2003 and the 10th anniversary of Netizen post

[Ronda Hauben]

This year, 2003 is the 10th anniversary of the post of "The Net and the
Netizen" by Michael Hauben on Usenet. This research paper introduced
the concept of Netizen online and it has since spread around the world.

An interesting concentration of the concept of Netizen recently appeared
in a paper that is online. Describing e-democracy, the author, Boldur Barbat
writes:

"To prove it, just some opinions of genuine netizens -- in fact, from
the author who coined the term: Michael Hauben (Hauben and Hauben, 1997):
Scrutinising the effect of the Net upon the future of politics, the
'ascendancy of the Commons' can be anticipated by reason of the new
technologies presenting 'the chance to overcome the obstacles
preventing the implementation of direct democracy'. The last
chapter -- perhaps the banner of their entire book: 'The Computer
as a Democratizer' -- claims that the 'step toward universally
available and affordable access' and "uncensored accessible press"
demonstrate that 'it is now possible to meet more of Mill's
requirements for democracy'. Extending a bit the horizon, the author's
defend also Hume's observation that 'arte' leads to intellectual
ferment, and, in turn, this ferment 'is the needed support for the
development of technology'. Such a flavour acts, in the netizens age
as a catalyst for IT."
from "Users in Front of ICT's. Facing the Interface"

Today, May 1, 2003 was Michael's birthday. In honor of his birthday
we want to announce a special issue of the Amateur Computerist on
"Netizens Then and Now". The url for the issue is

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-2.pdf

We welcome comments on the concept of netizen as it has developed in
the past 10 years.

with best wishes

Ronda

[Arthur T. Murray]

Ronda Hauben <ro...@panix.com> wrote on Thu, 1 May 2003:
>
> This year, 2003 is the 10th anniversary of the post of
> "The Net and the Netizen" by Michael Hauben on Usenet.
> This research paper introduced the concept of Netizen
> online and it has since spread around the world.

The English usage "Netizen" (citizen of the Internet) is used in
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0595654371 AI4U.

>
> An interesting concentration of the concept of Netizen recently
> appeared in a paper that is online. Describing e-democracy,
> the author, Boldur Barbat writes:
>
> "To prove it, just some opinions of genuine netizens -- in fact, from
> the author who coined the term: Michael Hauben (Hauben and Hauben, 1997):

[...]

> Today, May 1, 2003 was Michael's birthday. In honor of
> his birthday we want to announce a special issue of the
> Amateur Computerist on "Netizens Then and Now". The url
> for the issue is
>
> http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-2.pdf
>
>
> We welcome comments on the concept of netizen as it has
> developed in the past 10 years.

In the on-line Index for the AI Textbook "AI4U" at
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/ai4udex.html (printable),
the term "Netizen" is entered in a novel way for a book index.

"Netizen" links directly to the Amazon book sales page
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0818677066/ of
"Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet"
so that students of the AI textbook may obtain background,
while the page number after "Netizen" links directly to
http://books.iuniverse.com/viewbooks.asp?isbn=0595654371&page=48 online.

Netizens interested in electronic publishing may find such a
bidirectional, hyperlinked book-index quite interesting and novel,
while other Netizens of the on-line encyclopedia ilk may
take note of the many online encyclopedias used in the AI4Udex
page to provide exhaustive AI background material for students.
>
> with best wishes
>
> Ronda

A.T. Murray
--
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/theory5.html -- AI4U Theory of Mind;
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/jsaimind.html -- Tutorial "Mind-1.1"
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/mind4th.html -- Mind.Forth Robot AI;
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595259227/ -- book "AI4U"