The AmateurComputerist

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

Fall 2019 The Net, Netizens and Netizenship Volume 32 No. 2

Table of ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1Researching the “Net” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2Significance of the Net and the Netizens . . . . . . . Page 6Michael Hauben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 13Netizens and the Vision for the Future . . . . . . . Page 17Culture and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 21Emerging New Form of Citizenship . . . . . . . . . . Page 27Experiences at 6th World Internet Conference . . Page 28Rise of Social Media in the Philippines . . . . . . . Page 30

Introduction

This issue of the Amateur Computerist in-cludes articles written over a spread of 26 years.Michael Hauben wrote his article “The Net andNetizens: The Impact the Net Has on People’s Lives”in 1992-3 and posted an early draft online on June 10,1993. Based on this article, Michael gave a talk in1994 to the students and faculty in the student ACMchapter at Columbia University. That talk is featuredas the first article in this issue. Michael’s article wasposted originally in 1993. It was then published in theprint edition of Netizens: On the History and Impactof Usenet and the Internet in May 1997. And, since1994, there have been numerous books and articlesquoting from Michael’s article.

Other articles in this issue include theWikipedia entry for “Michael Hauben” (p. 13) and hisanalysis of “The Impact of the Internet on the Emerg-ing Global Culture” (p. 21). There are two articles byRonda Hauben about the Significance of the Net andthe Netizen and about a Vision for the Future of theNet shown by the 2008 Candlelight demonstrations inSouth Korea. The issue concludes with a summary ofexperiences at the 6th World Internet Conference inChina and then an analysis of culture and socialmedia in the Philippines.

Also in this issue is the text of a short talkRonda Hauben was invited to present at the 6th WorldInternet Conference held in Wuzhen, China. Ronda’stalk, “The Netizen as the Emerging New Form ofCitizenship,” was presented as part of the Cyber-culture and Youth sub forum held on Oct. 21, 2019.In her talk Ronda quoted from a journal article writtento discuss efforts by Turkish netizens to encouragefriendship between the Greek and Turkish peopleusing Facebook posts. In the journal article, theTurkish scholars quote from Michael’s article, the“The Net and the Netizens...” as a description of whatthese efforts toward Greek-Turkish people’s friend-ship represent. Quoting Michael, the Turkish authorsof the paper write that a Netizen (net citizen) exists“as a citizen of the world thanks to the global connec-tivity that the Net makes possible.”

In 1993, Michael noted he was making “onlya prediction of the future.” But this prediction has, inmany ways, now become the present reality fornetizens around the world as it has for Turkish andGreek netizens. This demonstrates that Michael’snetizen discovery was an important scientific discov-ery that gave a name and recognition to a phenomenathat at the time was only coming into being.

The recognition of the importance of thenetizen phenomena has intermittently received prom-inent acknowledgment. And, still 26 years later it waspresented at the Cyberculture and Youth sub forum atthe 6th World Internet Conference. The 140 Chineseand international attendees heard how “The Netizenis the Emerging New Form of Citizenship” as acontribution to the vision for the future made possiblenot only by the Net but also by the Netizen.

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[Editor’s Note: The following is a speech given tothe Columbia University Student ACM Chapter onApril 24, 1994. It was based on a paper titled “TheNet and Netizens: The Impact the Net has on Peo-ple’s Lives,” available now as Chapter 1 of thenetbook “The Netizens and the Wonderful World ofthe Net: An Anthology” at: http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben /project_book.html, and as Chapter 1in the print edition, Netizens: On the History andImpact of Usenet and the Internet, IEEE ComputerSociety Press, 1997.]

Researching the “Net”A Talk on The Evolution of

Usenet Newsand The Significance of theGlobal Computer Network

by Michael Hauben

I – You Are a Netizen or a Net CitizenWelcome to the 21st Century. You are a

Netizen, or a Net Citizen, and you exist as a citizenof the world thanks to the global connectivity thatthe Net makes possible. You consider everyone asyour compatriot. You physically live in one countrybut you are in contact with much of the world viathe global computer network. Virtually you livenext door to every other single Netizen in the world.Geographical separation is replaced by existence inthe same virtual space.

The situation I describe is only a predictionof the future, but a large part of the necessary infra-structure currently exists. The Net – or the Internet,BITNET, FIDOnet, other physical networks, Use-net, VMSnet, and other logical networks and so on– has rapidly grown to cover all of the developedcountries in the world. Every day more computersattach to the existing networks and every new com-puter adds to the user base – at least twenty fivemillion people are interconnected today. Why do allthese people pass their time sitting in front of acomputer typing away? They have very good reasonto! Twenty five million people plus [in 1994] havevery good reason not to be wrong. [Twenty-fiveyears later, in 2019, there were 4.3 billion activeinternet users.]

We are seeing a revitalization of society.The frameworks are being redesigned from the bot-tom up. A new more democratic world is becomingpossible. According to one user, the Net has “im-measurably increased the quality of…life.” The Netseems to open a new lease on life for people. Socialconnections which were never before possible, orwhich were relatively hard to achieve, are now fa-cilitated by the Net. Geography and time no longerare boundaries. Social limitations and conventionsno longer prevent potential friendships or partner-ships. In this manner Netizens are meeting otherNetizens from far-away and close by that theymight never have met without the Net.

A new world of connections between people– either privately from individual to individual orpublicly from individuals to the collective mass ofmany on the net – is possible. The old model ofcentral distribution of information from the Net-work Broadcasting or Publication Company is be-ing questioned and challenged. The top-downmodel of information being distributed by a few formass-consumption is no longer the only News. Net-news brings the power of the reporter to theNetizen. People now have the ability to broadcasttheir observations or questions around the worldand have other people respond. The computer net-works form a new grassroots connection that allowsthe excluded sections of society to have a voice.This new medium is unprecedented. Previous grass-roots media have existed for much smaller-sizedselections of people. The model of the Net provesthe old way does not have to be the only way ofnetworking. The Net extends the idea of networking– of making connections with strangers that proveto be advantageous to one or both parties.

The complete connection of the body of citi-zens of the world that the Net makes possible doesnot exist as of today, and it will definitely be a fightto make access to the Net open and available to all.However, in the future we might be seeing the pos-sible expansion of what it means to be a social ani-mal. Practically every single individual on the Nettoday is available to every other person on the Net.International connection coexists on the same levelwith local connection. Also the computer networksallow a more advanced connection between the peo-ple who are communicating. With computer-com-munication systems, information or thoughts areconnected to people’s names and electronic-mail

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addresses. On the Net, one can connect to otherswho have similar interests or whose thought pro-cesses they enjoy.

Netizens make it a point to be helpful andfriendly – if they feel it to be worthwhile. ManyNetizens feel they have an obligation to be helpfuland answer queries and follow-up on discussions toput their opinion into the pot of opinions. Over aperiod of time the voluntary contributions to the Nethave built it into a useful connection to other peoplearound the world. The Net can be a helpful mediumto understand the world. Only by seeing all pointsof view can any one person attempt to figure outeither their own position on a topic or in the end,the truth.

Net Society differs from off-line society bywelcoming intellectual activity. People are encour-aged to have things on their mind and to presentthose ideas to the Net. People are allowed to be in-tellectually interesting and interested. This intellec-tual activity forms a major part of the on-line infor-mation that is carried by the various computer net-works. Netizens can interact with other people tohelp add to or alter that information. Brain-stormingbetween varieties of people produces robust think-ing. Information is no longer a fixed commodity orresource on the Nets. It is constantly being added toand improved collectively. The Net is a grand intel-lectual and social commune in the spirit of the col-lective nature present at the origins of human soci-ety. Netizens working together continually expandthe store of information worldwide. One personcalled the Net an untapped resource because it pro-vides an alternative to the normal channels andways of doing things. The Net allows for the meet-ing of minds to form and develop ideas. It bringspeople’s thinking processes out of isolation and intothe open. Every user of the Net gains the role ofbeing special and useful. The fact that every userhas his or her own opinions and interests adds to thegeneral body of specialized knowledge on the Net.Each Netizen thus becomes a special resource valu-able to the Net. Each user contributes to the wholeintellectual and social value and possibilities of theNet.

II – Licklider, the Visionary The world of the Netizen was envisioned

some twenty five years ago [now over 50] by J.C.R.Licklider and Robert Taylor in their article “The

Computer as a Communication Device” (Scienceand Technology, April 1968). Licklider brought tohis leadership of the U.S. Department of Defense’sAdvanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) a vi-sion of “the intergalactic computer network.”Whenever he would speak of ARPA, he wouldmention this vision. J.C.R. Licklider was a prophetof the Net. In his article Licklider establishes sev-eral helpful principles which would make the com-puter play a helpful role in human communication.These principles were:1. Communication is defined as an interactive cre-ative process.2. Response times need to be short to make the“conversation” free and easy.3. The larger network would form out of smallerregional networks.4. Communities would form out of affinity andcommon interests.

