Early Usenet(1981-2): Proposal For Research
Ronda Hauben
Following is a proposal for a paper on early Usenet for a seminar in
history and technology that I am taking this term. I welcome comments
and suggestions and also am interested in being in contact with others
doing similar work.
Ronda
rh...@columbia.edu
Proposal for Paper
on Early Usenet
In an article in the journal "The Information Society", L.
Floridi notes the importance of the Internet and how it has generated
an excitement and promise for the future. Professor Floridi writes:
[L]ast year the Internet finally appeared to the general
public as the most revolutionary phenomenon since the
invention of telephones, though in this case Time missed the
opportunity to elect the Internet Man of the Year.
Professor Floridi from Wolfson College at Oxford, contrasts
the importance of the new development represented by the Internet
with the relative lack of scholarly study and knowledge about its
development:
A whole population of several million people interacts
by means of the global network. It is the most educated
intellectual community that ever appeared on earth, a global
academy that, like a unique Leibnizian mind, thinks always.
The Internet is a completely new world, about which we seem
to know very little....its appearance has found most of us,
and especially the intellectual community, thoroughly
unprepared. (Floridi, p.6)
However, to "know" something it is helpful to look at its
early development, as that is when its form and principles are
first established.
The foundation for the Internet was set by the development
and interconnection of the ARPANET(b. 1969) and Usenet(b. 1979),
which connected in the early 1980s. Fortunately an archive of
posts exists from early Usenet, documenting some of how this
interconnection occurred and this is a helpful primary source of
data for research.
Describing the principles of early Usenet, a Usenet pioneer,
Gregory Woodbury explains that its founding purpose was to
facilitate interactive communication. Woodbury writes:
I can claim (with a bit of pride :-) to have watched
netnews/usenet grow from its two-machine origin into 3, then
4, and then up its growth curve. The very basic assumption
that people using the netnews software wanted to have
interactive communication is still essentially unchallenged
as the purpose for this "creature" we call netnews/Usenet to
exist.
Also Woodbury notes the importance of the cooperative aspect of Usenet,
and that the poster is responsible for the contents of the post. He
writes:
For other reasons, the use of the term "operational anarchy"
in relation to netnews serves to remind those involved that
we are involved in a co-operative situation, where the
ultimate responsibility for the contents rests squarely on
the poster of an article. Much of the arguments about
netnews goverance are attempts to avoid this basic fact. :-)
The archive of posts of early Usenet is an important and rich
source of data about early Usenet and about the technical and
social need that gave rise to the ARPANET and Usenet and
subsequently the Internet. Also, some Usenet pioneers are still
posting on Usenet or accessible via email and when possible, it
is helpful to be able to be in contact with them to ask questions
that come up in course of the research or to ask for their comments
on the material one is studying.
The topic for the current paper I am working on will focus
on these early newsgroups, and will concern itself with the
connection between the ARPANET and Usenet. It will look at the
value of the ARPANET mailing lists gated to Usenet and the kind
of discussion on the newsgroups, concerning three particular issues:
the debate over technology (such as whether to use Unix or CP/M,
whether a workstation needs to be provided with a programming
language, the tcp/ip digest about moving the ARPANET from
NCP to the tcp/ip protocol by January 1983, etc.); the issue of
gatewaying Usenet and the ARPANET and the problems involved; and
the value to and use by government in the development of Usenet
and the ARPANET.
I have chosen to look at the debate over the development of technology
as I feel that this represents the technical foundation and need upon
which Usenet and the ARPANET were built and thus is the important
foundation. Understanding the kind of debate and discussion over
technical issues that Usenet and the Internet make possible is crucial
in understanding its essence and also the continuing technical and
social need for the development of the Net that computer and computer
technology require.
I will be exploring the issue of gatewaying the two networks as that
captures both the view of each of the networks as unique and the
quality of what is required to gateway them so they are
interconnected. The issue of the gating also involves examining the
different strengths each bring to the relationsip. The third aspect I
will be examining is the issue of how government officials
participated in Usenet or in the ARPANET mailing lists carried on
Usenet to document the ways that government both utilized and
contributed to these developments.
