NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9471

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From: [e-mail] (Ronda Hauben)
Subject: ACN Supplement-Usenet Pt3
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[ Article crossposted from alt.amateur-comp,news.misc ]
[ Author was Ronda Hauben ]
[ Posted on Fri, 18 Dec 92 03:08:57 EST ]

Amateur Computerist Supplement on Usenet News - Part 3 of 4

                    In Defense of Technology:
    `Arte', Computers and the Wonderful World of Usenet News:
                    A Historical Perspective
                         (in two parts)

                      Part 2 - USENET NEWS

   Usenet News is a world wide public conferencing network that
makes it possible for computer users around the world to have
public discussions, raise questions or problems so they can get
help, or send e-mail (i.e. electronic mail) to each other in
short spans of time. One user explains that it is like a
newspaper where "everyone's letter to the editor is printed." (1)
Usenet News has also been described as a series of electronic
magazines. "These magazines," called `newsgroups,' are devoted to
particular topics, ranging from questions about UNIX, programming
languages, and computer systems to discussions of politics,
philosophy, science, and recreational activities."(2) Usenet News
has been compared to an electronic town meeting of the world or
to a series of electronic soap boxes. Others have observed that
"It's now as if everyone owns a printing press" or even better "a
publishing house."

   Computer users with access to Usenet can read articles on a
broad range of topics. They can contribute their responses or
post articles of their own on any subject in an appropriate
newsgroup. Their submissions are then copied electronically to
computers around the world which are also part of the Usenet
network. Usenet News demonstrates what happens when people are
encouraged and allowed to develop computer technology.

   When it was first initiated in 1979, the Usenet logical
network was made possible as a result of the capabilities built
into the UNIX operating system (developed at Bell Labs) and its
networking capacity known as UUCP. (i.e. UNIX to UNIX CoPy)
Today, however, this netnews network involves most of the great
variety of computers and operating systems in use. This network
traffic is carried on a variety of physical networks including
the Internet and UUCP.

   Usenet News is estimated to involve 3,000,000 users world wide
and the number of users is continually growing. It was initiated
in 1979 by Tom Truscott and James Ellis, graduate students at
Duke University, and Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at the
neighboring University of North Carolina. According to accounts
of the early days that have been circulated on the Net (as Usenet
News is sometimes called), Truscott and Ellis thought of hooking
remote computers together, using homebrew autodial 300 baud
modems connected to telephones. They envisioned creating a poor
man's ARPANET (i.e. The U.S. Department of Defense Network, only
available to those involved with D.O.D. research contracts).(3)
An informal conference was convened by Truscott, Ellis and
Bellovin, where interested people hashed out the basic principles
and needs, and then Bellovin went on to write the first version
of Usenet News in a period of about two weeks. The program was
installed and operating at the first 2 sites: "unc" (i.e. the
University of North Carolina's Computer Science Department) and
"duke" (Duke University's Computer Science Department). Another
site "phs" (the Duke University Medical School's Department of
Physiology) was added early in 1980. They got the software to
work at these three "original sites". A rewritten version of
NetNews software by Stephen Daniel, called "A" version, was later
placed on the conference tape at the Academic UNIX users
association USENIX, at a meeting in 1980.(4)

   The early software included the capacity to automatically
swap, via telephone and modem, updated message files among remote
machines. The initial software developed in 1979 was written in
the script language built into the UNIX shell. "The original
shell script implementation involved simply checking the time
stamps on files and sending the files that had changed since the
last check to some other machine," explains Gregory G. Woodbury
in his account of these early days.