Licklider focused on the Net comprising of anetwork of networks. While other researchers of thetime focused on the sharing of computing resources,Licklider kept an open mind and wrote:

...The collection of people, hardware,and software – the multi-access com-puter together with its local commu-nity of users – will become a node ina geographically distributed com-puter network…. Through the net-work, therefore, all the large comput-ers can communicate with one an-other. And through them, all themembers of the super-communitycan communicate – with other peo-ple, with programs, with data, orwith a selected combinations ofthose resources.Licklider’s understandings from his 1968

paper have stood the test of time, and do representwhat the Net is today. His concept of the sharing ofboth computing and human resources accuratelydescribes today’s Net. The networking of varioushuman connections quickly forms, changes itsgoals, disbands and reforms into new collabora-tions. The fluidity of such group dynamics leads toa quickening of the creation of new ideas. Groupscan form to discuss an idea, focus in or broaden outand reform to fit the new ideas that have resultedfrom the process.

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The virtual space created on non-commer-cial computer networks is accessible universally.This space is accessible from the connections thatexist; whereas social networks in the physical worldgenerally are connected only by limited gateways.So the capability of networking on computer netsovercomes limitations inherent in non-computersocial networks. This is important because it re-duces the problems of population growth. Popula-tion growth no longer means limited. Rather thatvery growth of population now means an improve-ment of resources. Thus growth of population canbe seen as a positive asset. This is a new way oflooking at people in our society. Every new personcan mean a new set of perspectives and specialtiesto add to the wealth of knowledge of the world.This new view of people could help improve theview of the future. The old model looks down onpopulation growth and people as a strain on the en-vironment rather than the increase of intellectualcontribution these individuals can make. However,access to the Net needs to be universal for the Netto fully utilize the contribution each person can rep-resent. Once access is limited, the Net and those onthe Net lose the full possible advantages the Net canoffer. Lastly the people on the Net need to be activein order to bring about the best possible use of theNetwork.

Licklider foresaw that the Net allows forpeople of common interests, who are otherwisestrangers, to communicate. Much of the magic ofthe Net is the ability to make a contribution of yourideas, and then be connected to utter strangers. Hesaw that people would connect to others via this netin ways that had been much harder in the past.Licklider observed as the ARPANET spanned twocontinents. This physical connection allowed forwider social collaborations to form. This was thebeginning of Computer Data networks facilitatingconnections of people around the world.

My research on and about the Net has beenand continues to be very exciting for me. When Iposted my inquiries, I usually received the first re-ply within a couple of hours. The feeling of receiv-ing that very first reply from a total stranger is al-ways exhilarating! That set of first replies from peo-ple reminds me of the magic of E-Mail. It is nicethat there can be reminders of how exciting it all is– so that the value of this new use of computers isnever forgotten.

III – Critical MassThe Net has grown so much in the last 25

years, that a critical mass of people and interests hasbeen reached. This collection of individuals adds tothe interests and specialties of the whole commu-nity. Most people can now gain something from theNet, while at the same time helping it out. A criticalmass has developed on the net. Enough people existthat the whole is now greater than any one individ-ual and thus makes the Net worthwhile to be part of.People are meshing intellects and knowledge toform new ideas. Larry Press made this clear bywriting:

I now work on the Net at least 2hours per day. I’ve had an accountsince around 1975 but it has onlybecome super important in the lastcouple of years because a criticalmass of membership was reached. Ino longer work in LA, but in cyber-space.Many inhabitants of the Net feel that only

the most technically inclined people use the Net.This is not true, as many different kinds of peopleare now connected to the Net. While the originalusers of the Net were from exclusively technicaland scientific communities, many of them found it avaluable experience to explore the Net for morethan just technical reasons. The nets, in their earlydays, were only available in a few parts the world.Now however, people of all ages, from most partsof the globe, and of many professions, make up theNet. The original prototype networks (e.g.: ARPA-NET in the USA, NPL in the United Kingdom,CYCLADES in France and other networks aroundthe world) developed the necessary physical infra-structure for a fertile social network to develop.Einar Stefferud wrote of this social connection in anarticle:

The ARPANET has produced sev-eral monumental results. It providedthe physical and electrical commun-ications backbone for developmentof the latent social infrastructure wenow call ‘The Internet Community.’(ConneXions, Oct. 1989, Vol. 3 No.10. p. 21)Many different kinds of people comprise the

Net. The University Community sponsors access fora broad range of people (students, professors, staff,

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professor emeritus, and so on). Programmers, engi-neers and researchers from many companies areconnected. A K-12 Net exists within the lowergrades of education which helps to invite youngpeople to be a part of our community. Special Bul-letin Board software (for example Waffle) exists toconnect Personal Computer users to the Net. Vari-ous UNIX bulletin board systems exist to connectother users. It is impossible to tell exactly who con-nects to public bulletin board systems, as only aninexpensive computer (or terminal) and modem arerequired to connect. Many common bulletin boardsystems (for example, FIDO board) have at least e-mail and many also participate through a gateway toNetnews. Prototype Community Network Systemsare forming around the world (e.g.: In Cleveland –the Cleveland Freenet, In New Zealand – the Well-ington Citynet, In California – the Santa MonicaPublic Electronic Network, etc.) Access via thesecommunity systems can be as easy as visiting thecommunity library and membership is open to allwho live in the community.

In addition to the living body of resourcesthis diversity of Netizens represent, there is also acontinually growing body of digitized data thatforms a set of resources. Whether it is Netizens dig-itizing great literature of the past (e.g.: the Guten-berg Project), or it is people gathering otherwiseobscure or non-mainstream material (e.g.: VariousReligions, unusual hobbies, fringe and cult materi-als, and so on), or if it is Netizens contributing newand original material (e.g.: the Amateur Computer-ist Newsletter), the net follows in the great traditionof other public bottom-up institutions, such as thepublic library or the principle behind public educa-tion. The Net shares with these institutions that theyserve the general populace. This data is just part ofthe treasure. Often living Netizens provide pointersto this digitized store of publicly available informa-tion. Many of the network access tools have beenprogrammed with the principle of being available toeveryone. The best example is the method of con-necting to file repositories via FTP (file transferprotocol) by logging in as an “anonymous” user.Most (if not all) World Wide Web Sites, Wide AreaInformation Systems (WAIS), and gopher sites areopen for all users of the Net. It is true that the cur-rent membership of the Net Community is smallerthan it will be, but the net has reached a point ofgeneral usefulness no matter who you are.

All of this evidence is exactly why therecould be problems if the Net comes under the con-trol of commercial entities. Once commercial inter-ests gain control, the Net will be much less power-ful for the ordinary person than it is currently. Com-mercial interests vary from those of the commonperson. They attempt to make profit from any avail-able means. Compuserve is an example of one cur-rent commercial network. A user of Compuservepays for access by the minute. If this scenariowould be extended to the Net of which I speak, theNetiquette of being helpful would have a price tagattached to it. If people had to pay by the minuteduring the Net’s development, very few would havebeen able to afford the network time needed to behelpful to others.

The Net has only developed because of thehard work and voluntary dedication of many peo-ple. It has grown because the Net is under the con-trol and power of the people at a bottom-level, andbecause these people have over the years made apoint to make it something worthwhile. People’sposts and contributions to the Net have been thedeveloping forces.

IV – Network as a New Democratic Force For the people of the world, the Net

provides a powerful way of peaceful assembly.Peaceful assembly allows for people to take controlover their lives, rather than that control being in thehands of others. This power has to be honored andprotected. Any medium or tool that helps people tohold or gain power is something that is special andhas to be protected. (See “The Computer as Democ-ratizer,” Amateur Computerist Newsletter, Vol. 4,No. 5, Fall 1992)

J.C.R. Licklider believed that access to thethen growing information network should be madeubiquitous. He felt that the Net’s value would de-pend on high connectivity. In his article, “The Com-puter as a Communication Device,” Licklider ar-gues that the impact upon society depends on howavailable the network is to the society as a whole.He wrote:

For the society, the impact will begood or bad depending mainly on thequestion: Will ‘to be on line’ be aprivilege or a right? If only a favoredsegment of the population gets achance to enjoy the advantage of ‘in-

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telligence amplification,’ the net-work may exaggerate the discontinu-ity in the spectrum of intellectualopportunity.The Net has made a valuable impact to hu-

man society. I have heard from many people howtheir lives have been substantially improved viatheir connection to the Net. This enhancement ofpeople’s lives provides the incentive needed forproviding access to all in society. Society will im-prove if net access is made available to people as awhole. Only if access is universal will the Net itselftruly advance. The ubiquitous connection is neces-sary for the Net to encompass all possible re-sources. One Net visionary responded to my re-search by calling for universal access. Steve Welchwrote:

If we can get to the point where any-one who gets out of high school alivehas used computers to communicateon the Net or a reasonable facsimileor successor to it, then we as a soci-ety will benefit in ways not currentlyunderstandable. When access to in-formation is as ubiquitous as accessto the phone system, all hell willbreak loose. Bet on it.Steve is right, “all hell will break loose” in

the most positive of ways imaginable. The philoso-phers Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau, andall other fighters for democracy would have beenproud.