There is currently a project to create a gov.xxxx Usenet
hierarchy. Some of the literature involved in this project claims that
government has not participated in Usenet. Therefore they claim there
is nothing to learn from past government participation, and instead
are making Usenet into a structure to carry government announcements
via the Net. This use fails to understand the importance of Usenet as
a means of discussion and interaction of participants and instead is
proposing to change this nature in the ways they will use Usenet. It
is beneficial for all therefore to know how government officials
benefitted by participating in Usenet and the ARPANET mailing lists as
means for discussion and exchange. Any future projects proposing
government use of Usenet need to be able to build on the past, rather
than trying to ignore it so as to go backwards. I am also interested
in issues of Usenet governance as Usenet presents a new form and the
ability to create a new means of governance and if possible I would
like to look at some of the early newsgroups where issues involving
Usenet governance were debated and discussed in the 1981-2 period..
In their article "Introduction: Semiotics and the Effects-
of-Media Change Research Programmes", Andrew Bernardelli and
Giulio Blasi explain that developing the Internet infrastructure
around the world has led to a situation where the research and
discussion of the nature of the new communications media is not
just a matter of scholarly interest. They write:
Recent discussions about the social role of the new digital
technologies are perhaps the first example of a growing
awareness on the part of individuals of being involved in
social transformations imposed by technology, before the
advent and stabilization of the technology itself. We have
discussions on teledemocracy or teleworking, for example, in
countries that still have not reached a critical mass of
users of networking technologies....(T)hese discourses on
the future of the media are not the result of a passing
interest on the part of scholars and journalists. They are
instead a structural necessity imposed by the peculiar
economic dimension of the new media.... (Versus, pg 22)
These authors also note that the study that scholars must do
includes looking at the context in which these technologies
developed and the vision that developed in the process. They
write:
Consequently, academic analyses of the new media require a
sort of "second order" shift imposed by the fact that they
will be faced with the problem of studying not "pure"
technologies with a neutral future, but technologies
embedded in social representations that already include a
vision of their future. That's why such an important and
popular phenomenon like the growth of Internet is still
waiting for a serious research programme.
My work on this paper is intended to contribute to this
research program. I am including a supplemental bibliography of
sources that may prove helpful in my research, but basically the
paper will be focused directly on archival sources as there seems
very little familiarity with the actual details of the early days
of Usenet and its connection with the ARPANET.
----------------------
Following is a list of the ARPANET newsgroups carried on Usenet
by the 1981-2 period. My paper will focus on some of the
following:
FA.apollo/
FA.arms-d/
FA.arpa-bboard/
FA.digest-p/
FA.dungeon/
FA.editor-p/
FA.energy/
FA.human-nets/
FA.info-cpm/
FA.info-micro/
FA.info-terms/
FA.info-vax/
FA.poli-sci/
FA.printers/
FA.railroad/
FA.sf-lovers/
FA.space/
FA.tcp-ip/
FA.telecom/
FA.test/
FA.unix-cpm/
FA.unix-wizards/
FA.works/
Following is a listing of the Newsgroups in this early (1981-2)
archives.
