The International and Scientific Origins of the Internet and the Emergence of the Netizen

1
The International and Scientific Origins of the
Internet andthe Emergence of the Netizen

• Ronda Hauben
• ronda_at_panix.com

2

• WSIS

3
The International and Scientific Origins of the
Internet andthe Emergence of the Netizen

• Ronda Hauben
• ronda_at_panix.com

4
The Myth

• Internet was created within the US by the US
  Department of Defense as a way to have a
  communication system that would survive a nuclear
  war

5
The Realities

• The Internet is a result of scientific and
  technical collaboration that was international in
  its earliest stages
• There was a vision guiding and inspiring its
  international collaborative development
• The Internet is a solution to the Multiple
  Network Problem - to connect dissimilar networks

6
Multiple Networks Problem

• NPL (National Physical Laboratories) U.K.
• ARPANET - USA
• CYCLADES - France

7
International TCP/IP Research
US Norway UK
8
Josiah Macy Jr Conferences on Cybernetics
Ten conferences 1942-1953
9
1915-1990
10
In June 1954 the Conference on Problems in Human
Communication and Control sponsored by the
Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology brought together experimental
psychologists, physicists, engineers, and
mathematicians for discussion of Mutual
benefit.
11
Lickliders PhD thesis An Electrical
Investigation of The Frequency-Localization in
the Auditory Cortex of the Cat
12
Licklider and Taylor wrote about modeling
By far the most numerous, most sophisticated
and most important models are those that reside
in men's minds.
The Computer as a Communications Device
13
Sutherlands Sketchpad
14
Sketchpad - being able to change complex
sketches and to see the effects on other aspects
of a complex model.
15
Individual mental model

• "In richness, plasticity, facility and economy,
• the mental model has no peer, but in other
• respects it has shortcomings."

16
Short comings of the individual mental model

• It can be observed and manipulated only by one
  person
• Society rightly distrusts the modeling done by a
  single mind

17
Cooperative modeling

• Individual models can be compared and brought
  into some degree of accord.
• Cooperation in the construction, maintenance and
  use of a model
• A plastic or moldable medium that can be modeled,
  a dynamic medium in which processes will flow
  into consequences
• A common medium that can be contributed to and
  experimented with by all

18
Sir Charles Percy Snow
Brownian Motion
19
Something like Brownian Motion

• All kinds of people all over the place suddenly
  get smitten with the same sort of desire, with
  the same sort of interest at the same time.
• This forms a concentration of pressure and of
  direction.
• These concentrations of pressure gradually filter
  their way through to the people whose nominal
  responsibility it is to put the legislation into
  a written form.

20
Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)
1962-1986 JCR Licklider Ivan Sutherland Bob
Taylor Larry Roberts JCR Licklider . . . Robert
Kahn . . . Saul Amarel
JCR Licklider
21
Voting in the absence of understanding defines
only the public attitude, not the public
interest.
22
To determine the public interest

• Many public spirited individuals must study,
  model, analyze, argue, write, criticize, and work
  out each issue and each problem until they reach
  consensus or determine that none can be reached
• Only then may there be the reason to vote

23
Computer power to the people is essential to
the realization of a future in which most
citizens are informed about, and interested in,
the process of government .
24
The concept of net.citizen or netizen to
identify and describe the emergence of Netizens
The Net and the Netizens The Impact the Net has
on Peoples Lives
Michael Hauben, July 6, 1993
25
Netizens They are people who understand it
takes effort and action on each and everyone's
part to make the Net a regenerative and vibrant
community and resource. Netizens are people who
decide to devote time and effort into making the
Net, this new part of our world, a better
place. Michael
Hauben, 1995
26
(No Transcript)
27
Netizens participate to help make the Net both
an intellectual and a social resource.
Michael Hauben Further Thoughts about Netizens
28
Tunis November 2005
There is a need for an appropriate model for
the management of the Internets international
infrastructure
29
Conclusion

• The online plastic, collaborative process which
  makes possible interactive modeling is a helpful
  analogy for the positive nature of the Internet
• The social consciousness of users as netizens has
  evolved and spread as the Internet has evolved
  and spread

30
Netizens participate to help make the Net both
an intellectual and a social resource.