Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/Michael Ney's Cyberculture/Cyberculture/Anniversary Anthology

Text File | 1994-09-02 | 12KB | 279 lines

Topic 251       Anniversary Anthology
vrxaus  cyberculture zone        7:00 AM  Nov  8, 1993

From: Michael Ney <vrxaus>
Subject: Anniversary Anthology

Xposted from the original by [e-mail]
Anthology to Commemorate 25th anniversary

1994 is the 25th anniversary of the Arpanet and of the unix kernel.
And it is the 15th anniversary of Usenet News.

It would be good to see a commemorative anthology marking these
important developments.

The following book proposal for an anthology of articles is something
being offered toward making a commemorative volume a reality. It would
seem really important to have such a volume available in an online
edition, and also in a printed edition.

I welcome comments and suggestions on this proposal, suggestions of
other articles that should be included, etc.

Also, I welcome suggestions on how it might be possible to get the
printed edition published so it is available in time to commemorate
the 25th anniversary.

Also suggestions toward having this available online are welcome.


              The Wonderful World of the Net: An Anthology

                          A BOOK PROPOSAL
                                 Ronda Hauben
                                 [e-mail]
                                 [e-mail]


I. Preface


  Science and Network Expansion

     Today there is an international computer network.It spans
the globe and connects universities, researchers, computer
workers and users around the world. Twenty five years ago, these
developments were non existent. This significant development
has involved millions of people around the world. But others
who are not participants in this exciting new global computer
community know practically nothing of its existence.

   The current network is the achievement of work done by
scientists, engineers, programmers and other networking
pioneers who functioned in the experimental tradition established
by the Royal Society in London in the 1660s.

   Three hundred years later, in 1969, work on the
Arpanet began to give computer scientists and other U.S.
Department of Defense contractors a way to test their networking
theories. Based on an actual network to help them to collaborate
and to test their theory and make it more attuned to the real
problems, a global network evolved which amazed even the
pioneers themselves.

   A tradition of openness about errors, a scientific approach
of searching out the problems and simplicities and dealing
with them, and testing one's theories in practice and revising
them when they are shown to be deficient, has made it possible
for computer pioneers to build an International Global Network.

     Though the Arpanet was a surprising achievement, access to
it was originally limited to those computer science researchers
with U.S. Department of Defense contracts. Others were excluded
from access to it.

     Using the experimental approach to network development,
graduate students at Duke University and the University of North
Carolina, worked to create a network that would be open
to all those in the computer science community who had access to the
Unix operating system. These students set out to create Usenet
News, which they nicknamed "A Poor Man's Arpanet."

     Usenet News was born in the Fall of 1979.  Graduate students
at Duke and the University of North Carolina were exploring the
UNIX operating system version 7 that had been released with a remote
UNIX to UNIX copy program called uucp. They put some UNIX shell
scripts together into a program to connect the computers at their
two schools via uucp and homebrew autodial modems using the telephone
lines. Then they presented their achievement at a UNIX users
conference (Usenix) and invited UNIX users at different locations
to participate in the development of a NetNews Network that is now
called Usenet News.

   The computer network they created soon spread broadly and
widely, eventually making it possible for others to access the
Arpanet and participate in the online community it made possible.
Usenet News now reaches 6 million people worldwide with
over 4,500 different newsgroup subjects and millions of bytes of
articles. This news uses no paper, no glue, no postage. It is
created and distributed by a highly automated process. And this
technology makes it possible for the users themselves to
determine and provide for the content and range of information
that is conveyed via this new news medium. It also makes possible
the rapid response and discussion of articles contributed by
users and provides a forum where issues can be freely debated and
information exchanged. This news provides for the information
exchange and learning needed by the system administrators,
programmers, engineers, scientists and users to do their day to day
work. In turn they contribute the programs and articles required
for the network's development. Usenet is a demonstration of the
power of the new technology of computer automation.

   Writing 300 years ago, Sir Francis Bacon realized that the
goal of one's work affects whether that work is scientific or
not. The current global computer network has been developed by
scientists and researchers and users who were free of market
forces. Because of the government oversight and subsidy of network
development, these network pioneers were not under the time pressures
or bottom line restraints that dominant commercial ventures. Therefore,
they could contribute the time and labor needed to make
sure the problems were solved. And most were doing so to
contribute to the networking community. This heritage needs
to be carefully examined and the lessons learned so that these
network developments can continue to grow and flourish. Today
significant changes are being proposed and implemented by the U.S.
government which will affect network development. Such proposals require
that those who are interested in continuing these important
scientific advances examine both the 25 year history of these
scientific advances and the way the network helps people
today to deal with the problems of work and of their lives
Knowledge of how the actual network advances have been achieved
will illuminate a path forward.

