The Network Observer

THE NETWORK OBSERVER

The Network Observer (TNO) is a free on-line newsletter about networks and democracy edited by Phil Agre. It appeared monthly from January 1994 to July 1996.

For what it's worth, I have channeled some of the energy that formerly went into TNO into a series of notes to my mailing list, the Red Rock Eater News Service.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions about The Network Observer.

Back issues, month by month.

Here are pointers to some of the more popular articles:

Articles about how to use the net:

Action alerts. (ten hints for political alerts that work)
The art of getting help. (asking for information on the net)
Designing genres for new media. (understanding media as part of life)
How to help someone use a computer. (helping people without oppressing them)
How to run an on-line newsletter. (lessons from running TNO)
The Internet as a commons. (preserving the positive culture of the net)
Networking and democracy. (teaching advanced social skills)
New things to do with the net. (filtering lists and other experiments)
Rethinking hyperlinking. (the Wall Street Journal as good Web design)
Starting a filter list. (lessons from the Red Rock Eater)

Articles about the net community by guest authors:

In defense of progress(ives). by Joe Costello
The global information infrastructure as a digital library. by Christine Borgman
The Beginning Teachers Computer Network. by Jonathan Grudin
Electronic networking and democracy. by Barbara Welling Hall
Universal access and Free-Nets. by Peter Harter
Empowering the consumer: The BBN Auto Mechanics List. by Rich Lethin
The role of e-mail in democratic decision-making. by Arun Mehta
Building the NII from the bottom up. by Steve Miller
How to kill community networks. by Doug Schuler
Canadian Community Networks Conference. by Leslie Regan Shade
What's happening up north, eh? by Leslie Regan Shade
Missing records. by Sam Sternberg
VWAR-L as a network community. by Kali Tal
Who will we be in cyberspace? by Langdon Winner
The net gives new life to journalism. by Marsha Woodbury
Creating an efficient market on the WorldWide Web. by Ramin Zabih

Articles about the net community by the editor:

Building community networks. (how communities take hold of networking)
Chain letters bad and good. (publicity stunts and urban myths)
Community and democracy. (the associational basis of democracy)
Cyberspace turned inside out. (the "frontier" metaphor and communities)
The ethics of headers. (e-mail as a social action)
Internet heat death. (pathologies of e-mail discussion lists)
The Internet public sphere: A case study. (when action alerts go wrong)
Is the net a wilderness or a library? (metaphors of exploring the net)
Net games. (personal responsibility and aggression on the net)
Public relations on the Internet. (manipulation doesn't work any more)
Stealth spam. (the new wave of Internet junk mail)

Articles about privacy:

Even more bad privacy arguments. (38 arguments rebutted)
Further thoughts on the Oklahoma City bombing. (privacy's new alliances)
More bogus privacy arguments. (protecting privacy by arguing back)
The new politics of technology in the US. (liberals and libertarians on the net)
Orwellian privacy. (George Gilder redefines data collection as privacy protection)
Privacy and authoritarian culture. (fallacious arguments about reputation)
Privacy and computer-mediated activity. (automated tracking of human activities)
Some strange ideas about privacy. (dubious arguments I've heard lately)
Thinking about privacy in Intelligent Transportation Systems. (the need for anonymity)
Your Personal Message Environment. (targeted communications in the future)

Articles about the politics of technology:

Augmented reality and augmented fantasy. (magical thinking in HCI)
Bowling for democracy. (social networks and civil society)
Bibliography on the economics of standards. (beyond supply and demand)
Computer science is dead. (bridges between computer science and the social world)
Computing and the people. (how people are shaping computers)
The conservative revolution. (the infrastructure of political movements)
The end of information and the future of libraries. (from librarians to communitarians)
The epidemiology of Unix. (the UNIX-HATERS mailing list)
Free means free. (debating public information services)
The future of network politics. (The Progress and Freedom Foundation)
The Internet meets the Constitution. (social organization of information use)
Libraries and communities. (digital libraries for individual and collective cognition)
New roles for user groups. (sociology of computing knowledge)
The NII and workplaces. (information technology and global industry)
Notes on the industrial organization of public debate. (think tanks, public relations, etc)
Outsourcing and you. (information technology and business restructuring)
The political value of the Internet. (where the Communications Decency Act came from)
Science fiction and social choice. (a dystopian view of the labor market)
Ties That Bind. (ideas about community networking)
The wireless consumers' movement. (Consumer Reports on your PDA)

Click here for an index of recommended books.

Recommended periodicals:

Companies of the month:

Action Technologies (workflow systems)
Amazon.com Books (booksellers on the Web)
Amtech (automatic toll collection using digital cash)
Audio Adventures (books-on-tape on US interstate highways)
CDB Infotek (pre-employment background checks)
DataCenter (clipping service for political activists)
R R Donnelley Information Services (direct marketing services)
E-Lab (qualitative market research)
Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) (commercial networking)
Equifax (consumer credit information)
Metasystems Design Group (organizational consulting)
New Society Publishers (how-to books on democracy)
PeerLogic (middleware for global networking)
PR Newswire (press release distribution)
Rochelle Communications (caller-id systems for PC's)
Savi Technology (radio-frequency tracking devices)

The opinions expressed in TNO are solely those of the editor, or of the guest authors whose names are signed to their articles. They do not reflect the policies of the University of California or any other organization.

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