[Air-l] May 1 and Netizens

[Jay Hauben]

This year, 2003 is the 10th anniversary of the posting on Usenet of
"The Net and the Netizen" by Michael Hauben. This research paper
introduced the concept of Netizen online and it has since spread
around the world.

An interesting concentration of the concept of Netizen recently appeared
in a paper that is online. Describing e-democracy, the author, Boldur Barbat
writes:

   "To prove it, just some opinions of genuine netizens -- in fact, from
    the author who coined the term: Michael Hauben (Hauben and Hauben, 1997):
    Scrutinising the effect of the Net upon the future of politics, the
    'ascendancy of the Commons' can be anticipated by reason of the new
    technologies presenting 'the chance to overcome the obstacles
    preventing the implementation of direct democracy'. The last
    chapter -- perhaps the banner of their entire book: 'The Computer
    as a Democratizer' -- claims that the 'step toward universally
    available and affordable access' and "uncensored accessible press"
    demonstrate that 'it is now possible to meet more of Mill's
    requirements for democracy'. Extending a bit the horizon, the author's
    defend also Hume's observation that 'arte' leads to intellectual
    ferment, and, in turn, this ferment 'is the needed support for the
    development of technology'. Such a flavour acts, in the netizens age
    as a catalyst for IT."
                        from "Users in Front of ICT's. Facing the Interface"

Today, May 1, 2003 would be Michael's birthday. In honor of his
birthday we want to announce a special issue of the Amateur
Computerist on "Netizens Then and Now". The url for the issue is

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-2.pdf


We welcome comments on the concept of netizen as it has developed in
the past 10 years.

with best wishes

Ronda