<nettime> The Internet and Netizens and the New Millennium: Past as Prologue

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

What will the new Millennium mean for the Internet and for the Netizens
who have emerged with the development of the Internet?

J.C.R. Licklider's research in the 1950s recognized the importance
of the question of what should be the relationship between the human
and the computer and set a foundation for time sharing and interactive 
computing. He proposed that the relationship should be one of
human computer symbiosis, that is the human doing what the human
could do best and the computer doing what it was most suited for
in the partnership.

Licklider then was invited to work at the Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA) in 1962. He set up the Information Processing 
Techniques Office (IPTO) which spearheaded many of the 
outstanding changes that we have witnessed in the development of 
computers and networking and then internetworking in the past 40 years.

Not often in people's lives do they witness the significant events
that have occurred in the past 40 years of our past century. This includes
the development of time-sharing and interactive computing with Project MAC
and of other centers of excellence projects in the 1960s. These made it
possible to replace the form of batch processing that was the computing
paradigm until then with interactive computing and time-sharing.

The work on time-sharing also led people like Donald Davies in 
Great Britain and others thinking. Davies realized that multiplexing 
could be applied to the transport of computer data as well as to the 
organization of an operating system.

Davies had the idea for packet switching along with others like
Paul Baran. By the later part of the 1960's Larry Roberts had
been brought to IPTO by Robert Taylor. Roberts spearheaded 
the developments at ARPA that would make it possible to create
the ARPANET as an early and outstanding example of packet switching
technology and that would make a new form of computer and communications
possible.

The marriage of computers and communication by the early 1970s had
countries and researchers around the world excited about the potential
of computer networking.

The ICCC'72 conference in Washington DC not only was the event
that demonstrated packet switching would work to those who
attended from around the world. The conference was also an 
interdisciplinary event with papers from researchers around the world. 
A number of those present realized that the significant developments 
in computers and in communications on their own would bring great change 
to the world. But the marriage of these developments would prove to be
an especially important development.

Among those at the conference, some predicted that computer networking
developments would challenge government officials and all other 
institutions of society to make the promise they held possible. 
And they questioned whether the public would indeed benefit from 
these important developments or would only those already with the power
benefit?

Countries around the world were planning computer networks. Would
it be possible to have these different networks interconnect?

After the 1972 conference, Bob Kahn, was among those researchers
thinking about the problem of interconnecting computer networks or
the Multiple Networking problem that it was then called. Working with
Vint Cerf, they took on to propose a philosophy and a design for a 
way to solve the problem of linking up diverse packet switching 
networks, without interferring with the technology of those networks. 
The philosophy was open architecture.

Working to create a protocol that would make an Internet
possible, Kahn and Cerf drafted their paper describing a new
protocol for Internetworking, for the creation of a protocol that
would be called Transport Control Protocol, or TCP (and evenually
TCP/IP). The ideas for the new protocol were presented at a meeting
in Sussex England to a group of researchers working on networking
problems in Fall of 1973. And their paper describing TCP was
published in May 1974.

Kahn went ahead and created an internetting project at IPTO,
by exploring how to link up a ground packet radio network and 
a satellite packet switching network with the ARPANET so they
could all share resources.

By 1975 he had connected them in a way to know that they would
work, and by 1977 IPTO conducted a demonstrations of the TCP
implementations that had been developed and a demonstration 
of internetworking showed it was possible to send packets 
to Great Britain and Norway and back to the US using the ground
packet radio network, the satellite packet switching network and 
the ARPANET.

By January 1983 there was a cutover to TCP/IP on the ARPANET. Actually 
the cutover took a bit of time to carry out, but by October 1983
it was possible to split the ARPANET, into the MILNET and the ARPANET
networks and to have communication made possible across this
early internet.

Also by 1983 there had been a linking up of the ARPANET mailing
lists with some Usenet newsgroups.

In the mid 1980s there were Unix user groups around Europe
using UUCP and Usenet to explore email and online discussions.

And the Internet began to make communication possible among
these diverse networks of users.

By 1992 there were users around the world connecting to the 
Internet.  And online research exploring the experiences of 
those users showed that a new social form was emerging online, 
the social form of the Netizen. That there were people who 
participated in the resource sharing that the Internet made 
possible, and they were finding that there was a vibrant and 
exciting new online community that was being developed. And 
they took on to make this new online means of communication 
available to others so they could benefit and contribute to it.

Much has happened in the past 8 years, much that has spread 
this new medium of global communication around the world, and 
much that has shown that the new medium has some who don't 
understand its nature or the vision that has given it birth.
There are some who are out to try to limit who benefits to 
those who feel that their money or power should give them 
special privileges to determine what the future of the Internet 
will be. But there are also those who are trying to carrying
out the original vision of pioneers like JCR Licklider and Robert
Taylor that access to the Internet should be a right for all
not a privilege for the few.

A contest is being waged. A contest that is tugging at the 
essence of the Internet. One manifestation of the contest has
been the efforts by the U.S. government to try to turn over
the publicly developed and important essential functions of
the Internet like its protocol creation and development process,
its domain name and numbering system and its root server system
to a private corporation that has been created by the U.S. 
government. This would take away the public protection that
is so important for these essential functions that can give
controlling power over the Internet to those who are able to
control this private corporation. And as one would expect there
is a fierce battle on trying to seize such power by those who
feel their gain is more important than the health and well 
being of the Internet and the global community it has created.