Similar to past communication advancessuch as the printing press, mail, and the telephone,the Global Computer Communications Network hasalready fundamentally changed our lives. Lickliderpredicted that the Net would fundamentally changethe way people live and work. It is important to tryto understand this impact, so as to help further thisadvance.

[Editor’s Note: A version of the following articleappeared in Rhetoric and Communications E-jour-nal, Issue 27, March 2017. That journal can be seenonline at: http://journal.rhetoric.bg/.]

Considerations on theSignificance of the Net

and the Netizens*by Ronda Hauben

Topics: netizens, communication processes, com-munication channels, citizen empowerment, modelsfor democracy, nerves of government, social impact

AbstractThe book Netizens: On the History and Impact of

Usenet and the Internet celebrates in 2017 the 20th anniversaryof its publication in English and Japanese editions in 1997.The book documents how along with the development of theInternet came the emergence of a new form of citizen – thenetizen. In his pioneering online research in the early 1990sMichael Hauben gathered data and did analysis demonstratingthat not only the Internet but also the netizen would have animportant impact on society. This article explores Hauben’sresearch recognizing that netizens are a new social force. Thearticle also looks at other contributions which help to providea conceptual framework to understand this new social force.Media theorist Mark Poster’s work about netizens is discussed,as is Karl Deutsch’s theoretical understanding of the role ofcommunication in creating a new model for good government.But it is the candlelight revolution by citizens and netizens in2016-2017 in South Korea which demonstrates in practice theimportance of the netizen forging a new governance model forparticipatory democracy.

Key Words: netizens, communications, empower-ment, impact, citizen, watchdog, democracy

IntroductionWith the introduction of the Internet, the

question has been raised as to what its impact willbe on society. One significant result of the impactalready is the emergence of the netizen. MichaelHauben’s work in the 1990s recognized the signifi-cant impact not only of the development of theInternet but also of the role of the netizen in forgingnew social and political forms and processes.

While the role of netizens in working forsocial change has been documented around theworld, the role of netizens in working for social andpolitical change has been an especially important

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aspect of South Korean experience for nearly thepast two decades. Most recently, however, wide-spread political and economic corruption at thehighest levels of the South Korean society has ledcitizens and netizens to take part in peaceful butmassive candlelight demonstrations advocating theneed for fundamental change in the political andeconomic structures of South Korean society. Thequestion has been raised whether there are modelsfor such change. In such an environment there is aneed to consider the importance of the Internet andof the Netizen in helping to forge the new forms forgrassroots participation in the governing structuresof society. At such a time it seems appropriate toconsider the conceptual framework for the role ofthe netizen in contributing to a new governingmodel for society

These developments in South Korea come ata time when the book Netizens: On the History andImpact of Usenet and the Internet celebrates the 20th

anniversary since its publication in 1997, making areview of the significant contribution of the bookparticularly relevant to the events of our time.

Looking BackTwenty years ago in May 1997, the print

edition of Netizens: On the History and Impact ofUsenet and the Internet was published in English.Later that year, in October, a Japanese translation ofthe book was published. In 2017, we are celebratingthe occasion of the 20th Anniversary of these publi-cations.

In honor of this occasion I want to both lookback and forward toward trying to assess the signif-icance of the book and of Michael Hauben’s discov-ery of the emergence of the netizen. I want to beginto consider what has happened in these 20 yearstoward trying to understand the nature of this ad-vance and the developments the advance makespossible.

By the early 1990s, Hauben recognized thatthe Internet was a significant new development andthat it would have an impact on our world. He wascurious about what that impact would be and whatcould help it to be a beneficial impact. He had rais-ed a series of questions about the online experience.He received responses to these questions from anumber of people. Reading and analyzing the re-sponses he explained:

There are people online who activelycontribute to the development of theNet. These people understand thevalue of collective work and thecommunal aspects of public com-munications. These are the peoplewho discuss and debate topics in aconstructive manner, who e-mail an-swers to people and provide help tonewcomers, who maintain FAQ filesand other public information reposi-tories, who maintain mailing lists,and so on. These are the people whodiscuss the nature and role of thisnew communications medium. Theseare the people who as citizens of theNet I realized were Netizens.The book was compiled from a series of ar-

ticles written by Hauben and his co-author RondaHauben which were posted on the Net as they werewritten and which sometimes led to substantialcomments and discussion.

The most important article in the book wasHauben’s article, “The Net and Netizens: The Im-pact the Net Has on People’s Lives.” Hauben open-ed the article with the prophetic words, which ap-peared online first in 1993:

Welcome to the 21st Century. Youare a Netizen (a Net Citizen) and youexist as a citizen of the world thanksto the global connectivity that theNet makes possible. You considereveryone as your compatriot. Youphysically live in one country butyou are in contact with much of theworld via the global computer net-work. Virtually, you live next doorto every other single Netizen in theworld. Geographical separation isreplaced by existence in the samevirtual space.1

Hauben goes on to explain that what he ispredicting is not yet the reality. In fact, many peo-ple around the world were just becoming connectedto the Internet during the period in which thesewords were written and posted on various differentnetworks that existed at the time.

But now twenty years after the publicationof the print edition of Netizens, this description isvery much the reality for our time and for many it is

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hard to remember or understand the world withoutthe Net.

Similarly, in his articles that are collected inthe Netizens book, Hauben looked at the pioneeringvision that gave birth to the Internet. He looked atthe role of computer science in the building of theearlier network called the ARPANET, at the poten-tial impact that the Net and Netizen would have onpolitics, on journalism, and on the revolution inideas that the Net and Netizen would bring about,comparing this to the advance brought about by theprinting press. The last chapter of the book is anarticle Hauben wrote early on about the need for awatchdog function over government in order tomake democracy possible.

By the time the book was published in aprint edition, it had been freely available online forthree years. This was a period when the U.S. gov-ernment was determined to change the nature of theNet from the public and scientific infrastructure thathad been built with public and educational fundingaround the world to a commercially driven entity.While there were people online at the time promot-ing the privatization and commercialization of theInternet, the concept of netizen was embraced byothers, many of whom supported the public and col-laborative nature of the Internet and who wantedthis aspect to grow and flourish.

The article “The Net and Netizens” grew outof a research project that Hauben had done for aclass at Columbia University in Computer Ethics.Hauben was interested in the impact of the Net andso he formulated several questions and sent themout online. This was a pioneering project at the timeand the results he got back helped to establish thefact that already in 1993 the Net was having a pro-found impact on the lives of a number of people.

Hauben put together the results of his re-search in the article “The Net and Netizens” andposted it online. This helped the concept of netizento spread and to be embraced around the world. Thenetizen, it is important to clarify, was not intendedto describe every net user. Rather netizen was theconceptualization of those on the Net who took upto support the public and collaborative nature of theNet and to help it to grow and flourish. Netizens atthe time often had the hope that their efforts onlinewould be helpful toward creating a better world.

Hauben described this experience in aspeech he gave at a conference in Japan. Subse-

quently in 1997, his description became the prefaceto the Netizens book, Hauben explained:

In conducting research five years agoonline to determine people’s uses ofthe global computer communicationsnetwork, I became aware that therewas a new social institution, an elec-tronic commons, developing. It wasexciting to explore this new socialinstitution. Others online shared thisexcitement. I discovered from thosewho wrote me that the people I waswriting about were citizens of theNet or Netizens.2

Hauben’s work which is included in thebook and the subsequent work he did recognizedthe advance made possible by the Internet and theemergence of the Netizen.

The book is not only about what is wrongwith the old politics, or media, but more impor-tantly, the implications for the emergence of newdevelopments, of a new politics, of a new form ofcitizenship, and of what Hauben called the “poorman’s version of the mass media.” He focused onwhat was new or emerging and recognized thepromise for the future represented by what was onlyat the time in an early stage of development.

For example, Hauben recognized that thecollaborative contributions for a new media wouldfar exceed what the old media had achieved. “Aspeople continue to connect to Usenet and other dis-cussion forums,” he wrote, “the collective popula-tion will contribute back to the human communitythis new form of news.”3

In order to consider the impact of Hauben’swork and of the publication of the book, both in itsonline form and in the print edition, I want to lookat some of the implications of what has been writtensince about netizens.

Mark Poster on the Implications of theConcept of Netizen

One interesting example is in a book on theimpact of the Internet and globalization by MarkPoster, a media theorist. The book’s title is Informa-tion Please. The book was published in 2006. WhilePoster does not make any explicit reference to thebook Netizens he finds the concept of the netizenthat he has seen used online to be an important one.

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He offers some theoretical discussion on the use ofthe “netizen” concept.

Referring to the concept of citizen, Poster isinterested in the relationship of the citizen to gov-ernment, and in the empowering of the citizen to beable to affect the actions of one’s government. Heconsiders the Declaration of the Rights of Man andthe Citizen as a monument from the French Revolu-tion of 1789. He explains that the idea of the Rightsof Man was one effort to empower people to dealwith governments. But this was not adequatethough the concept of the rights of the citizen, herecognizes, was an important democratic milestone.

“Human rights and citizenship,” he writes,“are tied together and reinforce each other in thebattle against the ruling classes.”4 He proposes that“these rights are ensured by their inscription in con-stitutions that found governments and they persistin their association with those governments as theground of political authority.”5

But with the coming of what he calls the ageof globalization, Poster wonders if the concept “citi-zen” can continue to signify democracy. He won-ders if the concept is up to the task.

“The conditions of globalization and net-worked media,” he writes, “present a new registerin which the human is recast and along with it thecitizen.”6 “The deepening of globalization processesstrips the citizen of power,” he writes. “As eco-nomic processes become globalized, the nation-state loses its ability to protect its population. Thecitizen thereby loses her ability to elect leaders whoeffectively pursue her interests.”7

In this situation, “the figure of the citizen isplaced in a defensive position.”8 To succeed in thestruggle against globalization he recognizes thatthere is a need to find instead of a defensive posi-tion, an offensive one.

Also he is interested in the media and itsrole in this new paradigm. “We need to examine therole of the media in globalizing practices that con-struct new subjects,” Poster writes. “We need espe-cially to examine those media that cross nationalboundaries and to inquire if they form or may formthe basis for a new set of political relations.”9

In this context, for the new media, “the im-portant questions, rather, are these:” he proposes,“Can the new media promote the construction ofnew political forms not tied to historical, territorialpowers? What are the characteristics of new media

that promote new political relations and new politi-cal subjects? How can these be furthered or en-hanced by political action?”10

“In contrast to the citizen of the nation,”Poster notices, the name often given to the politicalsubject constituted on the Net is “netizen.” WhilePoster makes it seem that the consciousness amongsome online of themselves as “netizens” just ap-peared online spontaneously, this is not accurate.

Before Hauben’s work, netizen as a conceptwas rarely if ever referred to. The paper “The Netand Netizens” introduced and developed the con-cept of “netizen.” This paper was widely circulatedonline. Gradually the use of the concept of netizenbecame increasingly common. Hauben’s work wasa process of doing research online, summarizing theresearch, analyzing it while welcoming online com-ments at various stages of the process and then putt-ing the research back online, and of people embrac-ing it. This was the process by which the foundationfor the concept of “netizen” was interactively estab-lished.

Considering this background, the observa-tions that Poster makes of how the concept of“netizen” is used online represents a recognition ofthe significant role for the netizen in the future de-velopment of the body politic. “The netizen,” Posterwrites, “might be the formative figure in a new kindof political relation, one that shares allegiance to thenation with allegiance to the Net and to the plane-tary political spaces it inaugurates.”11

This new phenomena, Poster concludes,“will likely change the relation of forces around theglobe. In such an eventuality, the figure of thenetizen might serve as a critical concept in the poli-tics of democratization.”12

The Era of the NetizenPoster characterizes the current times as the

age of globalization. I want to offer a differentview, the view that we are in an era demarcated bythe creation of the Internet and the emergence of thenetizen. Therefore, a more accurate characterizationof this period is as the “Era of the Netizen.”

The years since the publication of the bookNetizens have been marked by many interesting de-velopments that have been made possible by thegrowth and development of the Internet and thespread of netizens around the world. I will refer to a

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few examples to give a flavor of the kind of devel-opments I am referring to.

An article by Vinay Kamat in the Reader’sOpinion section of the Times of India referred tosomething I had written. Quoting the article “TheRise of Netizen Democracy”, the Times of Indiaarticle said, “Not only is the Internet a laboratoryfor democracy, but the scale of participation andcontribution is unprecedented. Online discussionmakes it possible for netizens to become active in-dividuals and group actors in social and public af-fairs. The Internet makes it possible for netizens tospeak out independently of institutions or offi-cials.”13

Kamat points to the growing number ofnetizens in China and India and the large proportionof the population in South Korea who are connectedto the Internet. “Will it evolve into a fifth estate?”Kamat asks, contrasting netizens’ discussion onlinewith the power of the 4th estate, i.e. the mainstreammedia.“Will social and political discussion in social mediagrow into deliberation?” asks Kamat. “Will opin-ions expressed be merely ‘rabble rousing’ or willthey be ‘reflective’ instead of ‘impulsive’?”

One must recognize, Kamat explains, thenew situation online and the fact that it is importantto understand the nature of this new media and notmerely look at it through the lens of the old media.What is the nature of this new media and how doesit differ from the old? This is an important area forfurther research and discussion.

Looking for a Model When visiting South Korea in 2008, I was

asked by a colleague if there is a model for democ-racy that could be helpful for South Korea – amodel implemented in some country, perhaps inScandinavia. Thinking about the question I realizedit was more complex than it seemed on the surface.

I realized that one cannot just take a modelfrom the period before the Internet, from before theemergence of the netizen. It is instead necessarythat models for a more democratic society or nation,in our times, be models that include netizen partici-pation in the society. Both South Korea and Chinaare places where the role not only of citizens butalso of netizens is important in building more dem-ocratic structures for the society. South Korea ap-pears to be the most advanced in grassroots efforts

to create examples of netizen forms for a more par-ticipatory government decision making process.14

But China is also a place where there are significantdevelopments because of the Internet and netizens.15

In China there have been a large number ofissues that netizens have taken up online whichhave then had an impact on the mainstream mediaand where the online discussion has helped to bringabout a change in government policy.

In looking for other models to learn from,however, I also realized that there is another rele-vant area of development. This is the actual processof building the Net, a prototype which is helpful toconsider when seeking to understand the nature andparticularity of the evolving new models for devel-opment and participation represented in the Era ofthe Netizen.16

In particular, I want to point to a paper bythe research scientist who many computer and net-working pioneers credit with providing the vision toinspire the scientific work to create the Internet.This scientist is JCR Licklider, an experimentalpsychologist who was particularly interested in theprocesses of the brain and in communication re-search.

In a paper Licklider wrote with another psy-chologist, Robert Taylor, in 1968 a vision was setout to guide the development of the Internet. Thetitle of the paper was “The Computer as a Commu-nication Device.”17 The paper proposed that essen-tial to the processes of communication is the cre-ation and sharing of models. That the human mindis adept at creating models, but that the models cre-ated in a single mind are not helpful in themselves.Instead it is critical that models be shared and a pro-cess of cooperative modeling be developed in orderto be able to create something that many people willrespect.18

Nerves of GovernmentIn his article comparing the impact of the

Net with the important impact the printing press hadon society, Hauben wrote, “The Net has opened achannel for talking to the whole world to an evenwider set of people than did printed books.”19 I wantto focus a bit on the significance of this characteris-tic, on the notion that the Net has opened a commu-nication channel available to a wide set of people.

In order to have a conceptual framework tounderstand the importance of this characteristic, I

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recommend the book by Karl Deutsch titled, TheNerves of Government. In the preface to this book,Deutsch writes:

This book suggests that it might bepreferable to look upon governmentsomewhat less as a problem ofpower and somewhat more as aproblem of steering; and it tries toshow that steering is decisively amatter of communication.20

To look at the question of government not asa problem of power, but as one of steering, of com-munication, I want to propose is a fundamental par-adigm shift.

What is the difference? Political power has to do with the ability to

exert force on something so as to affect its directionand action. Steering and communication, however,are related to the process of the transmission of asignal through a channel. The communication pro-cess is one related to whether a signal is transmittedin a manner that distorts the signal or whether it ispossible to transmit the signal accurately. The com-munication process and the steering that it makespossible through feedback mechanisms are an un-derlying framework to consider in seeking to under-stand what Deutsch calls the “Nerves of Govern-ment.”

According to Deutsch, a nation can be look-ed at as a self-steering communication system of acertain kind and the messages that are used to steerit are transmitted via certain channels.

Some of the important challenges of ourtimes relate to the exposure of the distortions of theinformation being spread. For example, the misrep-resentations by the mainstream media about whathappened in Libya in 2011 or what has been hap-pening in Syria since 2011.21 The creation and dis-semination of channels of communication that makepossible “the essential two-way flow of informa-tion” are essential for the functioning of an autono-mous learning organization, which is the formDeutsch proposes for a well-functioning system.