   He writes, "Under the conditions of the academic UNIX licenses
in those days, the software was placed in the `public domain' and
it was the most popular program from that (USENIX) Conference
Tape. I do not recall that anyone was quite expecting the
explosion that followed."(5)

   The original assumption of the programmers of Usenet was that
it would provide a way for a local group of machines to share
news. "The model," Woodbury writes, "was that a campus of a
university would have a news network, and it might be shared with
another university that was logically and physically close to it,
but spatially inconvenient for folks to get together physically,
and that netnews would allow them to share information in a
timely manner."(6)

   What developed, though, took everybody by surprise. Woodbury
recounts, "When the direction of evolution took an unexpected
turn, and a continental network emerged, spanning the continent
from California to North Carolina, and Toronto to San Diego, it
was sort of a shock to realize what had happened."(7)

   This phenomenal and surprising growth is explained by two
elements. The most important Woodbury emphasizes is "that people
wanted to communicate and would cooperate in effecting that
communication."(8)

   The second important element, according to Woodbury, is that
the early Usenet News program was created under the conditions of
the academic UNIX license which then provided that the program be
put into the public domain. And since everyone involved at the
time was working in an academic environment (including Bell Labs
which Woodbury notes was "academic really") where information was
shared, the emphasis was on communication, not on copyright or
other proprietary rights. "Everyone wanted to be on the Net," he
notes, "and it was clear they were cooperating in doing so."(9)

   The phenomenal growth of Usenet News during the early 1980's
was an acknowledgment that it was a superior means of dealing
with the growing mailing lists on various subjects that had
developed on the early ARPAnet network, created under the
auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Defense for its research purposes.
The original script files had been rewritten in C by Steve
Bellovin for use at "unc" and "duke", according to Gene
Spafford's history of the period. Stephen Daniel, Spafford
explains, "did another implementation in C for public
distribution."(10) After Tom Truscott made modifications in this
program, the software became known as the A News release of the
Usenet News program.

   "Under the strain of being an international network," Woodbury
explains, "with several new machines being added daily, certain
limitations in the basic assumptions made themselves painfully
obvious." The continuing expansion led to a rewriting of the
software in 1981 by University of California at Berkeley graduate
student Mark Horton and high school student Matt Glickman. This
version was released to the public as B News, version 2.1 in
1982. Then in 1985, the still ever expanding nature of Usenet
News led Henry Spencer and Geoff Collyer at the University of
Toronto to set to work on what is now known as C News which
they released in 1989. Spencer and Collyer paid very careful
attention to the performance aspects of C News. The result is
that it has been able to handle the phenomenal expansion of
Usenet News which continues today.(11)

   The administration and coordination of this world wide network
depends to a great extent on the cooperation and diligent work of
the system administrators at the participating sites. In the
early development of Usenet News some of these administrators
knew each other and worked together to establish a series of
general procedures for processes like adding newsgroups. Known as
the "backbone cabal", this group worked together to hash out ways
to deal with problems that threatened the voluntary, cooperative
nature of the net.

   This informal structure would contact new site administrators
who joined the Net. The character of the Net as a voluntary
association of people who posted because they wanted to
communicate was conveyed. And the fact that posts were entered
into the "public domain" was established as an essential
principle of the Net.(12)

   Usenet News is now made up of thousands of newsgroups
organized around different topics. The number of groups is
constantly growing as there is a democratic procedure established
to provide for new groups. If 100 more users vote for a new group
than vote against it, the group can be started.(13) This
procedure governs new groups in what is known as the "Seven
Sisters" hierarchy which was the collection of the seven
newsgroups at one point known as Usenet News. Some people have
defined Usenet News as those sites receiving the seven main
groups; comp, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk newsgroups, and
the group news.announce.important. Others have defined Usenet
News as those sites that receive at least one of the newsgroups
that appears on the list of Usenet News newsgroups. There is also
an alternate hierarchy which includes alt, gnu, and other groups.
A more informal procedure is provided for creating an alt group.
The guidelines provide for posting a proposal to the alt.config
newsgroup and then the newsgroup can be set up as an alt group
when a new newsgroup control message is posted to the control
newsgroup.

