" into popular use. He is now a graduate student at Teachers College of Columbia University studying computer mediated communication. Having given the Amateur Computerist newsletter its name, he continues to contribute articles on a regular basis. He has appeared in documentaries about the internet on TV Tokyo, and has been frequently consulted to comment on the growing importance of this new democratic medium. He has given talks in the United States, Japan and Canada about the social significance and history of the internet. He is a member of the ACM, IEEE and IEEE Computer Society. He enjoys listening and dancing to electronic music, working with children and helping people to communicate. Michael is the host of the Netizens Cyberstop World Wide Web page.

Ronda Hauben has her BA from Queens College and her MA from Tufts University. She has taught at Stillman College in Alabama and Wheelock College in Massachusetts. Most recently she taught introductory Unix, email and internet classes at Columbia University. Part of the online community since 1988, she has helped to pioneer online research, and her work has benefited from the comments and contributions of the online community. In January 1994, some of this work was collected in the online anthology "The Netizens and the Wonderful World of the Net: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet". Articles she has written have appeared in the Amateur Computerist, the Linux Journal, the Proceedings of Telecommunities '95, Internet Secrets, READNE, and other publications. She has presented talks to community, university and professional audiences. Her papers have been presented internationally at conferences in Canada and in Ireland, as well as in the USA. She lives in New York City and enjoys participating in Usenet, studying history and going to the theater.

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