To look at this phenomenon in a more prac-tical way, I want to offer some considerations raisedin a speech given to honor a Philippine librarian, aspeech given by Zosio Lee. Lee refers to the kind ofinformation that is transmitted as essential to thewell being of a society. In considering the impact of

netizens and the form of information that is beingtransmitted, Lee asks the question, “How do wedetect if we are being manipulated or deceived?”22

The importance of this question, he ex-plains, is that, “We would not have survived for solong if all the information we needed to make validjudgments were all false or unreliable.” Also, heproposes that “information has to be processed anddiscussed for it to acquire full meaning and signifi-cance.”23 “When information is free, available andtruthful, we are better able to make appropriatejudgments, including whether existing governmentsfulfill their mandate to govern for the benefit of thepeople,” Lee writes.24

In his article “The Computer as a Democr-atizer,” Hauben similarly explores the need for ac-curate information about how government is func-tioning. He writes, “Without information beingavailable to them, the people may elect candidatesas bad as or worse than the incumbents. Therefore,there is a need to prevent government from censor-ing the information available to people.”25

Hauben adds that, “The public needs accu-rate information as to how their representatives arefulfilling their role. Once these representatives haveabused their power, the principles established by[Thomas Paine] and [James] Mill require that thepublic have the ability to replace the abusers.”26

Channels of accurate communication arecritical in order to share the information needed todetermine the nature of one’s government.27

ConclusionThe candlelight revolution is still in process

in South Korea. It is demonstrating in practice thatwe are in a period when the old forms of govern-ment are outmoded. The paper by Licklider andTaylor proposes that the computer is a splendid fa-cilitator for cooperative modeling. It is such a pro-cess of cooperative modeling that offers the poten-tial for creating not only new technical and institu-tional forms, but also new political forms. Such newpolitical forms are more likely to provide for thedemocratic processes that are needed for the 21st

century. Hence it is the efforts of citizens andnetizens who are involved in collaborative model-ing to create the more participatory forms and struc-tures as is happening during the candlelight pro-cesses being explored in South Korea that provide

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for the development of a more equitable and demo-cratic society.28

References/Citations1. Hauben, M., R. Hauben, (1997), Netizens: On the Historyand Impact of Usenet and the Internet, Los Alamitos: IEEEComputer Society Press, p. 3. Also available online in an ear-lier draft version, http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/. Retrievedon Jan. 18, 2017.2. IBID., p. ix.3. IBID., p. 233.4. Poster, M., (2006). Information Please. Durham: Duke Uni-versity Press, p. 68.5. IBID.6. IBID., p. 70.7. IBID., p. 71.8. IBID.9. IBID., p. 77.10. IBID., p. 78.11. IBID.12. IBID., p. 83.13. Kamat, V. (2011, December 16), “We are looking at theFifth Estate,” Reader’s Opinion, Times of India, p. 2.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/ampnbspWe-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/articleshow/11133662.cms, Retriev-ed on Jan. 10, 2017. The quote is taken from Hauben, R. “TheRise of Netizen Democracy: A Case Study of Netizens’ Im-pact on Democracy in South Korea” http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/misc/korean-democracy.txt, Retrieved onJan. 10, 2017.14. In South Korea there are many interesting examples ofnew organizational forms or events created by netizens. Forexample, Nosamo combined the model of an online fan cluband off-line gathering of supporters who worked to get RohMoo-hyun elected as President in South Korea in 2002. Also,OhmyNews, an online newspaper, helped to make the electionof Roh Moo-hyun possible. Science mailing lists and discus-sion networks contributed to by netizens helped to expose thefraudulent scientific work of a leading South Korean scientist.And in 2008 there were 106 days of candlelight demonstra-tions contributed to by people online and off to protest theSouth Korean government’s adoption of a weakened set ofregulations about the import of poorly inspected U.S. beef intoSouth Korea. The debate on June 10-11, 2008 over the formthe demonstration should take involved both online and off-line discussion and demonstrated the generative nature of seri-ous communication. See for example, Hauben, R. “On Grass-roots Journalism and Participatory Democracy.” http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/netizens_draft.pdf, Retrieved onJan. 10, 2017.15. Some examples include the Anti-CNN web site that wasset up to counter the inaccurate press reports in the westernmedia about the riot in Tibet. The murder case of a Chinesewaitress who killed a Communist Party official in self defense.The case of the Chongqing Nail House and the online discus-sion about the issues involved. See for example, Hauben, R.(2010, February 14). “China in the Era of the Netizen.” http://

blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in_the_era_of_the_ netizen/, Retrieved on Jan. 10, 2017.16. IBID., Netizens.17. “The Computer as a Communication Device,” (1968,April) Science and Technology. http://memex.org/licklider.pdf, pp. 21-41. Retrieved Jan. 21, 2017.18. The Licklider and Taylor paper also points out that thesharing of models is essential to facilitate communication. Iftwo people have different models and do not find a way toshare them, there will be no communication between them.19. IBID., Netizens, p. 29920. Deutsch, K., (1966), Nerves of Government, New York,The Free Press, p. xxvii.21. See for example, Hauben, R., (2012, Winter), “Libya, theUN and Netizen Journalism,” The Amateur Computerist, Vol.21, No. 1. http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn21-1.pdf, Retriev-ed Jan. 10, 2017 and Hauben, J., (2007), “On the 15th Anniver-sary of Netizens: Netizens Expose Distortions and Fabri-cation.” http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Book_Anniversary/presentation_2.doc, Retrieved on Jan. 10, 2017.22. Lee, Z. (2011), “Truthfulness and the Information Revol-ution,” JPL 31, p. 105.23. IBID., p. 106.24. IBID., p. 108.25. IBID., Netizens, p. 316.26. IBID., Netizens, p. 317.27. M. Hauben explains: “Thomas Paine, in The Rights ofMan, describes a fundamental principle of democracy. Painewrites, ‘that the right of altering the government was a nationalright, and not a right of the government’.” (Netizens, Chapter18, p. 316)28. Hauben, R., (2016, December 21), “Ban Ki-moon’s Idea ofLeadership or the Candlelight Model for More Democracy?,”http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2016/12/21/leadership-or-candlelight-democracy/, Retrieved on Jan. 21, 2017.

BibliographyDeutsch, K. (1966). Nerves of Government. New York: The

Free Press. New York.Hauben, M. & Hauben, R. (1997). Netizens: On the History

and Impact of Usenet and the Internet. Los Alamitos:IEEE Computer Society Press. Online edition: http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120, Retrieved on Jan. 11,2017.

Hauben, R. (2005). “The Rise of Netizen Democracy: A CaseStudy of Netizens’ Impact on Democracy in SouthKorea.” Unpublished paper. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Rise_of_Netizen_Democracy.pdf, Retrieved on Jan. 11, 2017.

Komat, V. (2011, December 16, p. 2). Reader’s Opinion:“We’re Looking at the Fifth Estate.” Times of India.Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/We-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/opinions/11133662.cms, Retrieved on Jan. 11,2017.

Lee, Z. E. (2011). “Truthfulness and the Information Revolu-tion,” Journal of Philippine Librarianship, 31. pp.101-109. http://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/jpl/art icle/viewFile/2779/2597. Retrieved on Jan. 11, 2017.

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http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/ampnbspWe-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/articleshow/11133662.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/ampnbspWe-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/articleshow/11133662.cmshttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/misc/korean-democracy.txthttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/misc/korean-democracy.txthttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/netizens_draft.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/netizens_draft.pdfhttp://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in_the_era_of_the_netizen/http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in_the_era_of_the_netizen/http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2010/02/14/china_in_the_era_of_the_netizen/http://memex.org/licklider.pdfhttp://memex.org/licklider.pdfhttp://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn21-1.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Book_Anniversary/presentation_2.dochttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Book_Anniversary/presentation_2.dochttp://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2016/12/21/leadership-or-candlelight-democracy/http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog/2016/12/21/leadership-or-candlelight-democracy/http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Rise_of_Netizen_Democracy.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Rise_of_Netizen_Democracy.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Rise_of_Netizen_Democracy.pdfhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/We-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/opinions/11133662.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/We-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/opinions/11133662.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/We-are-looking-at-the-fifth-estate/opinions/11133662.cmshttp://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/jpl/article/viewFile/2779/2597http://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/jpl/article/viewFile/2779/2597

Licklider, JCR, & Taylor, R. “The Computer as a Communica-tion Device.” (1968, April). Science and Technology.http://memex.org/licklider.pdf. pp. 21-41. RetrievedJan. 21, 2017.

Poster, M. (2006). Information Please. Durham: Duke Univer-sity Press.

* This article is a revised version of a presentation made onMay 1, 2012 at a small celebration in honor of the 15th Anni-versary of the publication of the print edition of the bookNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and theInternet.

[Editor’s Note: The following is the text of theWikipedia entry for Michael Hauben at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hauben]

Michael Hauben

Michael Frederick Hauben (May 1, 1973 –June 27, 2001) was an Internet theorist and author.He pioneered the study of the social impact of theInternet. Based on his interactive online research, in1993 he coined the term and developed the conceptof Netizen to describe an Internet user who activelycontributes toward the development of the Net andacts as a citizen of the Net and of the world. Alongwith Ronda Hauben, he co-authored the 1997 bookNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet andthe Internet.1 Hauben’s work is widely referenced inmany scholarly articles and publications about thesocial impact of the Internet.

