[8] [Editors Note: To mark the 10th anniversary of publication
online of the seminal article the Net and Netizens, Pier Luigi
Capucci, Director of Noema, in Italy and his students reformatted
the article and put it on their web site. The following is
Capucci's Introduction to the article at: http://www.noemalab.
com/sections/specials/netizen/main.html]

                Net and the Netizens Commemorated

This is a draft, originally in text format, which led to the book
Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet,
by Michael and Ronda Hauben, published by the IEEE Computer
Society in 1997 and which also appears in an online edition.
"Netizen" is today a common and widespread term. We can find it
on many occasions, debates, articles, essays, art exhibits,
political acts (like the Netizens Protection Act introduced by
the U.S. Congress against online spamming in 1997)... search
engines can show about 100.000 instances of this word. The
"Netizen" concept involves a new and extended vision of our
society, which we are hardly shaping and redefining with many
social, ethical, political, cultural issues to be aware of.

Michael Hauben, who coined the term "Netizen" and gave it a
meaning, posting his research on Usenet just ten years ago, died
suddenly in New York on June 27, 2001, at 28. His research,
starting from the origins and development of Usenet to the
diffusion of the Net (he participated in online communities since
the early 1980s), is fundamental for understanding the current
information society, from sharing information to online
communication and participation, from the rising and diffusion of
the Internet communities to the net policies. He is one of the
pioneers who can envisage the future and help us to find the way.
With Michael we believe in a vision of the online world as a
powerful and positive place.

We greatly thank Ronda Hauben for the permission to republish
this draft and the help in this Noema issue on the Netizen idea.

Pier Luigi Capucci, Noema director
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Reprinted from the Amateur Computerist Vol 12 No 1, Winter 2003/2004
The whole issue or a subscription is available for free via email.
Send a request to jrh@ais.org  or see  http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/
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