Thanks for your good thoughts for the New Year. The holiday season is a time for optimism, and I've been trying to be optimistic. But from where I sit it looks to me like short-sightedness, selfishness, and crafty aboriginal greed have gotten the upper hand. The INTA is going to rig the DNSO, WIPO will decide who can have a domain name, and almost no one can remember any longer what a democratic process is, much less apply it to themselves. There may not be a very Happy New Year, I'm afraid, at least not for the Internet. There may be no New Year at all, just many millions of new years, one for each person sitting alone in his or her dark room receiving spam and ads for junk, sent from corporate addresses behind firewalls, by the Leaders of Industry and E-Commerce, to citizens whose life histories are in their files. I think we're in big trouble. Ronda Hauben a �crit: > > Some thoughts for the new year that I welcome comments on. > > I have been reading a book of the conference proceedings of AFIPS in > 1970 about the Information Utility and Social Choice. > > The conference had a keynote by J.C.R. Licklider and talks by a > number of other people including Harold Sackman, Irving S. Beglesdorf, > Harold Borko, etc. > > I have been impressed to see the fact that there seems to have > been a vision of how there would develop a network of networks > either for increasing democratic participation by citizens in their > societies and for increasing communication and interaction or for > hoarding knowledge and toward creating totalitarian > control. > > And that it would have to be administered in the same way that > the development of the network had been created, i.e. through > the experimental processes guided by computer science methodology > and by a social vision and practice. > > For example J.C.R. Licklider recognized that there there > would be a point reached where there was a switch that could > go in either a social direction whereby the developing network > would be directed toward fostering human-to-human communication > and toward people being encouraged to interact with computers > and information, or a downward direction where the network > would encourage people to be passive and to just be the passive > recipients of data from the developing network. > > Harold Borko urged that as "as scientists and as human beings > we have the responsibility for guiding the products of our science > in socially desirable directions." And he urged that the computer > utility that was being developed be an instrument for sharing > scientific achievements and improved democratic participation, > rather than for hoarding knowledge or toward creating totalitarian > control. > > H. Sackman proposed that "no one has faced up to the problem of > social information on a regulated public utility." He maintained > that manufacturers and the industry didn't have any guidance > as to "what the public wants nor what the public needs." And > that "if immediate profits are the supreme end of all social > planning because no other serious contenders arise, then the > information utility could end up as the most barren wasteland > of them all." > > Instead he proposed that computers were revolutionizing science, > particularly the method and findings of science. > > He proposed "That suggested resolution looks toward an > evolving universalization of science, nourished by global > information utilities within a framework of increasing > international cooperation." > > He urged that the public interest be kept in mind as there > be an effort to figure out how to provide the kind of > scientific oversight to the developing computer information > utility. He proposed utilizing scientific design and test > methodologies to do this, much as the work in developing > computer technology utilized these scientific processes. > > These are just short notes about three of the talks at this > interesting conference that took place in 1970, just as > the research on the ARPANET was in its earliest days. > > And yet there was a vision that a network of networks would > develop and that there would be a need to apply the same > kind of scientific methodology that was used to create > the network to its development and toward having it serve > people's needs and interests. > > There seemed a commitment to expanding communication among > people and interactive participation of people rather than > to creating passive processes that would mimic the worst > of the old world. > > I wondered if anyone has an idea of what has happened to > this vision and this commitment? > > The recent events in the U.S. to privatize various aspects > of the Internet show no understanding of this social vision > or of the commitment to applying scientific processes to > the development of the future computer utility, which we today > call the Internet. > > Has this vision gotten lost? > > I was surprised to find it expressed so strongly in the presentations > of several of the participants in this 1970 conference. > > Is there a way to bring this vision and the methodology back into > the heart of the development of the network of networks? > > If so, perhaps there is a way that can be found for the plans > by the U.S. govt to change the management structure of the essential > functions of the Internet to reflect something that is scientific, > based on increasing communication, and in spreading the Internet, > rather than the legalistic, secretive and exclusive view of turning > the Internet into a commercenet that currently is governing the > way that the ICANN folks and those who seem to be designing its > structure are functioning. > > We are entering a new year, and a year that is the prelude to > welcoming in of a new millenium. It is important that we take the > future seriously and try to figure out how to make it one we > choose rather than one that is given to us by those who have > no vision and no concern the advantages that increased > communication among those around the world will bring to all > aspects of society. > > Comments, disagreements, and any other variety of response welcome > to help to properly celebrate the coming of a new year > on the Internet :-) > > Ronda > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > P.S. The book is "The Information Utility and Social Choice", > papers prepared for a conference sponsored jointly by > The University of Chicago, Encyclopedia Britannica and > The American Federation of Information Processing Societies. > It is edited by H. Sackman and Norman Nie. > > Netizens: On the History and Impact > of Usenet and the Internet > http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook > also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 __________________________________________________ To receive the digest version instead, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE forward this message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNSUBSCRIBE, forward this message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Problems/suggestions regarding this list? Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___END____________________________________________