     This book has been compiled to make such an examination
possible. Several of the articles describe the wonderful resource
and achievement that Usenet News has become. Many of the articles
have been written and circulated on Usenet News and have gotten
valuable feedback and encouragement. It is intended that these
articles will continue to circulate electronically, but that
there will also be a printed edition for those for whom such is
more convenient or desirable.

     This collection of articles is offered to those who are
interested in knowing how this network was built, how its
contributors have found it valuable in their lives, and what are
some of the controversies being raised about its continued
development. This collection of articles in intended not only to
offer perspective to those who have been part of these
developments but also to make this information and these
achievements known to those who are not yet online.  These
articles are intended as a weapon in the battle to defend these
important advances and to help shine a light on a true path
forward.

II. Who will be interested and how will this book be used?

     This book is for those online who value being online
and want to be part of the battle to make being online a right to all
rather than a privilege available to an elite few. This includes
the scientists, engineers, students, computer programmers and
system administrators, libarians and others who depend on Usenet
News and the Global Network to be able to do the work they do
daily. This also includes the many who have contributed valuable
discussions on music, art, politics, literature, economics, and
education, etc. as a way to both contribute to and gain from an
online community.

     This book is also a way for those who are not yet online to
learn about what the advantages and experiences are of those
online. Thus one of the purposes of this book is to extend knowledge
of and access to the online world to those who have not yet had the
good fortune to experience these treasures themselves. This book is
not merely a matter of reading a "how to" guide, though many are of
immeasurable value. But rather this book is a demonstration that
there are new academic and scientific fields and disciplines that are
being created as a result of the global network and the ability
to communicate with others around the world that Usenet News makes
possible. Thus it is hoped that this book will encourage many who are
not yet online to realize that it is well worth the difficulty and
trouble to get themselves connected to the online community.

     This book is intended to provide the material for courses for
students in  education, communication, political science, library
science, economics, history, computer science and engineering, etc.
about the exciting and important resources available to the society
from this important technological breakthrough. The material contained
in this book is intended to encourage students and teachers
everywhere to begin to research and write about these important
developments so that there begins to be a substantial body of
material documenting both where these developments have come from
and the potential that they promise for a better world.

     But most importantly, the collection of articles in this
book are offered as a way of providing the public whose money and
labor made these achievements possible, with a way of evaluating
proposals to change of the course of development for this
network. These articles are a contribution to evaluating what has
been created, what its social and scientific potential is, and
what is to be lost by withdrawing public subsidies from the
network without a thoroughgoing examination of what might be lost
by such government action. This book is intended to begin to
document what has been created and what is only the embryo of a
development at least as important as the invention of the
printing press.

     The past few years have seen the people in Eastern Europe
and the people in Los Angeles in the U.S. make clear that they
need better living and working conditions. These cries for change
mean that the methods that have achieved this Global network need
to be applied to other aspects and fields of the society so that
the well being of the people become the concern of both
government and of the public arena. Thus this collection of
articles is for those who want to see the coming millenium bring
a better world.

III. Table of Contents

Chapter I - Usenet News: The Poor Man's Arpanet

1. The Evolution of Usenet News: The Poor Man's Arpanet

2. "In Defense of Technology: `Arte', Computers and Usenet News:
A Historical Perspective"


Chapter II -  Historical Perspective

1. The Social Forces Behind The Development of Usenet News

2. From Arpanet to Usenet

3. The Role of Unix in the Development of the Net

4. The Role of TCP/IP in the creation of the Internet


Chapter III - The Net and the Netizens - What the Net
means to the online community.

1. The Net and the Netizens

2. Interview with A Net Pioneer

3. List of Newsgroups


Chapter IV - Controversies Surrounding the Net and Usenet

1. The debate over copyright

2. The Computer As Democratizer

3. CityNet in New Zealand

4. The role of the Acceptible Use Policy in Building the NSF
backbone

5. Do you Want to Lose Your Voice


Chapter V - "The imminent death of the net is predicted" - On the future
of the education, science and research network, of Usenet News

1. The Soul of the Net and its Future

2. What research needs to be done and who will do it?


F - Appendix

1. Book review of "The Unix Programming Environoment" by
Kernighan and Pike and a tutorial for learning some introductory
unix.

2. Important articles from the past

3. Sample articles and posts