ACN Volume 6 No 1 Spring 1994

                    What the Net Means to Me
                        by Michael Hauben
                       
   The Net means personal power in a world of little or no 
personal power for those other than on the top. (Those on top are 
called powerful because of money, but not because of thoughts or 
ideas.) The essence of the Net is Communication: personal commun-
ication both between individual people, and between individuals 
and those in society who care (and do not care) to listen. The 
closest parallels I can think of are: 
 
- Samizdat Literature in Eastern Europe.
- People's Presses
- The Searchlight, Appeal to Reason, Penny Press, etc.
- Citizen's Band Radio
- Amateur or Ham radio.
 
   However the Net seems to have grown farther and to be more 
accessible than the above. The audience is larger, and continues 
to grow. Plus communication via the Net allows easier control 
over the information -- as it is digitized and can be stored, 
sorted, searched, replied to, and easily adapted to another 
format.
   The Net is the vehicle for distribution of people's ideas, 
thoughts and yearnings. No commercial service deals with the 
presentation of peoples' ideas. I do not need a computer to order 
flowers from FTD or clothes from the Gap. I need the Net to be 
able to voice my thoughts, artistic impressions, and opinions to 
the rest of the world. The world will then be a judge as to if 
they are worthy by either responding or ignoring my contribution.
   Throughout history (at least in the USA), there has been a 
phenomenon of the streetcorner soapbox. People would "stand up" 
and make a presentation of some beliefs or thoughts they have. 
There are very few soapboxes in our society today. The '70s and 
'80s wiped out public expression. The financial crisis substitued 
a growing sentiment of make your money or shut up. In the late 
'80s and early '90s, the Net has emerged as a forum for public 
expression and discussion. The Net is partially a development 
from those who were involved with the Civil Rights movement, 
anti-war struggles and free speech movements in the '60s. The 
personal computer was also a development by some of these same 
people.
   Somehow the social advances rise from the fact that people are 
communicating with other people to help them undermine the upper 
hand other institutions have. An example is people in California 
keeping tabs on gas station prices around the state using Netnews 
and exposing gougers. Another example is people publically 
reviewing music themselves -- rather than telling others," you 
should really go buy the latest issue of magazine 'X' (Rolling 
Stone, etc) as it has a great review." This is what I mean by 
people power -- people individually communicating to present their 
view on something rather than saying go get commercial entity 
X's view from place 'Y'. This is people contributing to other 
people to make a difference in people's lives. In addition, 
people have debated commercial companies' opposition to the 
selling of used CDs. This conversation is done in a grassroots 
way -- people are questioning the music industry's profit making 
grasp on the music out there. The industry definitely puts profit 
ahead of artistic merit, and people are not interested in the 
industry's profit making motive, but rather great music.
   The Net is allowing two new avenues not available to the 
average person before:
 
     1) A way of having one's voice heard.
 
     2) A way of organizing and questioning other people's 
     experiences so as to have a better grip on a question or 
     problem.
 
Thus in some ways there is a regaining control of one's life from 
society.
   These are all reasons why I feel so passionately about 1) 
keeping the Net open to everyone, and having such connections 
being available publicly, and 2) Keeping the Net uncommercialized 
and unprivatized. Commercialism will lead to a growing emphasis 
on OTHER uses for the Net. As I said before, it is NOT important 
for me to be able to custom order my next outfit from the Gap or 
any other clothing store. Companies should develop their own 
networks if they wish to provide another avenue to sell their 
products. In addition, commercial companies will not have it in 
their interest to allow people to use the Net to realize their 
political self. Again let me reemphasize, when I say politics, I 
mean power over one's own life and surroundings. And this type of 
politics I would call democracy.
 
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