   The phenomenal growth and richness of Usenet News demonstrates
the important role "arte" still plays in the development of
social achievements. Many of the people using and contributing to
Usenet News are people who have respect for and work with
computer technology. Many of these people have a need for Usenet
News to get help with problems they encounter in dealing with
computer technology. One of the early functions of Usenet News
was to help identify bugs in new technology and to identify and
propagate ways to deal with the problems.(14)

   My experience using Usenet News has been inspiring. I was
interested in discussions involving economics and the history of
economic thought. When I first got onto Usenet News I couldn't
figure out where such discussions would take place. I managed to
get access to the misc.books.technical newsgroup. I didn't know
what the other newsgroups were or how to find out. Not knowing
how to proceed I entered the following post:
   From: [e-mail] (Ronda Hauben)
   Newsgroups: misc.books.technical
   Date: 10 Jan 92 07:48:58 GMT
   Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
                 Ohio, (USA)
   Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns9.ins.cwru.edu

   I am interested in discussing the history of economics -- i.e.
mercantilists, physiocrats, adam smith, ricardo, marx, marshall,
keynes etc. With the world in such a turmoil it would seem that
the science of economics needs to be reinvigorated.
   Is there anyplace on Usenet News where this kind of discussion
is taking place? If not is there anyone else interested in
starting a conference .economics and how would I go about doing
this. This is my first time on Usenet News.
      Ronda
      [e-mail]

   One of the many responses I received said:
   "Start discussing on sci.econ. We're all ears."(15)

   I received several other responses via e-mail also pointing me
to the sci.econ newsgroup or indicating interest in the topic.
Also, a computer user from California sent me e-mail with a list
of all the newsgroups that existed. Another user from Scotland
wrote telling me the name of the news file which listed the names
of the newsgroups. It is considered good NETIQUETTE (i.e. Network
Etiquette) to help new users and many of the experienced users
are very willing to do so.

   A few users suggested that I might want to try to start a
newsgroup for the history of economics, but that it would
probably be a wise idea to either wait awhile until I got used to
netnews before trying to initiate a group, or else try to get a
user with more experience to help.

   The list of newsgroups posted on Usenet News in various news
newsgroups like news.misc contains descriptions of each group.
Sci.econ is described as "the science of economics."(See also
UNIX Communications, pg.248)

   I have found the discussions in this newsgroup valuable. There
are often debates over important economic questions. Many of the
questions discussed concern broad social issues -- for example,
wage slavery, the development of different social forms of
society, whether economics is a science, whether the so called
"free market" has ever existed to regulate production, etc. There
has been discussion of a variety of economic and political issues
- like social security, rent control, strikes in Germany,
national health care reform, the need for shorter hours of work,
the GM plant closures, taxes, the economic programs of
presidential candidates, the role of markets in setting prices,
the economic program of Henry George, etc.

   Many of the other newsgroups on Usenet News are related to
computers and computer subjects. There are newsgroups where one
can ask questions regarding access to Usenet News, or about books
that are recommended for people who want to learn more about UNIX
or any other area of computer usage, etc. It is also possible to
write to someone who has posted a question and ask them to
forward a copy or summary of the responses they receive so the
post doesn't have to be duplicated. There are also newsgroups
dealing with political issues, social issues, current events,
hobbies, science, education, etc.

   When someone posted a critique of GM plant closures the night
that GM announced that it would lay off 70,000 people, several
people sent e-mail to the person who entered the comment saying
that it was good to see the post. Thus when someone makes an
interesting post, it is possible to send e-mail to the person and
begin to correspond, or just encourage the user to continue.

   Also there are political components being developed. For
example, there was an announcement that a vote was in progress to
determine whether or not there should be a classics newsgroup. If
one wrote voting "yes" or "no", the user would then be told to
verify that the vote was accurately recorded when the list was
posted announcing the final totals. Thus a procedure has been
worked out on Usenet News acknowledging that votes can't be by
secret ballot, but must be open and posted, with the person
voting having the ability to verify the outcome.

   Unfortunately there are also frustrating aspects of Usenet
News. The great variety and number of posts can take considerable
time to survey and thus it is difficult to keep up with the
volume at times. A variety of software readers have been created,
to help deal with this problem.(16) Though these readers have
been copyrighted, many are freely available as long as they are
being used for personal use, not for profit. Despite the
difficulty keeping up with volume and other problems that have
developed in the course of building the netnews network(17), many
of the users on Usenet News are willing to be active participants
in the development and working out of the content and form of the
network. Many people send e-mail or post public responses when
they have something to say about a post. In this way,
communication is encouraged and exciting as one person builds on
another's contribution, and all become more knowledgeable through
the process of democratic discussion and debate.

