INTRODUCTION ------------ 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 result 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. In a similar way, 300 years later, in 1969, work on the Arpanet began to give academic computer scientists and other U.S. Department of Defense contractors a way to scientifically test their networking theories. Based on an actual network to help them to collaborate and to test their theory and make it accord with the real problems of creating a computer network, 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 the computer science researchers in universities and laboratories with U.S. Department of Defense contracts. Others were excluded from access to it. Among those excluded from the Arpanet were graduate students at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. These students 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. Using the experimental approach to network development, 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 the academic UNIX users conference (Usenix) and invited UNIX users at different locations to participate in the development of a NetNews Network that is 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 over 6 million people worldwide with over 4,500 different newsgroup subjects and gigabytes of articles. This news uses no paper, no glue, no postage. It is created and distributed by a highly automated process. This technology makes it possible for the users themselves to determine and provide for the content and range of information 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 dominate 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 networking developments and the way the network helps people 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 these articles have been written based on research conducted on the Global Computer Network. Many times valuable materials or ideas have been provided for these articles by others as a result of postings made on Usenet News. Most of the articles have been 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 is 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 to illuminate a path forward and to extend the important advance represented by the Global Computer Network. 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 such are of considerable value. 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. 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 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. 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 the course of development for this network. These articles are a contribution toward evaluating what has been created, and what its social and scientific potential is. 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 people in Eastern Europe and around the world demonstrate 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 of society so that the well being of the people become the concern of 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 for everyone. -- This is work is being contributed to the Net to support its cooperative nature. It may be freely distributed for noncommercial purposes. Commercial use is not permitted. Ronda Hauben ronda@umcc.umich.edu Michael Hauben hauben@columbia.edu