Celebrate 20th Anniversary of "Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet" (en)

Ronda Hauben, Jay Hauben In 1993 Michael Hauben recognized that
along with the Internet there had emerged the netizen. He observed
that the netizen was not all users, but the online user who
recognized the empowerment the Net made possible and who sought to
utilize this empowerment to contribute to the Net and the bigger
world it was part of. This May marks the 20th anniversary of the
print edition of Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and
the Internet. The book was first published online and then in a
print edition in English and in a Japanese translation. We want to
mark this occasion by a presentation celebrating the milestone the
book represents. While there are many publications exploring the
social impact of the Internet, it was and continues to be rare for
a book or other publication to document and make the case for the
importance of recognizing the social impact of the Net and
Netizens. Our presentation will explore the historic and scientific
roots of the phenomenon, the early vision, the research that led to
the recognition of the emergence of the netizens and the continuing
development of both the theory and practice of netizens and
netizenship. Several names stand out in the history of this
achievement. Among these are JCR Licklider for the guiding vision,
Michael Hauben for the pioneering research and scientific insight
for recognizing that along with the Internet had emerged the
Netizen, and Mark Poster's work realizing that the netizen could be
the social force waging a successful struggle against the harmful
effects of globalization. The netizens have carried forward the
torch so the Internet can continue to evolve and thrive.
Particularly, the contributions of the South Korean and Chinese
netizens have turned the concept of netizens into a national
laboratory for democracy. We plan two informative presentations.
One presentation will include a case study of the candlelight
revolution by citizens and netizens in South Korea which
demonstrates in practice the efforts toward forging a new
governance model for participatory democracy. The second will argue
that netizens are having a sustained impact and are contributing to
developing Chinese society in the direction of greater citizen
participation. There will be time for comments, contributions and
discussion by those joining us for the presentation. Leif Kramp has
written about re:publica, "Every May, Berlin transforms into the
European capital of 'netizens'." What more fitting venue to mark
the 20th anniversary of the print edition of Netizens than in
Berlin as part of re:publica 2017. Come celebrate this 20th
Anniversary with us.