Search Result 2 From: Michael Hauben (hauben@cs.columbia.edu) Subject: Common Sense: The Net and Netizens Part II/III View: Complete Thread (4 articles) Original Format Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp, news.misc, news.future, alt.culture.usenet, alt.culture.internet, comp.misc Date: 1993-07-06 02:24:37 PST 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 directorship of the Department of Defense's ARPANET a vision of "the intergalatic computer network." Whenever he would speak 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 this paper have stood the test of time, and do represent the Net today. In a paper he co-wrote with Albert Vezza, "Applications of Information Networks" (Procedings of IEEE, Vol 66, No 11, Nov 1978) Licklider explores possible business applications of information networks. I have found applications he did not foresee. 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 multiaccess 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 memebers of the supercommunity can communicate - with other people, with programs, with data, or with a selected combinations of those resources." (32) His concept of 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, and Mailing Lists (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. The virtual space created on computer networks is accessible universally. This space is acessible from the connections that exist. Whereas nets in 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 - 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 the 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 will help our world move forward rather than backwards. The old model looks down on population growth and people as a strain on the environment rather than important individuals with an intellectual contribution. 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. The physical network that he foresaw (and saw the ARPAnet spanning at least two continents.) the Computer Data networks make connections of spatially far-apart people easy. The Net is alive because of its use by ordinary people. Pionnering 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 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." This 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 one gets from 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 when I first started using E-Mail. It is nice that there can be reminders of how exciting it all is - so that it doesn't become lost in the shuffle. What follows is the collection and presentation of but a little of the wonderful data that I recevied in the process of my research utilizing the Net. 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 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 exists on the Net. Many different kinds of people are now connected to the Net. The original users of the Net (then several unconnected test-beds of network research) might have been from exclusivly technical and scientific communities in only a few parts of 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 "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 put it, "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 material (e.g.: Gay, Various Religions, unusual hobbies.), 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 insitutions, 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 protocal) by logging in as "annonymous." 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 it has reached a point of 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 preverted 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 the 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. [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, discusion 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, 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 posession of a useful resource. "Simple - by access to a vast amount of information and an enourmous number of brains!" From: Brian May "For a geographically sparse group as it is, MU* allows people to get to know one another, the relevant newgroup 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 knowledgable 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 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: 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 phonenumber, 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 resently discoverd 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 resistence 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 recevive 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 sucessful fight against attempted tuition raises by the French government. The information flow on the Net is controlled by those who use the Net. People activly 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 particpant or obersver 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 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, besides ordinary people. The distribution of the writings of ordinary people is the second step after the advent of the inexpensive personal computer and printer allowed anyone to produce mass quantites of documents. Personal publishing is now joined by personal wide-distribution. Governments who rule based on control of information have been and will be underminded from the bottom up, if they haven't 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 "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 "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 homosexual people, Buddists, 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: paraphrase. " We will be going to a march on Washington 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 "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 "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 way too prevalent in today's society - at least in major American cities. 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 "My use of the net, as you might have already found 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. From: Laura Goodin "Last summer I was traveling to Denver and I used a listserve 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 autoworkers 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 "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 "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 pocessions 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." -- From: kenneth steven simon "When I started using ForumNet (a chat program similar to IRC, but smaller -- no longer running) 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 interation. 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 " I must begin my comments on the Internet with one simple yet significant statement: the availabilty 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) "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 correspondants 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 snailmail 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 " 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 performr "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 "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 "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 Curtin 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 emphasise how strongly I feel that the net is a superb information resource.)" From: 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 resourse." 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 propigation of information. To those connected, it is a valuable resource. Flame wars aside, a lot of generally inaccesable 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 "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 costed(oops!) 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: cliffr "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 routs 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 "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." From: kenneth steven simon "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, but no longer running). 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. The way information flow can be seen takes 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. Love is a very tricky feeling. However, people who responded to my research have said they found love in the bitstream. I received a large number of responses that reported real-life marriages arising from Net meetings. Now true the Net facilitates the meeting of people of like interests, but the love and marriage somehow goes beyond like interests. I can only explain by saying that the Net works in mysterious ways and that it is still very new. The newness of the Net means we can not fully understand it as of yet. From: Caryn K. Roberts "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 Woodbury "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 "(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 perpetutated 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: lgoodin@worldbank.org (Laura Goodin) "My division (again, at the World Bank) 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 "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 "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 "On the other hand, I got my job by answering a posting to a newsgroup." -- From: Anthony Berno "I develop for NEXTSTEP, and the Net is very useful in getting useful programming hints, info on product releases, rumours, et cetra." -- From: Greg Woodbury "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 immeditcy 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 "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 "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) "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 relativly 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 "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 tendancy 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 particlar 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: 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 "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 obsenities 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 harrassment 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 eariler 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 substancial 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 encompase all possible resources. One Net visionary responded to my research by calling for universal access. Steve Welch 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 facsimilie 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 fighers for democracy will would have been proud. As Licklider predicted, the Net is fundementally 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." -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Michael Hauben CC '95 | E-mail me for sample copies of | | hauben@cs.columbia.edu | The Amateur Computerist Newsletter | | hauben@columbia.edu | & read the alt.amateur-comp newsgroup | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------