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Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet
Netizens, one of the first books detailing the Internet, looks at the creation and development of this participatory global computer network. The authors conducted online research to find out what makes the Internet "tick". This research results in an informative examination of the pioneering vision and actions that have helped make the Net possible. The book is a detailed description of the Net's construction and a step-by-step view of the past, present, and future of the Internet, the Usenet and the WWW.
The book gives you the needed perspective to understand how the Net can impact the present and the turbulent future. These questions are What is the vision that inspired or guided these people at each step? What was the technical or social problem or need that they were trying to solve? What can be done to help nourish the future extension and development of the Net? How can the Net be made available to a broader set of people?
The book gives you the needed perspective to understand how the Net can impact the present and the turbulent future. These questions are What is the vision that inspired or guided these people at each step? What was the technical or social problem or need that they were trying to solve? What can be done to help nourish the future extension and development of the Net? How can the Net be made available to a broader set of people?
392 pages, Hardcover
Published May 11, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 24, 2019
I bumped into this because it was referenced in a series of blog posts by Steven M. Bellovin about the creation of Usenet, which was on the front page of Hacker News.
I found it mostly interesting as a contemporary perspective from a time where it was reasonable to anticipate that Usenet would become mainstream, whereas the WWW is barely mentioned; trolls and spam were a problem that seemed not too bad; and individual Usenet posts were thoughtful enough to be quoted and actually make sense. Most people signed with real names! Try that with the average Reddit comment of today.
I might also be nostalgic for a time when Usenet was a great "place" to be, whereas when I first became aware of it, it was already borderline useless and mostly an oddity.
It is mentioned somewhere in the foreword that each chapter is meant to stand alone, which results in quite a bit of repetition between chapters.
Some of the comparisons the authors make seemed to be a bit of a stretch to me (Usenet as the 21st century's printing press?); some of the predictions became quite true, though, even without Usenet as the medium used. Mind you, this was written ten years before Twitter was created.
All in all, I found this insightful for the contained historical tidbits, but a bit of a slog to read overall.
I found it mostly interesting as a contemporary perspective from a time where it was reasonable to anticipate that Usenet would become mainstream, whereas the WWW is barely mentioned; trolls and spam were a problem that seemed not too bad; and individual Usenet posts were thoughtful enough to be quoted and actually make sense. Most people signed with real names! Try that with the average Reddit comment of today.
I might also be nostalgic for a time when Usenet was a great "place" to be, whereas when I first became aware of it, it was already borderline useless and mostly an oddity.
It is mentioned somewhere in the foreword that each chapter is meant to stand alone, which results in quite a bit of repetition between chapters.
Some of the comparisons the authors make seemed to be a bit of a stretch to me (Usenet as the 21st century's printing press?); some of the predictions became quite true, though, even without Usenet as the medium used. Mind you, this was written ten years before Twitter was created.
All in all, I found this insightful for the contained historical tidbits, but a bit of a slog to read overall.
March 22, 2013
This is a highly underrated book. Part of the problem is that it was the lesser known IEEE Computer Society Press which published this (a Professional Society Press). Ignore the fact that I an quoted inside about the ARPAnet.
The majority of this book is more about Usenet (news.groups or net.news by various terminology), not so much the Web or the rest of the internet. This book is written by a mother-son team which should include Ronda Hauben in the goodreads. Alas Michael (his mother informed me) took his life.
This is one of the earliest book on the net being more than just a cyber community (Howard Rheingold's and others hypothesis). More people should be aware of this book. I would argue that the Usenet community more than the academic computer science communities which claimed non-profit status pushed the world into the Internet era. It was the combination of the non-profit academic and military world where it came together with the for-profit software world in particular, which allowed the Internet to take off. Don't think this was cute or simple. It spoke to the poor quality of software development that code exchange and bug fixes helped advance the internet.
The majority of this book is more about Usenet (news.groups or net.news by various terminology), not so much the Web or the rest of the internet. This book is written by a mother-son team which should include Ronda Hauben in the goodreads. Alas Michael (his mother informed me) took his life.
This is one of the earliest book on the net being more than just a cyber community (Howard Rheingold's and others hypothesis). More people should be aware of this book. I would argue that the Usenet community more than the academic computer science communities which claimed non-profit status pushed the world into the Internet era. It was the combination of the non-profit academic and military world where it came together with the for-profit software world in particular, which allowed the Internet to take off. Don't think this was cute or simple. It spoke to the poor quality of software development that code exchange and bug fixes helped advance the internet.
December 1, 2022
An uneven and hopeful set of essays on the history and promise of Usenet as a democratizing and generative space for global discussion. The pre-history of ARPAnet is valuable and inspiring, as is the central warning that coming commercial control and influence would distort and reduce the forms of communication from creatively sparking new ideas through conversations to merely consuming information.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews