home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: ronda@ais.org (Ronda Hauben)
- Subject: ACN Supplement-Usenet Pt1
- Message-ID: <1992Dec19.074035.12384@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: UMCC
- Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 07:40:35 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 716
-
- [ Article crossposted from alt.amateur-comp,news.misc ]
- [ Author was Ronda Hauben ]
- [ Posted on Fri, 18 Dec 92 03:04:29 EST ]
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- | TTTTT H H EEEE |
- | T H H E |
- | T HHHH EEE |
- | T H H E |
- | T H H EEEE |
- | |
- | A M M A TTTTTTT EEEEE U U RRRR |
- | A A M M M M A A T E U U R R |
- | A A M M M M A A T EEE U U RRRR |
- | AAAAA M MM M AAAAA T E U U R R |
- | A A M M A A T EEEEE UUU R R |
- | |
- | CCCC OO MM MM PPP U U TTTTT EEEE RRRR III SSS TTTTT |
- | C O O M M M P P U U T E R R I S T |
- | C O O M M M PPPP U U T EEE RRRR I S T |
- | C O O M M P U U T E R R I S T |
- | CCCC OO M M P UU T EEEE R R III SSS T |
- |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
- | Supplement The Wonderful World of Usenet News FALL 1992 |
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Contents
-
- Part I
- Introduction
- The Net Works
-
- Part II
- Computer as a Democratizer
- CityNet in New Zealand
- Learning About Usenet
- Freenet BBS's
- `Arte', Computers and Usenet News Pt 1
-
- Part III
- `Arte', Computers and Usenet News Pt 2
-
- Part IV
- Two Books to Help Users
- Liberation Technology
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- One day during a programming class, one UAW member explained
- that people at Ford had taken classes in BASIC because they
- wanted to see what the computer could do.
-
- This special supplement begins a serious answer to that
- question by featuring several articles about one of the most
- important developments in the world of computers and telecommu-
- nications -- the creation, use, and potential of Usenet News. The
- different articles in this issue examine this development from
- different perspectives. Hopefully they will begin the process of
- seriously looking at this important development of our current
- times which has been made possible by the computer and the
- computer pioneers who have taken on to develop its potential.
-
- Recently, on Usenet News, a professor from Germany, posted a
- request for nominations for who was likely to, or should get the
- Nobel Prize in Economics. One response was that the prize should
- go to reward the significant achievement of the pioneers of
- Usenet News instead of to an economist creating useless models,
- as usual.
-
- Just a few years ago, such a response would not have been
- heard outside of one's small circle of friends. But now such a
- response can be broadcast via a highly automated interactive
- computer conference system, called Usenet News, using very few
- natural resources, to an estimated 3 million people worldwide,
- within a very short period of time.
-
- Yet Usenet News, and the telecommunications explosion it is
- part of, are rarely discussed in the public arena even though
- this achievement, made possible by the work of many computer
- pioneers, is perhaps the most important "current event" of our
- times.
-
- The interconnection and interrelation among people around the
- world made possible by Usenet News is setting the basis for a
- thorough going examination of the problems of our society and for
- the search for solutions. In our first issue of the Amateur
- Computerist, we wrote:
-
- "There was an effort by administrators of the UAW-Ford
- program at the Dearborn Engine Plant to kill interest in
- computers and computer programming. We want to keep interest
- alive because computers are the future. We want to disperse
- information to users about computers. Since the computer is
- still in the early stage of development, the ideas and
- experiences of the users need to be shared and built on if
- this technology is to advance. To this end, this newsletter is
- dedicated to all people interested in learning about
- computers."
- ("Introduction", vol I, no. 1, pg.1)
-
- Usenet News has also taken on this task and achieved it in a
- way that is remarkable. Not the least amazing is the scale, the
- grassroots participation, and the contributions of many computer
- users from around the world.
-
- This supplement is being published by the Amateur Computerist
- both to make this important development known to our readers and
- also to encourage discussion among netnews participants of the
- significance of the achievement that Usenet News represents.
-
- COMMENTS WELCOMED
-
- We welcome your comments on any of the articles in this
- Supplement and hope to publish an additional supplement sometime
- next year to include both those comments and other articles,
- interviews etc. that have been submitted after this Supplement
- was finalized. We welcome submissions for this next Special
- Supplement on Usenet News. Also we encourage discussion of the
- issues raised here in the alt.amateur-comp newsgroup on Usenet
- News.