NET.ao/ NET.news.newsite/
NET.apl.lang/ NET.periphs/
NET.applic/ NET.railroad/
NET.arpa-uucp/ NET.rec.birds/
NET.auto/ NET.rec.bridge/
NET.aviation/ NET.rec.photo/
NET.blfp/ NET.rec.scuba/
NET.bugs/ NET.rec.ski/
NET.bugs.2bsd/ NET.records/
NET.bugs.4bsd/ NET.rumor/
NET.bugs.uucp/ NET.scuba/
NET.bugs.v7/ NET.sf-lovers/
NET.cooks/ NET.skum/
NET.columbia/ NET.sources/
NET.cms/ NET.space/
NET.chess/ NET.sport.baseball/
NET.crap/ NET.sport.football/
NET.cse/ NET.sport.hockey/
NET.csfrp/ NET.suicide/
NET.cycle/ NET.swl/
NET.db/ NET.taxes/
NET.dbms/ NET.test/
FA.apollo/ NET.dcom/ NET.tools/
FA.arms-d/ NET.draw/ NET.travel/
FA.arpa-bboard/ NET.eunice/ NET.trivia/
FA.digest-p/ NET.flame/ NET.ucds/
FA.dungeon/ NET.followup/ NET.unix/
FA.editor-p/ NET.games/ NET.unix-wizards/
FA.energy/ NET.gdead/ NET.usenix/
FA.human-nets/ NET.general/ NET.video/
FA.info-cpm/ NET.groups.control/ NET.vwrabbit/
FA.info-micro/ NET.ham-radio/ NET.wanted/
FA.info-terms/ NET.info-cpm/ NET.wines/
FA.info-vax/ NET.info-micro/ NET.works/
FA.poli-sci/ NET.info-terms/ NET.xbsd/
FA.printers/ NET.jobs/
FA.railroad/ NET.jokes/
FA.sf-lovers/ NET.junk/
FA.space/ NET.lan/
FA.tcp-ip/ NET.lang.apl/
FA.telecom/ NET.lisp/
FA.test/ NET.lsi/
FA.unix-cpm/ NET.man/
FA.unix-wizards/ NET.map/
FA.works/ NET.math/
NET.mc/
NET.micro/
NET.misc/
NET.motorcycles/
NET.movies/
NET.msg.ctl/
NET.music/
NET.news/
NET.news.b/
NET.news.directory/
NET.news.groups/
___________
Supplementary Bibliography
Bernardelli, Andrew, and Giulio Blasi, "Introduction: Semiotics
and the Effects-of-Media Change Research Programmes. An Overview
of Methodology and Basic Concepts," Versus 72, September-December
1995, p 1 - 28.
"Communication Decency Act Decision: Excerpts", in the "Amateur
Computerist", Vol. 7, No. 2, Winter 1997, p 12 - 15.
http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~jrh/
Fang, Nien-Hsuan, "The Internet As A Public Sphere: A Habermasian
Approach," Dissertation University of New York at Buffalo, 1995.
Floridi, Luciano, "Internet: Which Future for Organized
Knowledge, Frankenstein or Pygmalion?" The Information Society,
Vol. 12, No. 1, p 5 - 16.
Gonske, Mark, "The Power of One Man and a Web Page or David Runs
Over Goliath on the Information Superhighway," "Computers and
Society," March 1997, p 27.
Habermas, Jurgen, The Structural Transformation of the Public
Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society,
translated by Thomas Burger, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1989.
Habermas, Jurgen, Toward A Rational Society: Student Protest,
Science and Politics, translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro, Beacon
Press, Boston, 1970.
Harris, Blake, "The Usenet Revolution: Reengineering the Mass
Media", http://channel-zero.com/meta/articles/usenet.html
Hauben, Michael and Ronda Hauben, Netizens: On the History and
Impact of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
Helmers, Sabine, Ute Hoffman, and Jeanette Hofmann, Netzkultur
und Netzwerkorganisation, Dasprojekt "Interaktionsraum Internet",
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung, Berlin, FS II
96-103, 1996.
Kurland, Nancy B., "Engendering Democratic Participation via the
Net: Access, Voice, and Dialogue", "The Information Society",
Vol. 12, No. 4, p 387-405.
Peters, John Durham, "Distrust of Representation: Habermas on the
Public Sphere", Media, Culture and Society, vol. 15, p. 541-571.
Pfaffenberger, Bryan, "If I Want It, It's OK: Usenet and the
(Outer) Limits of Free Speech", "The Information Society", Vol
12, No. 4, 1996, p 365 -386.
Warner, Michael, The Letters of the Republic:Publication and the
Public Sphere in Eighteenth Century America, Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, 1990.
----------
Early Usenet and Arpanet Mailing Lists History
http://www.umcc.umich/~ronda/usenet.hist
Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/