There have been other contests in the developing life of the 
Internet. Some of these contests included the passage by 
the U.S. Congress of the Communications Decency Act (CDA)
which would have limited the right of people to the global
communication that the Internet makes possible under the 
guise that adults are to be limited to what might be appropriate
to children. Online discussion and protest along with a lawsuit
led to a court decision overturning the CDA and affirming the 
right of people online to participate in the global conversation
that is so precious and that the Internet has brought into the 
world.

There are many other examples of challenges to the Internet that
have developed and many other examples of how those online who
recognized the importance of the Internet and the communication
it makes possible have been able to take on the challenges so
that the Internet could continue to grow and flourish.

What will be the future for the Internet and for the Netizen
in this new millennium?

The Internet and the Netizen are indeed some of what is
important that has been developed over the past few decades
that are prologue to the upcoming new millennium.

What will the new millennium bring? How will the contest continue
to unfold?

A herald of the future is a conference I was invited to in 
Tampere, Finland in early December. The conference was on the 
topic of the role of the citizen in the coming new millennium.
It was called citizen2000 and was sponsored by the European 
Union. (http://www.citizen2000.net) The seminar I was invited
to participate in explored how the Internet can make possible
new means of participation in the affairs of government for
the citizen. The researchers who made presentations all were
exploring what was actually possible with the new medium, and 
what were the benefits and the problems. 

If the Internet is to grow and flourish there may well be a 
necessity to explore how to increase the role of citizens in 
determining what will be the role that government will play 
in the future development of the Internet.
 
It was quite special to see this research issue being recognized
as important and explored at the citizen2000 conference in Finland.

Below is the description of the seminar that was held in Tampere,
Finland in early December.

I wonder what others thoughts are as we enter this new millennium
with respect to the important developments we are bringing with
us from the past millennium and the challenges we will face in the 
next.

Ronda

Following is the description of the seminar held as part of the 
EU Citizens' Agenda NGO-forum 2000 in Finland, December 4th.

           E3. Civic Participation, Virtual Democracy and the Net
                                      
   What are the possibilities for more intensive democracy and
   participation while utilising internet and other new technologies? How
   can the internet facilitate local democracy? Finnish NGOs,
   Tampere-foorumi, Tampere Technology Centre
   Tampere Hall, VIP-room
   Languages: English
   
   A Digital Neighbourhood? The Vision of the Netizens? Public Sphere? If
   you are anxious to know more about these issues, take a closer view of
   the thematical seminar 'Civic Participation, Virtual Democracy and the
   Net'.
   
   In this seminar the matter in hand is the social impact of the so
   called information society. We will bring up for example the question
   of how one can encourage civic participation and create an active net
   community. We will also discuss the practices of virtual democracy and
   the problem of access.
   
   The seminar includes seven presentations and a panel discussion. In
   addition, there will be an interactive exhibition - a place where
   different kinds of net projects give food for thought.
   
   Speakers and their subjects
   
   Myrna J. Alejo:
   Information Technology and the Production of Democratic Ethos: the
   Philippine Case
   - How the uneven penetration of information technology affects the
   nature of "public sphere" in the Philippines; and how the philippine
   civil society is dealing with the problem of access.
   
   Ronda Hauben:
   Is the Internet a Laboratory for Democracy? The Vision of the Netizens
   vrs The E-Commerce Agenda
   - Why it is important for Netizens to participate in the contest being
   waged (as for instance: ICANN) over which strata of society will gain
   the benefit of the Internet and how the Internet provides the means
   for such participation.
   
   Steven Lenos:
   Networking for democracy: the digital future?
   - How organisations can use the Internet for (international)
   networking and how they are able to organise succesfull digital public
   debats.
   
   Jari Sepp
   Net participation - what can the City offer?
   
   - 10 years experience of work as a news repotrer in local newspapers
   and national tv-news
   
   - 12 years Head of Information of the City of Tampere, Finland
   
   He has acted as the chairman for two committees founded by the
   Association of Finnish Local Authorities, one creating the good
   practise for municipal information and the other one guidelines for
   municipal services presented over the Internet.
   
   In his presentation he will introduce some practical examples how the
   City of Tampere has developed civic participation via the Internet. We
   will hear how the Internet enables plan presentation, dialogue and
   lobbying, combined into the visual and functional opportunities
   provided by new media.
   
   Aija Staffans:
   Netted but not trapped. Local stakeholders on a digital neighbourhood
   forum constructing urban knowledge and planning
   
   - The main issue is whether a digital neighbourhood forum is able to
   bring together the municipality and local stakeholders (like
   inhabitants, citizen organizations, schools, kindergardens,
   shopkeepers etc.) in order to develop urban environment
   
   Lasse Peltonen & Seija Ridell:
   Citizen forums, virtual publicness and practices of local democracy:
   - The case of Tampere-foorumi (Lasse Peltonen)
   - Tampere-foorumi on the net (Seija Ridell)
   - The main issue is to describe the attempts, achievements and
   obstacles met by one local civic group in organizing opportunities for
   public interaction and dialogue - both in 'real life' and on the net -
   between city officials, politicians, economic actors and ordinary
   citizens.
   
   Civic Participation, Virtual Democracy and the Net


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