Early LifeHauben was born on May 1, 1973 in Boston,

Massachusetts, son of Jay and Ronda Hauben. Hewas an active participant in the Bulletin Board Sys-tem (BBS) communities in the Detroit/Ann Arborarea in Michigan where his family had moved.

Work and ScholarshipHauben participated in the founding meet-

ings of the Amateur Computerist2 in 1987. From1991 to 1997 he attended Columbia University inNYC, earning a BA in Computer Science (Colum-bia College 1995) and an MA in Communication(Teachers College 1997). During his studies at CU,Hauben did much of his original research and writ-

ing. He was all that time an active employee of theCU Academic Information Systems (AcIS), servingfor one year as a Postmaster and Consultant forElectronic Mail.

Hauben was co-author of the book Netizens:On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Inter-net, a draft of which was put online in 1994. Printeditions in English (IEEE Computer Society Press)and Japanese (Chuokoron-Sha, Inc.3) were pub-lished in 1997. Based on his interactive online re-search, Hauben coined the term ‘Netizen’ and intro-duced it into popular use. In the Preface to Netizens,Hauben wrote: “My initial research concerned theorigins and development of the global discussionforum Usenet…. I wanted to explore the larger Netand what it was and its significance. This is whenmy research uncovered the remaining details thathelped me to recognize the emergence of Netizens.There are people online who actively contributetowards the development of the Net. These peopleunderstand the value of collective work and thecommunal aspects of public communications. Theseare the people who discuss and debate topics in aconstructive manner, who e-mail answers to peopleand provide help to new-comers, who maintainFAQ files and other public information repositories,who maintain mailing lists, and so on. These arepeople who discuss the nature and role of this newcommunications medium. These are the people whoas citizens of the Net I realized were Netizens.”Hauben observed that, “The word citizen suggests ageographic or national definition of social member-ship. The word Netizen reflects the new non-geo-graphically based social membership. So I con-tracted the phrase net.citizen to Netizen.”4

His 1993 article “Common Sense: The Im-pact the Net Has on People’s Lives”5 was an analy-sis of responses Hauben received to questions heposted on newsgroups and mailing lists. The articlebegins:

Welcome to the 21st Century. Youare a Netizen (a Net Citizen), andyou exist as a citizen of the worldthanks to the global connectivity thatthe Net makes possible. You con-sider everyone as your compatriot.You physically live in one countrybut you are in contact with much ofthe world via the global computernetwork. Virtually, you live next

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door to every other single Netizen inthe world. Geographical separation isreplaced by existence in the samevirtual space.

This article became Chapter One of Netizens. While still an undergraduate, Hauben began

to develop a theoretical framework for his vision ofthe social impact of the net and the netizens. In hisarticle “The Expanding Commonwealth of Learn-ing: Printing and the Net,”6 he applied his study ofthe Printing Revolution especially the work of Eliz-abeth Eisenstein to an analysis of the trajectory inwhich the Internet and netizens are taking society.He wrote, “Comparing the emergence of the print-ing press to the emergence of the global computernetwork will reveal some of the fascinating paral-lels which demonstrate how the Net is continuingthe important social revolution that the printingpress had begun.” Quoting Hauben’s work, one au-thor wrote, “On the extraordinary explosion ofknowledge with the Gutenberg printing press, seeEisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Mod-ern Europe. On the intellectual foundation of theInternet actually being based on the Gutenbergprinting press, see Hauben, The Expanding Com-monwealth of Learning: Printing and the Net.”7

Using a similar method of analysis, Haubenfound insights about the Internet in the understand-ings of the 19th Century Scottish philosopher JamesMill about the importance of “liberty of the press”.He argued that the net was making it possible forcitizens as netizens to be the watchdogs over gov-ernments which Mill argued was the function ofliberty of the press. In a footnote to his article “TheComputer as a Democratizer,”8 referring to Usenet,Hauben wrote that “the discussions are very activeand provide a source of information that makes itpossible to meet James Mill’s criteria for both moreoversight over government and a more informedpopulation. In a sense, what was once impossible, isnow possible.”

Hauben was invited to Japan in 1995 byShumpei Kumon, sociology professor and directorof GLOCOM (the Japanese Center for Global Com-munication).9 In Japan, Hauben was welcomed inTokyo at GLOCOM and then in Oita by membersof COARA,10 the computer network community inBeppu. At the Hypernetwork ‘95 Beppu Bay Con-ference,11 Hauben spoke about “The Netizens andCommunity Networks.”12 He was interviewed by

the local Nisshi-Nippon Press. Then in Kyoto, heattended two network conferences and was an hon-ored guest at a reception with the Mayor. Haubenwas a speaker also at the GLOCOM Intelprise-En-terprise Collaboration Program (IECP). Throughouthis stay in Japan, Hauben met Japanese computerand network enthusiasts to discuss the growing im-portance of this new medium and his vision ofnetizenship. Hauben also appeared in documenta-ries about the Internet on TV Tokyo and in write-ups in newspapers in Tokyo and Oita. Prof. Kumonincluded a chapter by Hauben in his 1996 book TheAge of the Netizen. In 1997, the Japanese translationof Netizens: On the History and impact of Usenetand the Internet was published in a run of 5000copies.

When he returned home from Japan, Haubenbroadened his vision of the impact the Internet andthe netizens would have on society. He saw in thework of the American anthropologist MargaretMead that even in the 1960s a global culture wasemerging. Using the writings of Mead, he counteredthe critics who claimed that the Internet’s mass cul-ture was snuffing out cultural differences. He sawinstead that “more and more people of various cul-tures are understanding the power of the new com-munication technologies. More and more people arereacting against the mass media and corporate dom-inance and calling for a chace to express their viewsand contribute their culture into the global culture.”Hauben presented his analysis of Internet culture atthe 1997 IFIP WG 9.2/9.5 conference in Corfu,Greece.13

Hauben also explored the question whetherparticipatory democracy and netizenship are related.He studied the Port Huron Statement created in1962 by the Students for a Democratic Society(SDS) and other sources to see what lessons hecould learn about the 1960s that would help to un-derstand the importance of the Internet and theemergence of the netizens. He opened his analysiswith the observation that “the 1960s was a time ofpeople around the world struggling for more of asay in the decisions of their society…. People roseup to protest the ways of society which were out oftheir control….” Hauben’s conclusion was that “thedevelopment of the Internet and emergence of thenetizens is an investment in a strong force towardmaking direct democracy a reality. The new tech-nologies present the chance to overcome the obsta-

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cles preventing the implementation of direct democ-racy. Online communication forums also make pos-sible the discussion necessary to identify today’sfundamental questions.”14

Hauben was an avid music fan. He was a DJof ambient techno music on WBAR,15 the BarnardCollege student radio station. With Min-Yen Kanhe developed one of the original web sites for bandlistings, the Ever Expanding Web Music Listing!16

In 1996, an article in The Daily Herald (Chicago,IL) described the Ever Expanding Web Music List-ing as “probably the World Wide Web’s most com-prehensive one-stop resource for all things musi-cal.”17 In the late 1990s, Hauben did online reviewsof live music performances in New York City. Hewas concerned that the youth music scene in NYCnot slip into drugs and commercial dominance. Heanalyzed trends in youth music culture and sent outpointers to upcoming events.18 He saw peer-to-peermusic reviews as an alternative to commercial ad-vertising.

Influence of Hauben’s WorkIn the second half of the 1990s, the Internet

rapidly spread around the world. Online and off-line, the term netizen was becoming widely used.Scholars began to refer to Hauben’s research. Forexample, the Polish scholar and diplomat LeszekJesien,19 quoting Hauben, urged the European polit-ical leaders to look at netizenship as a possiblemodel for a new European citizenship. BoldurBarbat, a Romanian scientist, reviewed Netizensconcluding it is a catalyst for the continuing of in-formation technology and an optimistic future.20

Citing Hauben’s work, Cameroonian sociologistCharly G Mbock21 saw netizenship as a necessarycomponent of any fight against corruption and as asign of hope for “a more equitable sharing of worldresources through efficient interactions.” Turkisheducator Dr. E. Özlem Yiðit22 and Palestinianscholar Khaled Islaih23 also referred to Hauben as asource of their understandings of the importance ofnetizenship for their respective communities.Hauben’s work on netizens and the Internet isknown in China and has influenced how some aca-demics and government officials analyze the impactof the Internet on society.24 In his study of new me-dia and social media in the Philippines, AjGarchitorena, as some of his theoretical foundation,cited Hauben’s work especially Hauben’s “Theory

of the Netizen and the Democratisation of Media.”25

Garchitorena also built on Hauben’s insight that thenet “brings the power of the reporter to theNetizen.”