- The Editors
-
- THE NET WORKS
- by Lee Hauser
-
- There's a sense of power about it. A phone call, a logon, and
- you're connected with the world, a part of something much bigger
- than yourself, part of what brought down the Berlin Wall and
- broke up the Soviet Union, something that can inform and enter-
- tain you and has nothing to do with television.
-
- You're connected to the Internet. Whether you're at a terminal
- at school, sneaking a little time at work, or are laying out a
- little of your own money for time on someone else's system,
- you've joined "cyberspace," that part of reality made up only of
- electronic impulses.
-
- The term "cyberspace" was coined by William Gibson in his 1984
- novel Neuromancer. Gibson's cyberspace was typified by direct
- mind-computer interface and a universally shared metaphor, the
- electronic world, a gridded floor over which floated the glowing
- Euclidian shapes of data structures and complex systems. Despite
- the fact that Gibson had never used a computer when he wrote
- Neuromancer, his vision has shaped our views of cyberspace,
- perhaps forever, which is firmly in the grand tradition of
- science fiction.
-
- Today's cyberspace is the Internet, a large number of
- computers connected by modems and various other means, thousands
- of them based at universities, commercial sites, or occupying a
- corner of someone's living room. These computers (the vast
- majority of which use the Unix operating system) regularly
- exchange megabytes of electronic mail, encoded software and
- general conversation. Most of them do it at no charge to the user
- and under no one's central control.
-
- The Internet got its start in the early 1960s as an experiment
- in connecting computers that were part of the Department of
- Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPANet. It
- grew beyond its original defense contractors to include other
- educational networks in North America, Europe and the Far East.
- One part of the Net, the part that many users find most
- interesting is Usenet News, the bulletin board system which now
- piggy backs on the Internet and other networks. This netnews
- system got its start in 1979.
-
- Usenet News is a world of its own that gets by with a singular
- lack of rules. Like the world outside, how you view it will
- depend on what you want to see. You can get almost any question
- answered, many times and in many ways. There are red-light dis-
- tricts and religious discussions, bars and coffeehouses and flea
- markets, even institutions of higher learning. There are places
- where you can hear old-timers tell stories of the glorious past
- and see others invent the uncertain future. There are many joys
- to be found and many confusions to be faced on the Net, as it is
- called by its regulars.
-
- Usenet is like a worldwide electronic BBS. It consists of
- "newsgroups" grouped into "hierarchies" where users post and
- reply to "articles." There are nearly three thousand newsgroups
- altogether, more than anyone can or would want to keep up with
- (while you may be interested in both Croation culture and the
- varieties of commercial software available in Australia, most of
- the stuff inbetween might very well be meaningless to you).
- These groups are divided into several hierarchies such as
- Recreation, Talk, Sciences, Computers, Social, Miscellaneous and
- Alternate.
-
- Fortunately, you don't have to wade through all the newsgroups
- to find what you want -- at least not more than once. Most Usenet
- access systems have software for reading the news and managing
- newsgroup subscriptions. One of the most popular is "rn" (a
- typically cryptic Unix name which stands for "readnews"). It
- reads a file called .newsrc which holds the names of all the
- newsgroups your system receives and, initially, tells rn that you
- are a subscriber of all of them. You can use rn to go through the
- newsgroups one by one, look at a few messages and decide whether
- or not to keep the group on your subscription list.
-
- Unfortunately, few books on Unix cover rn extensively; two
- that do are mentioned in the resource list.* You should also be
- aware that most Unix systems have an online manual called (can
- you guess?) "man." Typing "man rn" at the command line will get
- you the manual pages for rn or other Unix commands.
-
- Usenet access is available from non-Unix systems too. There
- are several programs available that will connect PCs to Usenet
- News and some PC-based bulletin board systems have Internet mail
- and Usenet "feeds." You might have to look around for them even
- harder than you would for a public access Unix system.
-
- In addition to the Usenet newsgroups, the Net is used for mail
- and file exchange. The foundation for all intersystem services
- was originally (and sometimes still is) the Unix-to-Unix CoPy
- program, or UUCP. UUCP does the automatic copying of files stored
- on one system to another system, whether they be mail, news or
- other data and programs.
