From: hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben)
Subject: [Part 1 of 4] Amateur Computerist Usenet Supplement
Followup-To: alt.amateur-comp
Summary: The Wonderful World of Usenet News
Keywords: Usenet News Amateur Computerist DemocracyTechnology
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 01:36:33 GMT

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|   Supplement       The Wonderful World of Usenet News       FALL 1992   |
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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.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Michael Hauben    CC '95      | Write ME for the NEW Amateur Computerist   |
| hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu | Special Supplement on Usenet News called   |
| am893@cleveland.freenet.edu   | "The Wonderful World of Usenet News"       |
Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp,comp.org.eff.talk,soc.culture.usa,alt.activism