From: ae547@yfn.ysu.edu (Ronda Hauben)
Subject: In Defense of Technology(PtII)-Usenet News(Updated Draft for Comment)
Reply-To: ae547@yfn.ysu.edu (Ronda Hauben)
Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 18:12:02 GMT


  Thanks to all of those who responded both in this newsgroup and via
email to the request for comments on the earlier draft of this article.
The comments were helpful in clarifying several issues that I realize
I had some confusion about. I have tried to incorporate that discussion
into this updated draft. I fell a bit behind in responding to some
of the issues raised, and realize that that was a problem as it would have
been helpful to have had the discussion over the differences that 
were raised.


  I am posting this updated draft so that those interested can see 
the changes made - and I again invite any comments, preferably via
this newsgroup, but email is fine as well, on differences that still 
exist, questions, discussion of the issues raised by this article, etc.

  Also, I want to particularly thank those who have filled in some of the 
background about the history of usenet news via their articles, posts
on the net etc. Hopefully this article will be an encouragement for that
history to be documented and made available more broadly.

                       Part II - 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 electronic mail (i.e. email) 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 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 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 connected 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 elecronically 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 network was 
made possible as a result of the capabilities built into the UNIX 
operating system and its networking capacity known as UUCP. (i.e. 
UNIX to UNIX Copy Protocol) Now, however, this netnews network 
involves most of the great variety of computers and operating 
systems in use today. This network traffic is carried on a 
variety of networks including the InterNet and UUCP.
 
     USENET News is estimated to involve 3,000,000 users world 
wide. 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 computers together to exchange 
information within the UNIX community.(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. The software was gotten to work at these 
three "original sites".  This version of NetNews software, called 
"A" version, was then 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 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. Steve 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 led Henry Spencer and Geoff Collyer at the 
University of Toronto to set to work on what is now known as "C" 
News. Spencer and Collyer paid very careful attention to 
performance aspects of "C" News with the result that it has to 
date been able to handle the phenomenal expansion of USENET New 
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 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 adminstrators 
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, at the start of "the net" in 1980.(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 which at one point were known as USENET news. Some 
have defined USENET 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
as those sites that receive at least one of the newsgroups that 
appears on the list of USENET Newsgroups. There is also an alt 
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 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 
particularly interested in discussions involving economics and 
the history of economic thought. When I first got onto USENET 
News I couldn't quite 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: au329@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (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  au329@cleveland.freenet.edu
     
     One of the many responses I received said:
 
     "Start discussing on sci.econ.  We're all ears."(15)
 
     I received several other responses via email also pointing 
me to the sci.econ newsgroup or indicating interest in the topic. 
Also, a computer user from California sent me email 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 Network Etiquette 
(commonly called NETIQUETTE on the net) to help newusers 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 a while until I got used 
to the news before trying to initiate a group, or else try to get 
a user with more experience to be helpful.
 
     The list of newsgroups posted on USENET 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," p. 248)
 
     I have found that the discussions in this newsgroup are 
valuable. There are often debates over important economic 
questions. Many of the questions being discussed have to do with 
broad social issues -- for example with wage slavery or the 
development of different social forms of society, whether 
economics is a science, whether to so called "free market" has 
ever existed to regulate production, etc. There has also been 
discussion of a variety of economic and political issues - like 
social security, rent control, strikes in Germany, the need for 
shorter hours of work, the GM plant closures, taxes, the economic 
programs of presidental 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, 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 email 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 email 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 this difficulty 
and others 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 develpment and working 
out of the content and form of the network. Many people send 
email 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 knowledgable through the process of democratic 
discussion and debate.
    
     USENET 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 what is 
known as Network Etiquette (i.e. 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 are strictly limited and circumscribed 
because of the public funds being expended for the development of 
the NSFNet (the backbone of the InterNet), one of the main 
networks which carries Usenet traffic.(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 
advances and also facilitate the development of technological 
labor saving breakthroughs (`arte'). Also, on the net, the 
participants gain from being active and from helping each other. 
People who post or send email are contributors to the culture and 
all gain from each other's active efforts. A vibrant and 
informative bottom up, 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 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 develop. The study of 
economic writers who discuss the importance of 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 represents 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, however, this communication among 
people and computers is accomplished via a high degree of 
automation. By participating in USENET 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 makes it possible 
for people to print up their own copies of what is available 
online, without wasting 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                         
                                   ae547@yfn.ysu.edu
Notes
(1)See "Interview with Staff member," "The Amateur Computerist", 
vol 4, no 2/3, p. 10.
 
(2) from Unix Communications, by Bart Anderson, Brian Costales, 
and Hart Henderson, Indiana, 1991, p. 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)Gene and Greg place the introduction of Usenet software on the 
Usenix conference tape in January 1980 at the winter meeting in 
January 1980.Greg's account places the meeting in Toronto, 
Canada. Henry Spencer, another early pioneer of USENET, and 
one of the programmers of "C News"  places the introduction at a 
Usenix meeting held in the U.S. later in 1980.
 
(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. However, Greg notes this 
concern while emphasizing 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 
Technical Reports.
 
(12)Woodbury's article "Net Cultural Assumptions" describes how 
the `public domain assumption' changed when the US govt revised 
its copyright law and became a Berne signatory in the late 
1980's. The implications of this change have been debated on 
Usenet in the last year.
 
(13) But whether the new newsgroup will be carried has 
traditionally depended upon the system administrators of the 
largest systems and the new groups inclusion in the list of 
newsgroups. 
 
(14)Per conversation in August, 1992 with Henry Spencer about the 
early days of the net.
 
(15)Per email 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 posed 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 intimidate people who 
posting 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 funds. 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 that 
is being challenged now by the growing commercial use of networks 
like MichNet in Michigan which is opening up access to commercial 
traffic endangering the development and social 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. And some corporations use USENET for 
their research and educational functions, but run a separate 
private net alongside of their USENET operation for their 
commercial purposes.
 
19) A system of Freenets, including Cleveland Freenet and 
Youngstown Freenet in Ohio, USA, Ottawa Freenet in Canada, etc. 
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) p. 56.
 
Special thanks to the many people on USENET who commented on this 
article in its various draft stages for their helpful comments 
and criticisms.
-- 
Ronda Hauben                    email address:ae547@yfn.ysu.edu
Amateur Computerist Newsletter              or
P.O. Box 4344                   rhauben@heartland.bradley.edu
Dearborn, MI 48126