-
- Another service provided by some systems, and the one that
- makes software junkies stand up and take note, is ftp, or "file
- transfer protocol." Most systems have this function, which lets
- users on one system log onto other systems to download archived
- software. This is usually done anonymously, meaning the person
- logging on needs no account on the host machine. Many systems
- offer archives of public domain and shareware software; one of
- the biggest repositories is a system at the White Sands military
- complex in New Mexico.
-
- Mail, of course, is one of the key uses of the Internet. Unix
- electronic mail (e-mail) is an integral part of the system. You
- can mail someone at the other end of the country as easily as you
- can someone at your own site; all you need is the e-mail address.
-
- Until a few years ago, Internet addressing was a complicated
- matter, more art than science. Everyone had a "bang address" made
- up of the name of every system between the sender and the
- recipient separated by exclamation points, or "bang" symbols. It
- was a source of much Usenet conversation, trying to determine the
- most efficient route between any two points, both from the
- delivery point of view and the typing point of view.
-
- Nowadays most systems can be addressed by a "domain" address
- which usually consists of the user's ID and system name separated
- by an "@" symbol. Not all systems recognize this, however. For
- instance, the author of this article can be addressed by using
- uunet!polari!lsh (his bang address) or polari!lsh@uunet.uu.net
- (technically the domain address, with a bang due to the way the
- system receives its uucp feed).
-
- Usenet, in particular, and the Internet, in general, are quite
- anarchic. There is literally no central control over the system
- other than the assignment of each computer's network address. The
- amount of access to the network, including which Usenet
- newsgroups (if any) will be supported, is entirely up to the
- local system administration.
-
- Computers connect in a variety of ways, usually dictated by
- the standards of the regional networking organization. Dialup
- lines are usually a minimum of 9600 bits per second, while many
- subnets have leased lines with higher transmission rates.
- Propagation can be amazingly fast; the famous "Internet Worm"
- infected over 6,000 sites in a matter of hours in November of
- 1989.
-
- While the Net as a whole has no central control, machines at
- individual sites are under their own site administration. Each
- machine has finite capacity to receive information, and the
- amount of space and other resources available can determine
- whether a full or partial Usenet feed is received. The reception
- of particular newsgroups is also subject to administrative
- review; a site engaged in biological research may receive all of
- the bio hierarchy, but ignore all the rest. Especially subject to
- review at some sites (and some would call it censorship) are some
- of the alt groups, such as alt.sex, alt.arts.erotica, and other
- controversial groups. Nixpub sites, those that provide public
- dialup access, usually have all the groups they can get.
- Educational sites often do as well, despite periodic outcry over
- public money being spent on some of the alt groups.
-
- Of course, it is the alt groups where most of the most
- interesting "action" is found. Unlike most hierarchies, where
- creating a new group requires some administrative or at least
- political input, alt groups can be started by anyone for any
- reason and are left to the users to thrive or die. A site that
- receives a good selection of alt newsgroups is almost assured of
- high usage.
-
- I'm always amazed at the unabashed personality shown by people
- online. It may be true that the anonymity of the modem allows a
- certain release from one's normal personality, but most posters
- append a signature file to their articles that clearly identifies
- them and their system of origin. Are they always this arrogant,
- this angry, this kinky? Do they care that fellow news readers in
- their own offices will see their postings? Indeed, does anyone
- else at their sites read news at all? Most users at non-public
- sites add a disclaimer to their messages, stating that their
- posting does not reflect the opinions of their employer, or
- possibly anyone else in the universe.
-
- Usenet is a wonderful place to ask any of the questions that
- have been bothering you. There are newsgroups devoted to almost
- all subjects, places and times (and if there isn't one devoted to
- your subject, place and time, you can create your own and see if
- anyone shares your particular smidgen of reality). Find the right
- newsgroup, ask a question, and you'll usually get at least one
- answer. If there are "N" ways of answering your question you will
- probably get at least "N+1" answers. And of course you can throw
- in your own answers to whatever anyone else says. Fortunately,
- newsreading software has ways of keeping message threads
- together, but so much news flows over the lines that messages may
- not stay on line very long.
