[7]           Netizens: Review of Reviews
 
     The Amateur Computerist is proud to announce the book,
"Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet"
by Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben, two founding editors of the
Amateur Computerist, appeared in May 1997. It was published by
the IEEE Computer Society Press. Many of the chapters of this 345
page hardcover book had previously appeared in earlier versions
as articles in the Amateur Computerist. It is now available in
bookstores but remains online as it has been since January 1994
at http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/. In October 1997 a
Japanese translation was published by Chuokoron-Sha. The book has
been greeted by a number of interesting reviews in English and
Japanese. 
     Michael Swaine writes in Dr. Dobbs Journal, a magazine for
programmers, that he liked "the copious quotations from the
actual participants" in the development of UNIX, Usenet and the
Internet that "Netizens" documents. "The Haubens," he writes,
"have produced a readable but well documented story of the
development of the Internet. They spent years working on the
book, and really seem to have done their research." He urges
authors of other technical books to emulate them. 
     In a review in ComputerWorld, a computer industry weekly
publication, Johanna Ambrosio recommends that "this book is a
must-read for anyone even remotely connected with or to the
Internet." She describes it as "part philosophical tome, part
social science and part history. worth the price of admission
solely for its look at some of the Internet/ARPANET pioneers."
She points to the visions documented in the book such as viewing
communication as an interactive creative process and the
importance of people in the computer industry today learning from
them. The review ends, "Read this book. As good books are
supposed to do, it makes you think." 
     An article in the "Orange County Register" (Ca) by Leslie
Gornstein reviews "Netizens" for the newspaper's 400,000 readers
and includes a telephone interview with the authors. The headline
reads "Should Net Access Be a Right?" Ms. Gornstein reports that
the book "calls for Net access for all," even suggesting "a bill
of rights for online dwellers." She writes that this book both a
history of the Internet and a theory on its role in society
advocates, "Equal Internet access time for all. Equal quality of
connection for all. Banishment of official 'spokespersons'.
Banishment of personal profit resulting from what others
contribute online ." She quotes from the book that, "The Net is
not a service, it is a right" and includes that Internet dwellers
must contribute as much as they benefit. In the interview portion
of her article, the reporter asks, "So you see the Internet as a
utility?"  and gets the answer,"  that is how the early pioneers
saw it." This review for a more general audience stresses the
social aspect of the book and the importance of the book to those
not online yet. 
     In the December 1997 issue of ";Login:", Daniel Lazenby
reminds the Unix cummunity and others who read ";Login:" that
"ordinary people have made and can make a difference." That he
says is what "Netizens" documents by capturing the story of those
who quietly nurtured and fostered the current revolution caused
by network technology. He writes that "Netizens" is easy to read
and he is struck by the potential it shows for Usenet and the
Internet to create a much grander communications and information
revolution than even the printing press achieved. The reviewer
points out the importance of staying true to a vision with the
example of "Licklider's refusal to set his sights lower than the
vision of a global computer" network. He ends his review saying,
"look closely while reading the book and you may find yourself
viewing the world a little bit differently when you finish." 
     Karin Geiselhart, a PhD student in Australia, reviewed
"Netizens" for the journal "Internet Research". She welcomes
"Netizens" as "a book which champions grassroots democracy." By
speaking through the online citizens that helped shape the net in
its early days, she writes, "Netizens demonstrates the potential
for users being active participants in an ongoing process" of
development. She reminds us that "technology should serve
people." Geiselhart remembers Vint Cerf commenting in Montreal at
the INET'96 conference that "Democracy doesn't scale" but she
ends her review by commenting that, "Netizens is an affirmation
by the authors on behalf of all their fellow Usenet contributors,
and all of us who have benefitted in some way from the altruism
and free information which flows across the Internet. Theirs is
an optimistic mantra: democracy can scale." 
     The Japanese translation has on its cover in English, "Net +
Citizens = Netizens". It is 381 pages but does not contain all
the chapters of the English version. It is reviewed in the Sunday
10/26/97 edition of Nihon Keizai Shimbun more commonly known as
"Nikkei"  (the Wall Street Journal of Japan). The review by
senior staff writer Waichi Sekiguchi discusses who Netizens are,
stressing that the authors of "Netizens" are referring to "the
people who work cooperatively with all the people on the Net and
coordinate the work they do all over the world through the Net."
Mr. Sekiguchi writes that Netizens are a new species of Homo
sapiens who participate in ways that are more democratic than in
the rest of society. He points out that the authors of the book
find cooperative and democratic behavior on Usenet and that they
say that individuals being able to send and receive information
is more democratic and powerful than the mass media where only a
small number of people send the information. The reviewer writes
that this book is particularly important in Japan because readers
there will learn from it how to hear the voice of Netizens needed
for the current administrative reform movement. 
     Besides offline reviews of "Netizens" there has been some
mention of the book online (See the review by Mark Horton below).
"The Chronicle of Higher Education" on its Academe Today mailing
list pointed to "Netizens" as a new book on the societal impact
of the Internet and the history of Usenet now in bookstores which
can also be accessed online. In another online review, Cye
Waldman writes that even though to him the Internet means the
World Wide Web it is important to read this book so all Netizens
are "aware of the forces that are shaping our lives." "Netizens"
is not a casual history of the Internet as is found in many books
he concludes but "rather, it is a thoroughly researched piece of
work that chronicles one of the most important phenomena of the
decade." 
     This is a positive start for "Netizens". If any readers of
the Amateur Computerist write a review or see one, we would be
interested in knowing about it. We again congratulate Ronda and
Michael on seeing the product of their hard work gaining some of
the respect and review it deserves. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------