ACN Volume 5 No 3/4 Fall 1993

                          COMMON SENSE
                      THE NET AND NETIZENS:
                    The Impact the Net has on 
                             People's Lives
                                      by Michael Hauben
 
   (Author's Note: Beginning in March, 1993, I started research 
by posting to Usenet, Freenet, and some mailing lists. In respose 
to my inquiries about the uses people have found about the Net I 
received many enthusiastic replies. This data demonstrates that 
the Net substantially improves people's everyday lives. This 
impact is possible only via the open access to the Net. Any 
commercialization will make such access more restrictive or 
controlled. Hopefully this paper and other people's hard work can 
help strengthen people to defend the public access to the Net.)
 
   [Editor's Note: The serialization of Michael Hauben's resaerch 
begins in this issue with Part I.]
 
                             Part I
I. PREFACE
   Welcome to the 21st Century. You are a Netizen (Net Citizen), 
and you exist as a citizen of the world thanks to the global 
connectivity that the Net gives you. You consider everyone as 
your compatriot. You physically live in one country but you are 
in contact with much of the world via the global computer 
network. Virtually you live next door to every other single 
netizen in the world. Geographical separation is replaced by 
existence in the same virtual space.
   The situation I describe is only a prediction of the future, 
but a large part of the necessary infrastructure currently 
exists. The Net - or the Internet, Usenet, BITNET, VMSnet, 
FIDOnet, and so on - has rapidly grown to cover all of the 
developed countries in the world. The only parts of the world yet 
to be connected via E-mail are parts of Africa, Asia Minor, and 
South East Asia. (See the Internet Society NEWS Vol 2 No 1 back 
page for reference.) Everyday more computers attach to the 
existing networks and every new computer adds to the user base - 
at least ten million people are interconnected today. Why do all 
these people "waste" their time sitting in front of a computer 
typing away? They have very good reason to! Ten million people 
plus can not be wrong.
   We are seeing a revitalization of society. The frameworks are 
being redesigned from the bottom up. A new more democratic world 
is becoming possible. According to one user the Net has 
"immeasurably increased the quality of my life." The Net seems to 
open a new lease on life for people. Social connections which 
never before were possible, or relatively hard to achieve, are 
now much more accessible, by those on the Net.
   A new world of connections between people - either privately 
from individual to individual or publicly from individuals to the 
collective mass of many on the net is possible. The old model of 
distribution of information is from the central Network 
Broadcasting Company to everyone else. This is the top-down model 
of decisions of what information is, made by a few, distributed 
for mass-consumption. Now a person has the ability to broadcast 
his or her ideas and questions around the world and people 
respond. The computer net works form a new grassroots connection 
that allows the excluded sections of society to have a voice. 
This new media is unprecedented. Previous grassroots media have 
existed for much smaller sized selections of people. The model of 
the Net proves the old way does not have to be the way of 
networking. The Net does not abolish the idea of networking - or 
making connections with strangers that prove to be advantageous 
to one or both parties.
   This complete connection of the body of citizens of the world 
does not exist as of today, and it will definitely be a fight to 
make access to the Net open and available to all. However, in the 
future we might be seeing the possible expansion of what it means 
to be a social animal. Practically every single individual on the 
Net today is available to every other person on the Net. Someone 
might suggest this universal connection exists with the telephone 
network today. However the telephone companies charge more for 
the further you have to call. Use of the Net is currently 
unmetered. International connection coexists on the same level 
with local connection. Also the computer networks allow a more 
advanced connection between the people who are communicating.
   While you need to know a person's name to locate their 
telephone number, or perhaps you may have received the number 
from them personally. With computer - communication systems, 
information or thoughts are connected to people's names and 
electronic-mail addresses. On the Net, one can connect to others 
who have similar interests or whose thought processes you enjoy. 
   Connections not before possible, imaginable or feasible, 
whether global (across the world) or just around the corner 
(locally) are now happening everyday.
   Netizens make it a point to be helpful and friendly - if they 
feel it to be worthwhile. Many Netizens feel they have an 
obligation to be helpful and answer queries and followup on 
discussions to put their opinion into the pot of opinions. Over a 
period of time the voluntary contributions to the Net have built 
it into a useful connection to other people around the world. 
Many people who replied to my "Is the Net a Source of 
Social/Econ. Wealth?" post responded to my point calling the net 
a source of accurate information. People corrected me and said it 
was also a source of opinions. However, the reader can train 
himself to figure out the accurate information from the breadth 
of opinions. I hope to give an example of this by grouping a wide 
sample of the answers I got to my research together in one 
document. The Net can be a helpful medium to understand the 
world. Only by seeing all points of view can anyone attempt to 
figure out his position on a topic.
   Information, and thus people, are coming alive. Netizens can 
interact with other people to help add to or alter that 
information. Information is no longer a fixed commodity or source 
on the Nets. It is constantly being added to and improved 
collectively. The Net is a grand intellectual and social commune 
in the spirit of the collectivity from the origins of human 
society. Netizens working together continually expand the store 
of information worldwide. One person called the Net an untapped 
resource because it provides an alternative to the normal 
channels and ways of doing things. The Net allows for the meeting 
of minds to form and develop ideas. It brings people's thinking 
processes out of isolation. Every user of the Net gains the role 
of being special and useful. The fact that every user has his own 
opinions and interests adds to the general body of specialized 
knowledge on the Net. Each Netizen thus becomes a special 
valuable resource to the Net. Each user contributes to the whole 
intellectual and social value and possibilities of the Net.
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Continued at:

http://www.ais.org/~hauben/Michael_Hauben/Collected_Works/Amateur_Computerist/NET_AND_NETIZENS.txt
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