-
- Oh, where are the "fun" newsgroups? Groups of a local nature
- are found under regional or city names. In the Seattle area, for
- instance, they have names like seattle.general, pnw.general and
- pnw.forsale (the "pnw" stands for "Pacific Northwest"). Some
- other regional and local hierarchies include "ca" (California),
- "ne" for New England, "chi" for Chicago, and even "su" (Stanford
- University, where a substantial part of the computer science and
- engineering departments appear to hand in their homework over the
- Net). There are many others. One of the beauties of these
- regional hierarchies is that you can restrict your new postings
- to region, so your article putting the summer cabin in Bar Harbor
- up for rent doesn't show up on some inflation weary Russian
- programmer's system.
-
- If you're really into computers, there's plenty to be had
- under the "comp" hierarchy. The comp.sys.msdos, comp.sys.mac and
- others deal with everyone's favorite hardware (with everything
- from Commodore 64 through Amiga thrown in).
-
- Those with a more sensual bent can check out the voluminous
- postings in alt.sex (yes, there are also groups called alt.drugs
- & alt.rock-and-roll) and alt.arts.erotica. The alt.callahan's is
- the online pub where you can have good conversation, trade bad
- puns, and hoist a virtual brew. The alt.chatsubo is a bar on the
- seamier side of town, where the razorgirls and console cowboys
- play out their cyberpunk fantasies. Star Trek fans will find at
- least two groups devoted to their passion, while alt.sf-lovers
- takes care of most of the rest of the science fiction world.
-
- There's a lot more out there, too -- networks, software,
- advice, help, controversy and argument, enough to keep one
- fascinated for hours on end.
-
- Some of the most interesting newsgroups are those that talk
- about the Net itself. There are groups such as
- news.newusers.questions that help beginners in their explorations
- of Usenet and other areas of the Net and news.misc, the group for
- talking about Usenet.
-
- At the opposite end of the spectrum are the groups like
- "alt.cyberpunk.tech, alt.cyberspace, alt.society.futures &
- alt.cyberpunk" that deal with the concept and implementation of
- cyberspace. There are discussions of the practicality of mind
- computer interfaces, of whether there could be a shared metaphor
- of what the electronic world looks like, and other details. The
- people doing the discussing are not only science fiction readers,
- but network administrators, virtual reality researchers and
- others who will be instrumental in the growth and refinement of
- cyberspace.
-
- This is one of the reasons the Internet and Usenet are
- important -- they are part of the free flow of information
- essential to the continuing development of science and tech-
- nology. Rather than letters between individuals or articles in
- narrowlytargeted technical journals and conferences, thousands of
- people can discuss the subject, whatever it may be.
-
- Unfortunately, though the Net is growing all the time and is
- available to more users than ever before, there are still
- relatively few people who have access to it. Many things need to
- happen before widespread electronic communication is available
- to most people. Computers or terminals need to be easily and
- cheaply available. In France, for instance, the government run
- Minitel network gives free terminals with system subscriptions.
- Over half of all French households are connected to Minitel.
-
- The infrastructure of a universal network needs to extend to
- everyone who wants it. In a sense, of course, it does. The whole
- country is wired for telephone, which is the easiest way to enter
- cyberspace anyway. But the telephone wires can't carry all the
- information for anything close to Gibsonian cyberspace, or even
- more everyday things like real-time video. Eventually the copper
- wires we communicate on now may be replaced by more expensive but
- more capable fiber-optic lines.
-
- And, of course, there needs to be a reason for people to go
- online. Today's electronic services provide attractive services,
- such as news, travel scheduling and information, encyclopedias,
- even shopping and real-time socializing. This all costs money, of
- course, often more than people can afford. Many users think
- online services should be free and as universal as telephone
- service, so many never proceed beyond their local bulletin
- boards.
-
- Another thing that needs to change is the user interface.
- Services such as Prodigy and America Online have their own
- software to make their services more user-friendly, but each is
- unique. DOS-based bulletin boards and Unix systems are
- command-line oriented and far from "user friendly." Terminals
- need to be as easy to use as telephones before they will be
- widely accepted.
-
- Finally, we must retain the freedom to use online services.
- There is constant fighting between telephone companies and BBS
- operators about telephone line prices. There is also conflict
- over how the infrastructure will be extended - who will get ac-
- cess to the Net, and how much they will pay. Finally, there is a
- necessary upward trend in computer capability that leaves those
- who cannot afford computers behind. While computer prices are
- coming down relative to their power, there are very few truly
- low-end, very inexpensive computers. Just when XT-compatibles
- could be truly cheap, very few are being made because they are no
- longer fast enough for the people who have a thousand dollars or
- more to spend. Computers could achieve wide penetration if
- low-end computers were easily available with easy-to-use software
- and good reasons to use them.
-
- Now there is growing sentiment to make the Internet fully
- commercial, removing its government subsidy and making it pay its
- own way. In an interview in the May 25, 1992 InfoWorld magazine,
- Mitch Kapor says the commercialization of Internet is needed to
- continue its growth and free government money for a new, higher
- speed experimental network. Kapor, founder of Lotus Development
- Corporation, designer of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet and
- co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, says the
- Internet is the best way to bring connectivity to the general
- population until the nation can be wired for fiber, which will
- support audio and video. Most users of the Net would probably
- disagree with Kapor. It is likely that commercializing the Net
- would have a negative effect on its open, free-wheeling nature
- which is certainly its charm and possibly its reason for success.
- The Net was started on a noncommercial basis and continues that
- way to this day; it has grown and matured in that atmosphere,
- showing innovation and growth without the profit motive that
- until recently defined Kapor's success. If the high-speed network
- must be experimented with, why not let the commercial interests
- take over that work and leave unfixed that which is not broken.
-
- This re-wiring of the nation is still years away, of course.
- In the meantime there's no good reason to stay away from today's
- Internet and Usenet News. It's part of what computers do best.
-
- *RESOURCE LIST
-
- Using uucp and Usenet, from O'Reilly & Associates (a superior
- book, especially for the more technically minded)
-
- The First Book of Unix, by Douglas Topham, from Howard W. Sams
- & Co. (an excellent intro to Unix for the complete Unix idiot,
- with an excellent intro to mail and Usenet).
-
- From: 74230.2702@CompuServe.COM (Lee Hauser)
- Copyright (C) 1992 by Lee Hauser. Permission is granted to
- reproduce the text of this document in whole or in part in a
- not-for-profit publication provided credit is given to the
- author. Publication in whole in a for-profit publication is
- prohibited without permission.
-
-
- The Computer as a Democratizer
- by Michael Hauben
-
- "...only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing
- state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of
- the truth."
- (John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty, "Three Essays, Oxford, 1975,
- pg.60)
-
- "In a very real sense, Usenet is a marketplace of ideas."
- (Bart Anderson, Bryan Costales, and Harry Henderson, Unix
- Communications, Indiana, 1991, pg.224)
-
- Political thought has developed as writers presented the
- theoretical basis behind the various class structures from
- aristocracy to democracy. Plato wrote of the rule of the elite
- Guardians. Thomas Paine wrote why people need control of their
- governments. The computer connects to this democratizing trend
- through facilitating wider communications among individual
- citizens to the whole body of citizens.
-
- James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, takes a look at
- democracy in his article "Liberty of the Press" from the 1825
- Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He writes about the
- question of a government that works as it should - for the
- advantage and gain of the people instead of the advantage and
- gain for those in control. Mill sees the government necessarily
- being corrupted if the chance exists. Those in the position of
- rule, would abuse that power for their advantage. Mill describes,
- "If one man saw that he might promote misrule for his own advan-
- tage, so would another; so, of course would they all." ( James
- Mill, "Essay on Liberty of the Press", pg.20) Mill says that the
- people need a check on those in government. People need to keep
- watch on their government in order to make sure this government
- works in the interest of the many. Mill thus concludes, "There
- can be no adequate check without the freedom of the press. The
- evidence of this is irresistible." (Mill, pg.18)
-
- What Mill often phrases as freedom of the press, or liberty of
- the press, is more precisely defined as the uncensored press. The
- uncensored press provides for the dissemination of information
- that allows the reader or thinker to do two things. First, a
- person can size up the issue and honestly decide his or her own
- position. Second, as the press is uncensored, this person can
- make his distinctive contribution available for other people to
- consider and appreciate. Thus what Mill calls "freedom of the
- press" makes possible the free flow and exchange of different
- ideas.
-
- Thomas Paine, in The Rights of Man, describes a fundamental
- principle of democracy. Paine writes, "that the right of altering
- the government was a national right, and not a right of the
- government."(pg.341) Mill also expresses that active
- participation by the populace is a necessary principle of
- democracy. He writes:
-
- "Unless a door is left open to the resistance of the
- government, in the largest sense of the word, the doctrine of
- passive obedience is adopted; and the consequence is, the
- universal prevalence of the misgovernment, ensuring the misery
- and degradation of the people." (Mill, pg.13)
-
- Another principle Mill links democracy to, is the right of the
- people to define who can responsibly represent their will.
