Written by Michael Hauben and archived here from https://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.txt on 2024-10-27, with minor formatting changes.
The story of Netizens is an important one. In conducting
research four years ago online to determine people's uses for the
global computer communications network, I became aware that there
was a new social institution, an electronic commons, developing.
It was exciting to explore this new social institution. Others
online shared this excitement. I discovered from those who wrote
me that the people I was writing about were citizens of the Net,
or Netizens.
I started using local bbses in Michigan in 1985. After seven
years of participation on both local hobbiest-run computer
bulletin boards systems, and global Usenet, I began to research
Usenet and the Internet. I found these on-line discussions to be
mentally invigorating and welcoming of thoughtful comments,
questions and discussion. People were also friendly and
considerate of others and their questions. This was a new
environment for me. Little thoughtful conversation was encouraged
in my high school. Since my daily life did not provide places and
people to talk with about real issues and real world topics, I
wondered why the online experience encouraged such discussions
and consideration of others. Where did such a culture spring
from, and how did it arise? During my sophomore year of college
in 1992, I was curious to explore and better understand this new
on-line world.
As part of course work at Columbia University, I explored these
questions. One professor's encouragement helped me to use Usenet and the
Internet as places to conduct research. My research was real
participation in the online community by exploring how and why these
communications forums fuctioned. I posed questions on Usenet, mailing
lists and freenets. Along with these questions, I would attach some
worthwhile preliminary research. People respected my questions and found
the preliminary research helpful. The entire process was one of mutual
respect and sharing of research and ideas. A real notion of community'
and participation' takes place. I found that on the Net people
willingly help each other and work together to define and address
issues important to them. These are often important issues which the
conventional media would never cover.
My initial research concerned the origins and development of the
global discussion forum Usenet. For my second paper, I wanted to explore
the larger Net and what it was and its significance. This is when my
research uncovered the remaining details that helped me to recognize the
emergence of Netizens. There are people online who actively contribute
towards the development of the Net. These people understand the
value of collective work and the communal aspects of public
communications. These are the people who discuss and debate topics in
a constructive manner, who e-mail answers to people and provide
help to new-comers, who maintain FAQ files and other public information
repositories, who maintain mailing lists, and so on. These are
people who discuss the nature and role of this new communications
medium. These are the people who as citizens of the Net, I
realized were Netizens. However, these are not all people.
Netizens are not just anyone who comes online, and they are
especially not people who come online for individual gain or
profit. They are not people who come to the Net thinking it is a
service. Rather they are people who understand it takes effort
and action on each and everyone's part to make the Net a
regenerative and vibrant community and resource. Netizens are
people who decide to devote time and effort into making the Net,
this new part of our world, a better place. Lurkers are not
Netizens, and vanity home pages are not the work of Netizens.
While lurking or trivial home pages do not harm the Net, they do
not contribute either.
The term Netizen has spread widely since it was first coined. The
genesis comes from net culture based on the original newsgroup naming
conventions. Network wide Usenet newsgroups included net.general for general
discussion, net.auto for discussion of autos, net.bugs for discussion of
unix bug reports, and so on. People who used Usenet would prefix terms
related to the online world with the word NET similar to the newsgroup
terminology. So there would be references to net.gods, net.cops or
net.citizens. My research demonstrated that there were people active
as members of the network, which the term net citizen does not precisely
represent. The word citizen suggests a geographic or national definition
of social membership. The word Netizen reflects the new non-
geographically based social membership. So I contracted the phrase
net.citizen to Netizen.
Two general uses of the term Netizen have developed. The first is a
broad usage to refer to anyone who uses the Net, for whatever purpose.
Thus, the term netizen has been prefixed in some uses with the adjectives
good or bad. The second usage is closer to my understanding. This
definition is used to describe people who care about Usenet and the
bigger Net and work towards building the cooperative and collective
nature which benefits the larger world. These are people who work towards
developing the Net. In this second case, Netizen represents positive
activity, and no adjective need be used. Both uses have spread from the
online community, appearing in newspapers, magazines, television, books
and other off-line media. As more and more people join the online
community and contribute towards the nuturing of the Net and towards the
development of a great shared social wealth, the ideas and values of
Netizenship spread. But with the increasing commercialization and
privitization of the Net, Netizenship is being challenged. During such a
period it is valuable to look back at the pioneering vision and actions
that have helped make the Net possible and examine what lessons they
provide. That is what we have tried to do in these chapters.
Michael Hauben, New York, November 1995
Last Updated: June 12, 1996
This preface is a draft from Michael Hauben's <hauben@columbia.edu>
and Ronda Hauben's <rh120@columbia.edu> netbook titled "Netizens: On
the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet."
Commercial use is prohibited
Please send us any comments about this draft. Send comments to
both hauben@columbia.edu and rh120@columbia.edu.