With its spread, two general uses of the termnetizen developed. Hauben explained, “The first is abroad usage to refer to anyone who uses the Net, forwhatever purpose…. The second usage is closer tomy understanding… people who care about Usenetand the bigger Net and work toward building thecooperative and collective nature which benefits thelarger world. These are people who work towardsdeveloping the Net…. Both uses have spread fromthe online community, appearing in newspapers,magazines, television, books and other off-line me-dia. As more and more people join the online com-munity and contribute toward the nurturing of theNet and toward the development of a great sharedsocial wealth, the ideas and values of Netizenshipspread. But with the increasing commercializationand privatization of the Net, Netizenship is beingchallenged.” He called on scholars, “to look back atthe pioneering vision and actions that have helpedmake the Net possible and examine what lessonsthey provide.” He argued that is what he and theNetizens book tried to do.26

One contributor to the 2004 celebration ofthe 250th Anniversary of Columbia University inNew York City, referring to Hauben’s contributionwrote, “While the prevalence and universality of theInternet today may lead some to take it for granted,Michael Hauben did not. A pioneer in the study ofthe Internet’s impact on society, Hauben helpedidentify the collaborative nature of the Internet andits effects on the global community.”27

LegacyAfter sustaining injuries resulting from an

accident in December 1999 when he was hit by ataxi, Hauben died in New York City28 on June 27,2001, a victim of suicide. At the time of his death,he had lost a job, accumulated a large credit carddebt, and was about to lose his apartment.29

The significance of Hauben’s contribution tothe appreciation of the emergence of the netizen is adeeper sense that the Internet is accompanied by anexpansion of the fullness of human empowerment.In 2012, cultural anthropologist Shirley Fedoraksummed up Hauben’s contribution. She wrote.“Studies have found that greater participation in the

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_techno

political landscape is influenced by access to in-formation…. Indeed, Michael Hauben identified anew form of citizenship emerging from widespreaduse of the Internet. Hauben coined the termnetizens, and he considered them crucial for build-ing a more democratic human society. These indi-viduals are empowered through the Internet and useit to solve socio-political problems and to exploreways of improving the world.”30

Bibliography! Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the

Internet. published May 1997. by IEEE ComputerSociety Press. (ISBN 0-8186-7706-6)

! “Culture and Communication,” chapter in The EthicalGlobal Information Society: Culture and DemocracyRevisited. Jacques Berleur and Diane Whitehouse.Editors, IFIP, pp. 197–202. published 1997 by Chap-man & Hall.

! “Netizens.” in CMC Magazine. February 1997. http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.html

! “Birth of Netizens,” chapter in The Age of Netizens., Shumpei Kumon. published 1996 by NTT Press, ISBN 4-87188-461-9

! “Netizens” in The Thinker. Vol. 2, No. 5. February 2, 1996.p. 1. Stanford University.

! “Online Public Discussion and the Future of Democracy.”in Proceedings Telecommunities 95: Equity on theInternet. Victoria, B.C, Canada.

! Co-author, “Interview with Henry Spencer: On UsenetNews and C News,” chapter in Internet Secrets. ed-ited by John R. Levine and Carol Baroudi. published1995. by IDG Books.

! “Exploring New York City’s Online Community,” in CMCMagazine. May 1995. http://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/may/hauben.html

! “Participatory Democracy From the 1960s and SDS into theFuture Online.” 1995. reprinted in Amateur Com-puterist Vol. 11 No. 1. http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-1.pdf

! “A New Democratic Medium: The Global Computer Com-munications Network,” in HKCUS Quarterly. No. 14,July 1994. p. 26. Special Issue on Hong Kong MediaFacing 1997.

References1. Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben, Netizens: On the His-tory and Impact of Usenet and the Internet, IEEE ComputerSociety Press, Los Alamitos, CA, May 1997 http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0818677066.html2. The Amateur Computerist Newsletter 1988-present http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/acnindex2.html 3. Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and theInternet (Japanese), Chuokoron-Sha, October 1997, ISBN4120027333

4. Michael Hauben, “Preface: What is a Netizen?” in Netizens:On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet, pp. ix-xi http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.txt5. Michael Hauben, “Common Sense: The Net and Netizens,”Part I/III, alt.culture.usenet, July 6, 1993 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.culture.usenet/M-C3Kq2ssRY/hY66QIJA_I8J6. Michael Hauben, “The Expanding Commonwealth ofLearning: Printing and the Net” in Netizens: On the Historyand Impact of Usenet and the Internet, pages 291-304http://www.columbia.edu/ ~rh120/ch106.x16 7. Gerald L. Stevens, Revelation: The Past and Future ofJohn’s Apocalypse, Pickwick, 2014 ISBN 978-1-62564-549-4,p. 131 https://books.google.com/books?id=JhqQBAAAQBAJ&pg =PA131 8. Michael Hauben, “The Computer as a Democratizer,” inNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and theInternet, pp. 315-320 http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/demo cratizer.pdf 9. Center for Global Communications, International Universityof Japan (GLOCOM) http://www.glocom.ac.jp/e/10. Mieko and Kenichi Nagano, “A memory of MichaelHauben, the inventor of NETIZEN,” Oita, Japan, August 6,2001 http://www.coara.or.jp/~mieko/hauben/hauben.htm11. (Hypernetwork ‘95 Beppu Bay Conference), Oita, Japan,Nov. 23-25, 1995 http://www.coara.or.jp/BBC/url.html12. Michael Hauben, “The Netizens and Community Net-works,” CMC Magazine, February 1997 http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.html 13. Michael Hauben, “Culture and Communication,” in TheEthical Global Information Society: Culture and DemocracyRevisited, Jacques Berleur and Diane Whitehouse, Editors,IFIP, Chapman & Hall, 1997, pp. 197–202 https://archive.org/stream/springer_10.1007-978-0-387-35327-2/10.1007-978-0-387-35327-2_djvu.txt 14. Michael Hauben, “Participatory Democracy From the1960s and SDS into the Future On-line,” Columbia University,1995 http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/CS/netdemocracy-60s.txt 15. WBAR: Barnard College Freeform Radio http://www.wbar.org/ 16. Michael Hauben and Min-Yen Kan, “Ever Expanding WebMusic Listing!” (1991-2001) http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/web-music.html17. “CYBERSPACE: The Internet rocks! Here’s your guide togetting plugged in,” The Daily Herald (Chicago, IL), January26, 1996, p. 56 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/12898495/ 18. Michael Hauben, “The Netizens Cyberstop Music Page”(last modified: Oct 19, 1996) http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/index.html 19. Leszek Jesien, “The 1996 IGC: European Citizenship Re-considered,” Instituts für den Donauraum und Mitteleuropa(IDM), March, 1997 http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/European_Citizenship_Reconsidered-LJesien.doc 20. Boldur Barbat, “Review of Netizens,” Studies in Informa-tics and Control Journal, Vol. 7 No. 4, Bucharest, December1998 http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/Review_of_Netizens-BBarbat.txt

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8186-7706-6http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.htmlhttp://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4-87188-461-9http://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/may/hauben.htmlhttp://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/may/hauben.htmlhttp://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-1.pdfhttp://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-1.pdfhttp://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0818677066.htmlhttp://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0818677066.htmlhttp://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/acnindex2.htmlhttp://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/acnindex2.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4120027333http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.txthttps://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.culture.usenet/M-C3Kq2ssRY/hY66QIJA_I8Jhttps://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.culture.usenet/M-C3Kq2ssRY/hY66QIJA_I8Jhttps://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.culture.usenet/M-C3Kq2ssRY/hY66QIJA_I8Jhttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.x16https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-62564-549-4https://books.google.com/books?id=JhqQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131https://books.google.com/books?id=JhqQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/democratizer.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/democratizer.pdfhttp://www.glocom.ac.jp/e/http://www.coara.or.jp/~mieko/hauben/hauben.htmhttp://www.coara.or.jp/BBC/url.htmlhttp://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.htmlhttp://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/feb/hauben.htmlhttps://archive.org/stream/springer_10.1007-978-0-387-35327-2/10.1007-978-0-387-3https://archive.org/stream/springer_10.1007-978-0-387-35327-2/10.1007-978-0-387-3https://archive.org/stream/springer_10.1007-978-0-387-35327-2/10.1007-978-0-387-3http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/CS/netdemocracy-60s.txthttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/CS/netdemocracy-60s.txthttp://www.wbar.org/http://www.wbar.org/http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/web-music.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/web-music.htmlhttps://www.newspapers.com/newspage/12898495/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/12898495/http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/index.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/index.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/European_Citizenship_Reconsidered-LJesien.doc%20http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/European_Citizenship_Reconsidered-LJesien.doc%20http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/European_Citizenship_Reconsidered-LJesien.doc%20http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/Review_of_Netizens-BBarbat.txthttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Era_of_the_Netizen/resources/Review_of_Netizens-BBarbat.txt

21. Charly Gabriel Mbock, “Social Sciences and the SocialDevelopment Process in Africa.” in Social Sciences and Inno-vation, OECD, 2001, pp. 157-172 https://books.google.com/books?id =LncFo1_SDxcC&pg=PA157 22. E. Özlem Yiðit, “Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers’ Per-spectives Towards Netizenship,” The Turkish Online Journalof Educational Technology, Vol. 13 Issue 2, April 2014, pp.123-124 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ10229 18.pdf 23. Khaled Islaih, “Palestinian Diaspora: Building Transna-tional Capital,” Palestine Economic, Policy Research Institute,2011, p. 18 http://www.mas.ps/files/server/ 20141911094704-1.pdf 24. Yun Tang, Lifeng Sun, Hai Qin, Shiqiang Yang, andYuzhuo Zhong, “When Most Quickly Developing TechniqueMeets with Most Quickly Developing Country: Towards Un-derstanding Internet in China,” pp. 2 and 3 https://pdfs.semanticscholar .org/f441/f5f46f5e85db3ca488c37bf0f2dc70d5b2ef.pdf 25. Aj Garchitorena, “Pop Culture and the Rise of Social Me-dia in the Philippines: An Overview,” http://werdsmith.com/p/ARutG2rFJ 26. Michael Hauben, “Preface: What is a Netizen?,” inNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and theInternet, p. xi http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.txt 27. Simon Butler, “Michael F. Hauben,” Columbia 250, C250Celebrates Your Columbians, 2009 http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/your_columbians/michael_hauben.html 28. Andrew Orlowski, “Michael Hauben, Netizen, Dies: OurTribute,” The Register (U.K.), June 30, 2001 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/30/michael_hauben_netizen_dies// 29. Horvath, John (July 27, 2001). “Death of a Netizen”,Heise. Retrieved June 6, 2015. 30. Shirley A. Fedorak, Anthropology Matters, Second Edi-tion, University of Toronto Press, 2012, p. 120 https://books.google.com/books?id=X5JeG0ZaqBQC&pg=PA120

External LinksNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and theInternetTable of Contents (online edition)Michael Hauben Collected WorksThe Netizens Cyberstop (Hauben’s original home page)Ever Expanding Web Music Listing! (1991-2001)C250 Celebrates Your Columbians: Michael HaubenInternet PioneerA Memory of Michael Hauben, the Inventor of NETIZENMemorial PageJ.C.R. Licklider And The Universal NetworkNetizen Participation in Internet Governance

[Editor’s Note: The following is a slightly revisedversion of a presentation made to a Social Move-ments class at Barnard College in Nov. 2017.]

Netizens and the Vision forthe Future of the Net

A Special Moment andNetizens in Candlelight 2008

by Ronda Hauben

Part I – ContextFirst I want to offer a context for the origins

and importance of “The Net and Netizens; the Im-pact of the Net Has on People’s Lives,” an articlethat became the basis for Chapter 1 of the bookNetizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet andthe Internet. Then I will take a brief look at netizenactivity in the 2008 Candlelight demonstrations inSouth Korea.

The article and the chapter are a collectionof some of the experiences made possible by theInternet in what might be called the Dawn of theInternet’s development. The author of the article,Michael Hauben is also the co-author with me ofthe book. I will refer to this book as the Netizensbook in this talk. The book was first put online Jan12, 1994 and then published in a print edition inMay 1997.

In 1992-1993 Michael was an undergraduatestudent at Columbia University and at the time hewas interested in studying communication and thepotential impact of the Internet. In 1992, he enrolledin a course in ethics and computer science. The pro-fessor wanted students to do a project, which wasnot based on information from books.

The obvious possibility for Michael was togo online and try to gather material about a questionhe was deeply interested in, which was the impactthat the Internet would have on society.

The Internet had been in the process of de-velopment for 20 years by this time. But it was onlyin 1992-1993 that it was becoming accessible to thepublic and connections were becoming available topeople and institutions around the world.

So this was, one can say, a special momentwhen Michael was able to be online at Columbia

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https://books.google.com/books?id=LncFo1_SDxcC&pg=PA157https://books.google.com/books?id=LncFo1_SDxcC&pg=PA157http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1022918.pdfhttp://www.mas.ps/files/server/20141911094704-1.pdfhttp://www.mas.ps/files/server/20141911094704-1.pdfhttps://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f441/f5f46f5e85db3ca488c37bf0f2dc70d5b2ef.pdfhttps://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f441/f5f46f5e85db3ca488c37bf0f2dc70d5b2ef.pdfhttps://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f441/f5f46f5e85db3ca488c37bf0f2dc70d5b2ef.pdfhttp://werdsmith.com/p/ARutG2rFJhttp://werdsmith.com/p/ARutG2rFJhttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.txthttp://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/your_columbians/michael_hauben.htmlhttp://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/your_columbians/michael_hauben.htmlhttps://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/30/michael_hauben_netizen_dies/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/30/michael_hauben_netizen_dies/http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/9/9180/1.htmlhttps://books.google.com/books?id=X5JeG0ZaqBQC&pg=PA120https://books.google.com/books?id=X5JeG0ZaqBQC&pg=PA120http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/project_book.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/project_book.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/http://www.ais.org/~hauben/cw.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/~haubenhttp://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/web-music.htmlhttp://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/your_columbians/michael_hauben.htmlhttp://www.edu-cyberpg.com/IEC/hauben.htmlhttp://www.coara.or.jp/~mieko/hauben/hauben.htmhttp://www.ais.org/~hauben/we_miss_you/http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_licklider.htmhttp://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/contributions/izumi-contribution.pdf

University and able to do research for his class us-ing the Internet.

There is another aspect of this moment thatis important to recognize. The research process cre-ating the Internet was in general a public process.Public funds were used and during this period it wasavailable free to those with an educational purpose.Commercial entities, during this period were re-stricted in what they could do online. Michael’s useof the Internet fell within its education scope. Ingeneral those online did not pay time or accesscharges for the time they were online. At the time,there were also commercial networks like Comp-userve where one did pay time charges for beingonline. But also the U.S. government was claimingthat in the next few years it would make the Internetcommercial and turn it over to private corporations.

In planning his project, Michael formulateda few questions and sent them out online, via somedifferent networks that were available and on mail-ing lists he had access to. In the appendix to thebook version of Chapter I, there are copies of someof the questions Michael posted online for his re-search.

Fairly quickly, he received a number of sub-stantial email responses to his questions. He gath-ered these, studied the content and then wrote thearticle he called “The Net and Netizens: the Impactthe Net has on People’s Lives.”

Essentially what the “Net and Netizens” ar-ticle does is document a number of ways that thepeople who wrote him had found the Net to be asignificant contribution to their lives.

As I remember this period, those of us whohad gotten access to the Net were busy exploringwhat this access would make possible.

For example, an Irish expat living in theEngland was able to keep up with events in Irelandby reading a weekly newsletter sent out online by aman who worked for a computer company inGalway. A music fan in the U.S. was able to learnfrom the Internet about a Roger Waters concert heldin Berlin one week after the Berlin Wall came downand so was able to go to Berlin in time for the con-cert. There were four computer science researchersin different parts of the U.S. who were able to writea research paper because of the connectivity the Netmade possible. There was a poem written by twopeople using the Net together, which one of the au-thors described as “a surprisingly good poem.”

These are just a flavor of some of the differ-ent contributions to people’s lives that the Net madepossible which people online shared with Michaelvia email or as comments on his posts.

There are two special aspects that he in-cluded in the Net and Netizens. First is the refer-ence to the vision for the Internet that was put for-ward by JCR Licklider whom Michael calls a“prophet of the net.”

Licklider was a psychologist and computerscientist brought by the Department of Defense’sresearch entity known as ARPA to be the head of itsfirst “Information Processing Techniques Office”(IPTO). Essentially, Licklider recognized the im-portant role that the computer could play in humancommunication. “When minds interact, new ideasemerge” was one of his understandings that helpedto guide the research for the development of theNet. In a paper Licklider wrote with another re-searcher Robert Taylor in 1968, they recognized thecreative role of the new forms of communicationthat the Net would help bring into being, and thecollaborative activity that these new forms of com-munication made possible.

Another significant aspect of the “Net andNetizens” article is the introduction and explanationof the new identity of the Netizen that had emergedwith the development of the Internet.

Remember, the article was written in 1992-1993. Yet it begins with a prediction for the futurein the new century that at the time was just a fewyears away.

The article opens with the greeting:Welcome to the 21st Century. Youare a Netizen (a Net Citizen), andyou exist as a citizen of the worldthanks to the global connectivity thatthe Net makes possible. You con-sider everyone as your compatriot.You physically live in one countrybut you are in contact with much ofthe world via the global computernetwork….It goes on to explain that the situation being

described “is only a prediction of the future, but alarge part of the necessary infrastructure currentlyexists….” And this new infrastructure would makepossible some important developments. Amongthese Michael proposed was that “a new world ofconnections would be possible, from individual to

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individual or from individuals to the collective massof those on the Net. The old m