   Usenet News has thus evolved a functioning governing structure
that is democratic and open in ways that have only been dreamed
of in the past. Many of the details of the copying, distribution
and propagation of Usenet News are done via automatic machinery
and programs which require that the system administrators who
make the system function work together to solve their common
problems. This same kind of cooperative relationship has been
encouraged by these system administrators among the users of
Usenet News and this cooperative standard of activity is known as
Netiquette.

   Many on Usenet News call the structure which functions
anarchy. But, Jean Jacques Rousseau, in A Discourse on Political
Economy, explains that the best laws are those which the
population implements voluntarily rather than via force. Thus
"Netiquette" is a system of rules or standards that users on the
Net are encouraged to follow. Also, commercial traffic and
commercial uses of netnews have been strictly limited and
circumscribed for several reasons. Among these have been the need
since the early days of Usenet News to keep commercial self-
serving traffic from both escalating the phone costs and the
noise (i.e. proportion of useless information to useful
information) of Usenet News. When the Internet became one of the
major transport mechanisms of Usenet News traffic, the prohibi-
tions against commercial traffic arising from the public funding
of the NSF backbone became a factor.(18) This restriction of self
serving and private profit making commercial purposes has
resulted in the open communication and cooperation which
proprietary self serving corporate agendas would make impossible.
Thus the governing laws (Netiquette) and structures (cooperative
and helpful) are the demonstration that more democratic
government is now possible and can achieve significant social ad-
vances and also facilitate the development of technological labor
saving breakthroughs (`arte'). On the net, the participants gain
from being active and from helping each other. People who post or
send e-mail are contributors to the culture and all gain from
each other's active efforts. A vibrant and informative bottom up,
interactive grassroots culture has been created and a broad,
worldwide, informative and functioning telecommunications network
is the product of their labors.

   Thus the intellectual ferment that David Hume describes as the
result of one's participation in the development of technology,
is an appropriate description of the phenomenal growth and
achievement of Usenet News. This ferment is the needed support
for the development of technology and the development of this
technology makes possible the needed political and social changes
that are required to have the technology function. The study of
economic writers who discuss the importance of such technology is
helpful in assessing the significance of such practical
developments of our contemporary times.

   In the 2nd half of an "Interview with a Staff Member" in The
Amateur Computerist (vol 4, no 4), there was the prediction that
connecting to Usenet News would be a significant leap forward, as
it would represent the connection for computer users with the
world. That prediction has been fulfilled by the exciting world
of computers that is available to a user who has access to Usenet
News.(19) Also, the achievement of Usenet News demonstrates the
importance of facilitating the development of uncensored speech
and communication -- there is debate and discussion - one person
influences another - people build on each other's strengths and
interests, differences, etc.

   Traditionally, it would require the labor of many people, much
paper, ink, and other supplies to accomplish such a massive
communication network via traditional means of newspapers or
magazines, etc. With Usenet News, however, this communication
among people and computers is accomplished via a high degree of
automation. By participating in Usenet News, millions of people
and their computers are connected into a machine that is part of
"the largest machine that man has ever constructed -- the global
telecommunications network." (20) Also, Usenet News makes it
possible for people to print up their own copies of what is
available online, without using all the paper or ink that has
traditionally been required for a press.

   So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Usenet News - it's
happening and it is one of the most important achievements of the
20th Century. It is very exciting to be connected with it and
just as David Hume observed over 200 years ago, participating in
the world of technology and automation being used for
telecommunications and Usenet News is indeed the basis for
beginning to do the work needed to bring the better world that
the computer is now making possible.
Ronda ([e-mail])

Notes (Part 2):
* UNIX and AT&T are registered trademarks of AT&T Bell Labs.

(1) See "Interview with Staff member," The Amateur Computerist,
vol 4, no 2/3, pg.10.

(2) Unix Communications, by Bart Anderson, Brian Costales, and

Hart Henderson, Indiana, 1991, pg.213.

(3) This account of the early days of Usenet News is taken from
two articles: Gene Spafford's "Usenet Software: History and
Sources" and Gregory G. Woodbury's "Net Cultural Assumptions".

