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Netizens: An Anthology

Table of Contents

These text files were Last Modified: 6/12/96. PDF formatted versions are linked at the bottom of this page.

Note: The home page for this draft is the Netizens netbook page.

There is a paper edition, Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet published by the IEEE Computer Society Press in 1997, now distributed by Wiley .

Foreword: By Tom Truscott
Preface: What is a Netizen?
Introduction: Participatory Networks

Part I - The Present: What Has Been Created and How?

Chapter 1 - The Net and the Netizens: The Impact the Net has on People's Lives
Chapter 2 - The Evolution of Usenet: The Poor Man's Arpanet
Chapter 3 - The Social Forces Behind The Development of Usenet
Chapter 4 - The World of Usenet

Part II - The Past: Where Has It All Come From?

Chapter 5 - The Vision of Interactive Computing and the Future
Chapter 6 - Cybernetics, Time-sharing, Human-Computer Symbiosis and On-line Communities: Creating a Supercommunity of On-line Communities
Chapter 7 - Behind the Net: Computer Science and the Untold Story of the ARPANET
Chapter 8 - The Birth and Development of the ARPANET
Chapter 9 - On the Early History and Impact of UNIX: Tools to Build the Tools for a New Millennium
Chapter 10 - On the Early Days of Usenet: The Roots of the Cooperative Online Culture

Part III - And the Future?

Chapter 11 - The NTIA Conference on the Future of the Net Creating a Prototype for a Democratic Decision Making Process
Chapter 12 - "Imminent Death of the Net Predicted!"
Chapter 13 - The Effect of the Net on the Professional News Media: The Usenet News Collective and Man-Computer News Symbiosis
Chapter 14 - The Net and the Future of Politics: The Ascendancy of the Commons
Chapter 15 - Exploring New York City's On-Line Community: A Snapshot of NYC.General

Part IV - Contributions Towards Developing a Theoretical Framework

Chapter 16 - The Expanding Commonwealth of Learning: Printing and the Net
Chapter 17 - `Arte': An Economic Perspective
Chapter 18 - The Computer as Democratizer

Bibliography
Glossary of Acronyms

Appendix

Proposed draft Declaration of the Rights of Netizens

PDF Formatted version of the online text of the Netizens book in four parts and the appendix.

  • Part I - The Present: What Has Been Created and How?
  • Part II - The Past: Where Has It All Come From?
  • Part III - And the Future?
  • Part IV - Contributions Towards Developing a Theoretical Framework

  • Appendix: Proposed Declaration of the Rights of Netizens
    Commercial use of this book is not permitted. This version is only a draft. We welcome comments and suggestions. A final draft will be available on-line when it is finished.

    In honor of the work of Michael Hauben (1973-2001)
    Jay Hauben hauben@columbia.edu
    Ronda Hauben rh120@columbia.edu