[2]                       Editorial
                      Championing Usenet

     In Fall 1992, the Amateur Computerist published a collection
of articles about Usenet. By 1992, Usenet, which was born in Fall
1979, had grown and developed into a network and forum linking
millions of computer users around the world. But few of those not
on Usenet knew anything of its nature or existence. And many on
Usenet had rarely taken the time to consider what they had become
part of. The Fall 1992 Amateur Computerist collection of articles
was one of the early acknowledgments that Usenet was something
significant, and thus made it possible for those on Usenet or not
yet on Usenet to pause and reflect on this important new
development in human to human communication. 
     Since that time, the Internet has become a subject that has
gripped the imagination of people around the world. E-mail,
Usenet, IRC, Telnet, and FTP and now the World Wide Web (WWW)
have become some of the uses of the Net that have enhanced
communication among people, making our world smaller and more
dynamic than ever before. However much of the press, at least in
the U.S., is only charmed by the WWW, misrepresenting it as the
Internet, and presenting electronic commerce (e-commerce) as the
nature and future of the Net. 
     Meanwhile, hidden in general from public view, is the
cooperative and dynamic form of communication that is the
regenerative aspect of the Net. As networking visionaries Robert
Taylor and J.C.R. Licklider pointed out, when people communicate
in an active way, new ideas emerge. The development of a global
network is but one of the products of this constructive
interaction. 
     In 1961, in a speech given at an MIT conference about the
future of the computer, British writer C. P. Snow noted that
government officials would be making decisions that would affect
the future of the computer. He cautioned against having those
decisions made in secret by a small group of people who did not
understand the nature of the computer. Instead, he urged that as
broad a set of people as possible be involved in the discussion
of the issues governments would need to resolve to plan for how
the computer would be developed, so that the computer would
benefit society. 
     In a similar way today, there is a need for such broad
ranging discussion among many people. But today the issue is not
merely the future of the computer, but the future of the Internet
and of the computer as a new means of communication. 
     While small groups of government officials in the U.S., for
example, are planning to replace the dynamic Net of the present
with their model of a buying and selling bazaar from the past,
other segments of the U.S. government and population recognize
the importance of the Net as a new form of communication media. 
     Writing in the early 1960s, the German philosopher Jorgen
Habermas explained why the ability to have discussion among
people with diverse views which characterizes what we called "the
public sphere", is so important. 
     Habermas explains the power of critical rational discussion
and debate to determine the public interest on "the basis of
which alone a rational agreement between publicly competing
opinions could freely be reached." He describes different periods
of history where such rational discussion by a sector of the
population, was able to determine the important issues of the
day. 
     In the U.S. federal district court decision in a case
involving the Internet (ACLU versus Reno), one of the judges,
Judge Stewart Dalzell, eloquently described the importance and
power of Usenet and the Internet as a new media making possible a
similar kind of democratic participation and discussion. He
wrote: "The plaintiffs in these actions correctly describe the
'democratizing' effects of Internet communication: individual
citizens of limited means can speak to a worldwide audience on
issues of concern to them. Federalists and Anti-Federalists may
debate the structure of their government nightly, but these
debates occur in newsgroups and chat rooms rather than in
pamphlets.... The Internet is a far more speech-enhancing medium
than print, the village green, or the mails." 
     Judge Dalzell documents that there is a vibrant new form of
public sphere developing online similar to that which Habermas
described in other historical periods. Habermas' concept of the
public sphere provides a way to recognize the democratic
structures and the people who develop them as a crucial aspect of
evolving social and political structures. 
     A new form of public sphere is being created as the
conditions and the actors develop with the ability and the need
for the democratic processes and forms of the public sphere. And
in a similar way, there are those interests trying to corrupt
this newly forming public sphere. 
     This issue of the Amateur Computerist focuses on the
capability of online technology, particularly Usenet, to
encourage those who are online to contribute their news and
views, to have diverse opinions aired and considered. This is a
singular and special achievement that networking technology,
particularly Usenet, makes possible. This is creating a new
public sphere that promises to transform society in a way that
can reflect the interests of a broader set of people than
formerly and make possible a new form of democratic
participation. Those who promote e-commerce as the future of the
Internet, and the categorization of online users as "customers"
of merchants of e-commerce, are trying to replace the dynamic
democratic potential of the Internet with the old model of the
citizen as passive actor of a commercially dominated society. 
     This is why we feel it is crucial to examine and explore the
importance of discussion and debate and of uncensored posts that
are carried on Usenet, both from its earliest days and in current
newsgroups. We have taken this as our topic for this issue of the
Amateur Computerist. 
     Many people over many long years have worked to make it
possible for the communication that the Net makes possible to
grow and flourish. Will the Net continue to grow and flourish as
a significant new means of human to human communication? This is
a crucial question for our times. We hope that this issue of the
Amateur Computerist helps Netizens to answer this question in an
ever more vital and active way. 

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Reprinted from the Amateur Computerist Vol 8 No 1 Winter/Spring 1998. The whole
issue or a subscription are available for free via email. Send a request to
                           jrh@ais.org
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