- However, this right requires information to make a proper deci-
- sion. Mill declares:
-
- "We may then ask, if there are any possible means by which the
- people can make a good choice, besides liberty of the press?
- The very foundation of a good choice is knowledge. The fuller
- and more perfect the knowledge, the better the chance, where
- all sinister interest is absent, of a good choice. How can the
- people receive the most perfect knowledge relative to the
- characters of those who present themselves to their choice,
- but by information conveyed freely, and without reserve, from
- one to another?" (Mill, pg.19)
-
- Without information being available to the people, the
- candidates for office can be either as bad as the incumbents or
- worse. Therefore there is a need to prevent the government from
- censoring the information available to people. Mill explains:
-
- "If it is in the power of their rulers to permit one person
- and forbid another, the people may be sure that a false
- report, - a report calculated to make them believe that they
- are well governed, when they are ill-governed, will be often
- presented to them." (Mill, pg.20)
-
- After electing their representatives, democracy gives the
- public the right to evaluate their chosen representatives in
- office. The public continually needs information as to how their
- chosen representatives are fulfilling their role. Once these rep-
- resentatives have abused their power, Paine's and Mill's
- principle allows the public to replace those abusers. Mill also
- clarifies that free use of the means of communication is another
- extremely important principle:
- "That an accurate report of what is done by each of the
- representatives, a transcript of his speeches, and a statement
- of his propositions and votes, is necessary to be laid before
- the people, to enable them to judge of his conduct, nobody, we
- presume, will deny. This requires the use of the cheapest
- means of communication, and, we add, the free use of those
- means. Unless every man has the liberty of publishing the
- proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, the people can have
- no security that they are fairly published." (Mill pg.20)
-
- Ignorance, Thomas Paine calls the absence of knowledge and
- says that man with knowledge cannot be returned to a state of
- ignorance. (The Rights of Man, pg.357) James Mill shows how the
- knowledge man thirsts after leads to a communal feeling. General
- conformity of opinion seeds resistance against misgovernment.
- Both conformity of opinion and resistance require general
- information or knowledge. Mill explains:
- "In all countries people have either a power legally and
- peaceably of removing their governors, or they have not that
- power. If they have not that power, they can only obtain very
- considerable ameliorations of their governments by resistance,
- by applying physical force to their rulers, or, at least, by
- threats so likely to be followed by performance, as may
- frighten their rulers into compliance. But resistance, to have
- this effect, must be general. To be general, it must spring
- from a general conformity of opinion, and a general knowledge
- of that conformity. How is this effect to be produced, but by
- some means, fully enjoyed by the people of communicating their
- sentiments to one another? Unless the people can all meet in
- general assembly, there is no other means, known to the world,
- of attaining this object, to be compared with freedom of the
- press." (Mill, pg.18)
-
- In the previous quote Mill places his championing of the
- freedom of press as a realistic alternative to Rousseau's general
- assembly, which is not possible most of the time. Mill expands on
- the freedom of the press by setting the rules. An opinion cannot
- be well founded until its converse is also present. Here he sets
- forth the importance of developing your own opinion from those
- that exist. Mill writes:
- "We have then arrived at the following important conclusions,
- -- that there is no safety to the people in allowing anybody
- to choose opinions for them; that there are no marks by which
- it can be decided beforehand, what opinions are true and what
- are false; that there must, therefore, be equal freedom of
- declaring all opinions both true and false; and that, when all
- opinions, true and false, are equally declared, the assent of
- the greater number, when their interests are not opposed to
- them, may always be expected to be given to the true. These
- principles, the foundation of which appears to be impregnable,
- suffice for the speedy determination of every practical
- question." (Mill, pg.23)
-
- The technology that is the personal computer, international
- computer networks, and other recent contributions embody and put
- into practice James Mill's theory of liberty of the press. The
- personal computer makes it affordable for most people to have an
- information access station in their very own home. There are
- international computer networks that exist which allow a person
- to have debates with other people across the world, search for
- data in various data banks, or even play a computer game.
