Remembering Netizens: An interview with Ronda Hauben

[Tristan Miller]

Dear all,

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Netizens, Michael and Ronda
Hauben's book on the history and impact of Usenet and the Internet.

To commemorate the anniversary, the journal Internet Histories has
printed an interview with Ronda Hauben, along with a six-page
introduction on the history and impact of the book (and of Usenet
generally). I'm one of the co-interviewers/-authors, along with Camille
Paloque-Bergès of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers and
Avery Dame-Griff of Gonzaga University.

The publisher, Taylor & Francis, has agreed to make the article free to
access for a limited time. You can read it in HTML, PDF, or EPUB
formats at <https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2022.2123120>. Here's
the abstract:

Netizens, Michael and Ronda Hauben's foundational treatise on Usenet and
the Internet, was first published in print 25 years ago. In this piece,
we trace the history and impact of the book and of Usenet itself,
contextualising them within the contemporary and modern-day scholarship
on virtual communities, online culture, and Internet history. We discuss
the Net as a tool of empowerment, and touch on the social, technical,
and economic issues related to the maintenance of shared network
infrastructures and to the preservation and commodification of Usenet
archives. Our interview with Ronda Hauben offers a retrospective look at
the development of online communities, their impact, and how they are
studied. She recounts her own introduction to the online world, as well
as the impetus and writing process for Netizens. She presents Michael
Hauben's conception of "netizens" as contributory citizens of the Net
(rather than mere users of it) and the "electronic commons" they built
up, and argues that this collaborative and collectivist model has been
overwhelmed and endangered by the privatisation and commercialisation of
the Internet and its communities.

Regards,
Tristan

--
Dr.-Ing. Tristan Miller, Research Scientist
Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI)
Freyung 6/6, 1010 Vienna, Austria | Tel: +43 1 5336112 12
https://logological.org/ | https://punderstanding.ofai.at/