[1] Power Tools of Our Times

     With this issue of the Amateur Computerist we will begin the 
examination of how the Net and Netizens are changing our world. Two decades 
ago, the pioneers of time-sharing recognized that the computer was an 
intellectual tool that would help humans to think and do mental labor in 
ways similar to how power tools, created during the early industrial 
revolution, helped humans to do physical labor. They felt that the computer 
would have a profound impact on the future much as mechanical tools had a 
profound impact on the past. However, to make such intellectual tools 
available to all posed a difficult problem as computers at that time were 
large and expensive and operated in batch mode. To begin to solve this 
problem, the pioneers recognized the need to create a new form of computer 
organization, that of the time-sharing of computers. Through the linking of 
individuals and computers via a time-sharing operating system, the vision 
of the networking of computers came into view. From that vision and 
experimentation, a global computer network grew up and spread around the 
world. The Net and those contributing to the development of the Net, the 
Netizens, are today a reality.

     With this reality, however, come new challenges for our time. In this 
issue of the Amateur Computerist, we begin to explore the impact that the 
Net and Netizens are having on society today. This impact raises the 
question of what are the challenges that these developments bring to the 
fore.

     Two important events helped to suggest this topic for our issue: the 
first was the passage in February 1996 of the Telecommunications Act by the 
U.S. Congress including the Communications Decency Act (CDA) which provided 
means for the U.S. government to censor content on the Internet. That 
development, akin in ways to the Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament 
to censor independent thought and printing in the U.S. colonies in the 
middle of the 18th Century, was met with an active resistance, both on the 
Internet and off. On June 13, 1996, the federal district court of 
Philadelphia wrote a decision granting an injunction against enforcement of 
the CDA. In its decision, the court wrote an eloquent statement about the 
impact of the Internet as an important new means of mass communication.

     The second important event precipitating this issue of the Amateur 
Computerist was the conference of the Internet Society held in Montreal, 
Canada, in June, 1996. The topic of INET'96 was "Internet: Transforming Our 
Society Now." A number of papers were presented at the conference, and in 
general there was discussion among those who attended, examining and 
recognizing the social impact of the Internet.

     This issue of the Amateur Computerist gathers a series of articles 
which report on these important events, and which examine various aspects 
of this social development. We welcome comments on any of the articles or 
on the topic for future issues. From these events and articles we hope to 
demonstrate how the Net and Netizens are an important development of our 
time. For a future issue, we would like to take up the challenges this new 
development poses and welcome articles and contributions on that subject.

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     Reprinted from the Amateur Computerist Vol 7 no 2 Winter 1997
        available free via email from jrh@umcc.umich.edu and
                http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~jrh/acn
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