ACN Volume 7 No 1 Spring 1996 The Netizens and Community Networks by Michael F. Hauben [Editor's Note: The following article is from a talk presented at the Hypernetwork'95 Beppu Bay Conference in Oita Perfecture, Kyushu, Japan on November 24, 1995 as part of the Netizens section of the Conference] The story of Netizens is an important one, and I am happy to participate in a conference which acknowledges the value and role of Netizens in the future of the Net. In conducting research 3 years ago online to determine people's uses for the global computer communications network, I became aware that there was a new social institution, an electronic commons, developing. It was exciting to explore this new social institution. Others online shared this excitement. I discovered from those who wrote me that the people I was writing about were citizens of the Net, or Netizens. At the age of 12 I had started using local BBSes in Michigan. That was in 1985. After seven years of participation on both local hobbyist-run computer bulletin boards systems and global Usenet, I began to research Usenet and the Internet. I found these online discussions to be mentally invigorating and welcoming of thoughtful comments, questions and discussion. People were also friendly and considerate of others and their questions. This was a new environment for me. Little thoughtful conversation was encouraged in my high school. Since my daily life did not provide places and people to talk with about real issues and real world topics, I wondered why the online experience encouraged such discussions and consideration of others. Where did such a culture spring from, and how did it develop? During my sophomore year of college in 1992, I was curious to explore and better understand this new online world. As part of course work at Columbia University, I explored these questions. One professor's encouragement helped me to use Usenet and the Internet as places to conduct research. My research was actual participation in the online community by exploring how and why these communications forums functioned. I posed questions on Usenet, mailing lists and Free-Nets. Along with these questions, I attached some worthwhile preliminary research. People respected my questions and found the preliminary research helpful. The entire process was one of mutual respect and sharing of research and ideas. A real notion of `community' and `participation' took place. On the Net, people willingly help each other and work together to define and address issues impor- tant to them. These are often issues which the conventional media would never cover. One response to my research came from a Netizen from Montreal, Jean-Francois Messier. He commented on how his connection to the world via the Internet changed how he viewed the world. He said, "...my attitudes to other peoples, races and religions changed, since I had more chances to talk with other peoples around the world. When first exchanging mail with people from Yellowknife, Yukon, I had a real strange feeling : Getting messages and chatting with people that far from me. I noticed around me that a lot of people have opinions and positions about politics that are for themselves, without knowing others." (See "The Net and The Netizens" in the Netizens Netbook) He continued, "Because I have a much broader view of the world now, I changed and am more conciliate and peaceful with other people. Writing to someone you never saw, changes the way you write... Telecommunications opened the world to me and changed my visions of people and countries....." (Ibid.) My initial research concerned the origins and development of the global discussion forum Usenet. Usenet developed out of the desire of several graduate students in the United States to be part of a cooperative technological community across campuses. As campus connected to campus across state, across the nation, across the continent and then across continents, a global Usenet communication network emerged. People used Usenet because it is more powerful to be in a large community than in isolation; communication with others leads to broader ideas and cooperative activity is more productive than competition. These principles emerged from the necessity of sharing knowledge to successfully implement new technology; at the time it was Unix. Much of the culture of open discussion and sharing of technical experience spilled over into the non-technical discussion groups. These basic principles were part of the evidence behind the discovery of Netizens. For my next paper, I wanted to explore the larger Net, what it was and its significance. This is when my research uncovered the remaining details that helped me to recognize the emergence of Netizens. Netizens are the people who actively contribute on- line towards the development of the Net. These people understand the value of collective work and the communal aspects of public communications. These are the people who actively discuss and debate topics in a constructive manner, who e-mail answers to people and provide help to new-comers, who maintain FAQ files and other public information repositories, who maintain mailing lists, and so on. These are people who discuss the nature and role of this new communications medium. However, these are not all the people. Netizens are not just anyone who comes online, and they are especially not people who come online for isolated gain or profit. They are not people who come to the Net thinking it is a service. Rather they are people who understand it takes effort and action on each and everyone's part to make the Net a regenerative and vibrant community and resource. Netizens are people who decide to devote time and effort into making the Net, this new part of our world, a better place. Lurkers are not Neti- zens, and vanity home pages are not the work of Netizens. While lurking or trivial home pages do not harm the Net, they do not contribute either. The term Netizen has spread widely. The genesis comes from net culture based on the original newsgroup naming conventions. Network wide Usenet groups included net.general for general discussion, net.auto for automobile owners, net.bugs for discussion of Unix bug reports, and so on. People who used Usenet would prefix things related to the online world with the word "net" similar to the newsgroup terminology. So there would be references to net.gods, net.cops or net.citizens. My research demonstrated that there were people active as members of the network, which the term net citizen does not precisely represent. The word citizen suggests a geographic or national definition of social membership. The word Netizen reflects the new non-geographically based social membership. So I contracted the phrase "net dot citizen" to netizen. Two general uses of the term netizen have developed. The first is a broad usage to refer to anyone who uses the Net, for whatever purpose. Thus, the term netizen has been prefixed in some uses with the adjectives good or bad. The second usage is closer to my understanding. This definition is used to describe people who care about Usenet and the bigger Net and work towards building the cooperative and collective nature which benefits the larger world. These are people who work towards developing the Net. In this second case, Netizen represents positive activity, and no adjective need be used. Both uses have spread from the online community appearing offline in newspapers, magazines, television, books and other media. As more and more people join the online community and contribute towards the nurturing of the Net and towards the development of a great shared social wealth, the ideas and values of Netizenship spread. But with the increasing commercialization and privatization of the Net, Netizenship is being challenged. During such a period it is valuable to look back at the pioneering vision that has helped make the Net possible and examine what lessons it provides. References ---------- J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor. "The Computer as a Communication Device." In Science and Technology: For the Technical Man in Management, No. 76, April 1968, Pp. 21-31. The quote from Jean Francois Messier is from the Netizens Netbook, which this speech is adapted from. The Netbook is available from: http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/. ===========================================================