(4) Accounts differ as to when Usenet was first introduced to the
Unix users community. Gene and Greg place the introduction of
Usenet News software on the Usenix conference tape at the Winter,
1980 meeting. Communication received from other Usenet News
pioneers like Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin, Henry Spencer and
Geoff Collyer, however, suggests that Jim Ellis made a short
presentation about Usenet News at the Winter, 1980 Usenix
Conference in Boulder, Colorado, and handed out a five page
description "Invitation to a General Access Unix Network". The
Usenet News software, however, did not appear on the conference
tape until the Summer, 1980 Usenix meeting which was held in
Delaware. Communication from Bruce Jones, who is writing a
thesis about the history of Usenet News, supports the latter
chronology.

(5) Gregory G. Woodbury, "Net Cultural Assumptions".

(6)Greg cites a communication with Steve Bellovin agreeing with
this model and adds that "At the most they had envisioned local
clusters of machines sharing local groups and perhaps sharing ONE
group with a wider audience."

(7) Gregory G. Woodbury, "Net Cultural Assumptions".

(8) Ibid.

(9) But he does take note of the concern of some people at Bell
Labs that AT&T's rights in and to UNIX source code and
proprietary information be protected. Greg however emphasizes
that individual posters were concerned with the ability to
communicate, not with copyright protection.

(10) Spafford's "USENET Software: History and Sources".

(11) Details are described in the article "News Need Not Be
Slow", by Geoff Collyer and Henry Spencer, Winter 1987 "USENIX
Conference Proceedings".

(12) Woodbury's article "Net Cultural Assumptions" describes how
the `public domain assumption' changed when the US government
revised its copyright law and became a Berne signatory in the
late 1980s. The implications of this change have been debated on
Usenet News in the past year.

(13) But whether the new newsgroup will be carried has
traditionally depended upon the system administrators of the
largest systems and the new group's inclusion in the list of
newsgroups.

(14) Per conversation in August, 1992, with Henry Spencer about
the early days of the net.

(15) Per e-mail from Adam Grossman.

(16) See Gene Spafford's "USENET Software: History and Sources"
for a history and description of many of the software readers now
available.

(17) Various problems have been developed for users to deal with.
Some involve the efforts to impose copyright restrictions on
posts on Usenet which would make the copying and propagation
impossible; there are some users who try to intimidate people who
post by attacking them (called `flaming'), etc. But these
problems must be looked at in the context of the significant
advance that this netnews network represents.

(18) The National Science Foundation (NSF) has had an Appropriate
Use Policy (AUP) governing what is allowed to be transported
across the nets that it funds with public moneys. It has limited
usage basically to research and education activities. As Usenet
has been transported across the NSFNet backbone, this policy of
the NSF has helped Usenet to develop as an educational rather
than commercial network. (It is questionable whether a commercial
network could have been developed, given the secret and
proprietary activities of commercial enterprises.) However the
AUP is being challenged now by the growing commercial use of
networks like ANS (Advanced Networks and Services) a company
founded by MCI and IBM that is now part of the MERIT, NSF, ANS
organizational chain, which is opening up access to commercial
traffic endangering the development and education and research
function that the net thus far has achieved. Also, many large
corporations, though seemingly restricted in their use of the net
to educational and research purposes, are also the backbone sites
along which netnews is transferred. Some corporations use Usenet
for their research and educational functions, but run a separate
private net alongside of their Usenet News operation for their
commercial purposes.

(19) A system of Freenets, including Cleveland Freenet and
Youngstown Freenet in Ohio, USA, Ottawa Freenet in Canada, etc.
some of which provide public access to Usenet News, are beginning
to develop. These are open to the public and Usenet News is
fairly easy to access from these once one has set up an account
which is available at no charge.

(20) Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technology Without Boundaries, ed. Eli
Noam, (Cambridge, 1990) pg.56.

   Special thanks to the many people on Usenet News who commented
on this article in its various draft stages and for their helpful
comments and criticisms. Also thanks to the pioneers of Usenet
who answered questions and made material available for the part
about the early days of Usenet News.