-
- If a person is affiliated with a university community, works
- at a business which pays to connect to the Internet, or pays a
- special service a fee, he or she can connect to a network of
- computer networks around the world. A connection to this interna-
- tional network empowers a person by giving him access to various
- services. These services include electronic mail, which means the
- ability to send private messages electronically to people across
- the world who also have electronic mail boxes. The public alter-
- native to this is a service called Usenet News. This service is
- an example of James Mill's democratic principles.
-
- Usenet News consists of many newsgroups which each cover a
- broad, but yet specific topic. People who utilize Usenet News
- typically pick certain newsgroups or topics to focus on. Every
- group has several items of discussion going on at the same time.
- Some examples of newsgroups include serious topics such as
- talk.politics.theory, - people "talking" about current issues
- and political theory, sci.econ - people discussing the science of
- economics, soc.culture.usa - people debating questions of United
- States society; and recreational topics (which might also be
- serious) such as alt.rock-n-roll - discussing various aspects of
- rock music, rec.sport.hockey - a discussion of hockey and
- rec.humor - jokes and humor. The discussions are very active and
- provide a source of information that fulfills James Mill's cri-
- teria for both more oversight over government and a more informed
- population. In a sense, what was once impossible, is now possi-
- ble; everyone's letter to the editor is published. (Hauben,
- Interview with Staff Member, The Amateur Computerist, v.4 n.2-3
- pg.14) What is important is that Usenet News is conducted public-
- ly, and is uncensored. This means that everyone can both
- contribute and gain from everyone else's opinion.
-
- The importance of Usenet News also exists in that it is an
- improvement in communications technology from that of previous
- telecommunications. The predecessors to computer networks were
- the Ham Radio and Citizen Band Radio (CB). The computer network
- is an advance in that it is easier to store, reproduce and
- utilize the communications. It is easier to continue a prolonged
- question and answer session or debate. The newsgroups on Usenet
- News have a distribution designation which allows them to be
- available to a wide variety of different size areas - local,
- city, national, or international. This allows for a variety of
- uses. The problem with the Internet is that in a sense it is only
- open to those who either have it provided to them by a university
- or company that they are affiliated with, or who pay for it. This
- limits part of the current development of the computer networks.
-
- An example of a public enterprise, however, is a computer
- service called Freenet in Cleveland, Ohio. Freenet is operated by
- Case Western Reserve University as a community service. Anyone
- with a personal computer and a modem (a device to connect to
- other computers over existing phone lines) can call a local phone
- number to connect to Freenet. If members of the public do not own
- computers, they can use Freenet at the public library. Besides
- Usenet News, Freenet provides free access to a vast variety of
- information databases and community information. Freenet is just
- one example of the computer networks becoming much more readily
- available to broad sectors of society. As part of its databases,
- Freenet includes Supreme Court decisions, discussion of political
- issues and candidates, and debate over contemporary laws. Freenet
- is beginning to exemplify Mill's principle that democracy re-
- quires the "use of the cheapest means of communication, and, we
- add, the free use of those means." (Mill, pg.20)
-
- This is an exciting time to see the democratic ideas of some
- great political thinkers beginning to be practiced. James Mill
- wrote that for government to serve the people, it must be watched
- by the people utilizing an uncensored press. Freedom of the press
- also makes possible the debate necessary for the forming of
- well-founded opinions by the people. Usenet and Freenet are
- examples of the contemporary electronic practice of the
- uncensored accessible press required by Mill. These networks are
- also the result of hard work by many people aspiring for more
- democracy. However, they still require more help from those
- dedicated to the hard fight against tyranny.
-
- Bibliography
-
- Anderson, Bart, Bryan Costales, and Harry Henderson, Unix
- Communications Indiana, 1991.
-
- Hauben, Michael, "Interview with a Staff Member," The Amateur
- Computerist, v.4 n.2-3.
-
- Mill, James, Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the
- Press, and Law of Nations, reprint, Kelley Publishers, New York,
- 1967.
-
- Mill, John Stuart, "On Liberty" in Three Essays, Oxford, 1975.
-
- Paine, Thomas, The Rights of Man in Two Classics of the French
- Revolution, Anchor Books, Doubleday. New York, 1989.
-
- Watkins, Beverly T, "Freenet helps Case Western fulfill its
- Community-Service Mission," April 29, 1992, Chronicle of Higher
- Education, pg.A21.
-
-