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The Social Forces Behind
the Development of Usenet News
By Michael Hauben
Right at this moment someplace in the world, someone is
being helpful (or someone is being helpful.) At the same time,
others are participating in various discussions and debates. A
new communications medium is currently in its infancy. Over the
past two decades the global computer telecommunications network
has been developing. One element of this network is called Usenet
News (also known as Net News), and this service's original
carrier was called UUCPnet (or just UUCP). The rawest principle
of Usenet News is its importance. In its simplest form, Usenet
News represents democracy. The basic unit of Usenet News is a
post. Each individual post consists of a unique contribution from
some user placed in a subject area, called a newsgroup. In
Usenet's very beginning (and to some extent today) posts were
transferred using Unix's UUCP utility. This utility allows the
use of phone lines to transmit computer data among separate
computers. The network (UUCPnet) that Usenet News was transferred
on grew from the ground up in a grassroots manner. There was no
official structure originally. Three sites on the network in 1979
expanded to 15 in 1980, 150 in 1981, and 400 in 1982. The very
nature of Usenet is communication. Usenet News greatly facili-
tates inter-human communication among a large group of users.
Inherent in most mass media has always been central control
of content. Many people are influenced by the decisions of a few.
Television Programming, for example, is controlled by a small
group of people compared to the size of the audience. In this
way, the audience has very little choice over what is emphasized
by most mass media. However, Usenet News is controlled by its
audience. Most of the material written to Usenet is by the same
people who actively read Usenet. Thus, the people decide the
content and subject matter to be thought about, presented and
debated. The ideas that exist on Usenet come from the mass of
people who participate in it. Instead of being force-fed by an
uncontrollable source of information, people set the tone and
emphasis on Usenet. People control what happens on Usenet. In
this rare situation, issues and concerns that are of interest and
thus important to the participants are brought up. In the tradi-
tion of Amateur Radio and CB, Usenet News is owned and controlled
solely by the participants. Currently the range of connectivity
is international and quickly expanding allowing the ability to
communicate with people around the world quickly.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Depart-
ment of Defense laid the ground for UUCPnet and other computer
networks. ARPA conducted an experiment in attempting to connect
incompatible mainframe computers in the late 1960s.(1) It was
called the ARPA Computer Network (ARPANET). ARPA stated objec-
tives were:
"1) To develop techniques and obtain experience on inter-
connecting computers in such a way that a very broad class
of interactions were possible and
2) To improve and increase computer research productivity
through resource sharing." (2)
ARPA was conducting communications research and trying to study
how to conserve funds by avoiding duplication of computer re-
sources.(3) A Cambridge, Mass. company, Bolt Beranek and Newman
Inc. (BBN), was chosen to construct the network, and AT&T was
chosen to provide the communications lines. ARPAnet was needed
because it was found that a data connection over existing tele-
phone voice lines was too slow and not reliable enough in order
to have a useful connection.(4) Packet-switching was developed
for use as the protocol of exchanging information over the lines.
Packet-Switching is a communications process in which all messag-
es are broken up into equal size packets which are transmitted
and then re-assembled. In this way, short, medium and long
messages get transferred with minimum delay.(5)
The ARPANET was a success. ARPA provided several advances to
communications research. ARPANET researchers were surprised at
the enthusiastic adoption of electronic mail (e-mail) as the
primary source of communication after its introduction. E-mail
was the first source of major productivity increase through use
of ARPAnet resource sharing.(6) By 1983, the ARPANET officially
shifted from using NCP (Network Control Protocol) to TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.) A key point
to TCP/IP's success is in its simplicity. It is very easy to
implement over various platforms, and this simplicity has ac-
counted for its continued existence as a defacto standard of the
Internet up to today. ARPANET's lasting contribution was demon-
strating how a back-bone infrastructure can serve as a connection
between gateways. A gateway is a computer or part of a computer
programmed to receive messages from one network and transfer them
onto another network.
ARPANET grew quickly to more than 50 nodes between Hawaii to
Norway.(7) However, it did not extend to all who could utilize
it. Computer Scientists at universities without ARPA contracts
noticed the advantages and petitioned the National Science
Foundation (NSF) for similar connectivity. CSNET was formed to
service these scientists. CSNET was initially financed by the
NSF. Very quickly the desire for interconnection spread to other
members of the university community and CSNET became known as
"Computer 'and' Science Network" rather than just "Computer
Science network."(8)
ARPAnet was phased out by the Defense Department, and was
replaced by various internal networks. The role of connecting
university communities and regional networks was taken over by a
NSF funded NSFNET, which originated as a connection for universi-
ty researchers to the five National Supercomputer Centers. CSNET
and NSFNET were made possible by the research on ARPANET.
ARPANET research was pioneering for communications research.
Researchers discovered the link between computer inter-connection
and increased productivity of human communication. The sharing of
resources was discovered to save money and increase computer use
and productivity. The development of packet-switching revolution-
ized the basic methodology of connecting computers. The source of
these discoveries were the people involved.
The personnel involved in the ARPANET project were very
intelligent and forward-looking. They recognized their position
of developing future technologies, and thus did not develop
products that commercial industry could (and would) develop.
Instead they understood that the communications technologies they
were developing had to come from a forward-looking body. ARPA
researchers had no proprietary products to support, and no dead-
lines to meet. Either would have tainted, or made networks of
incompatible computers impossible to produce. Current users of
international computer networks are in debt to the people of
ARPANET.
So ARPANET was successful in its attempt to connect various
spatially far-apart computers, and thus the people who used them.
However, these people were professors at Universities that had
Department of Defense research grants. Eventually other Universi-
ties connected through CSNet, NSFNET, BITnet and other developing
connections. There were still a mass of people who wanted a
connection, but were not in a position to gain one. Duke and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were two such loca-
tions. It was in these unprivileged fertile grounds where the
grass-roots computer communication of Usenet originated and
developed.
The UNIX operating system provided the basic tools needed to
share information between computers. Unix(10) was developed as "a
system around which a fellowship would form."(11) One of the
programmers of Unix, Dennis Ritchie, wrote the intended purpose
of Unix was to "encourage close communication."(12) Unix's
purpose thus conceptually foreshadowed the basic tenet of Usenet
News. How else should one go about designing communications pro-
grams, but on an operating system which was designed with a basic
principle of encouraging communication? The Unix utility UUCP
(i.e., Unix-to-Unix CoPy) was introduced in 1977 with version 7
of the Unix Time Sharing System. UUCP provided a simple way of
passing files between any two computers running Unix and UUCP.
Unix's popularity also arose from AT&T's liberal distribution
policy. The operating system was seen as an "in-house" tool on
DEC computers and was in use throughout Bell Labs. Many Universi-
ties used the same type of computer and were licensed by AT&T to
utilize Unix. It was thus easily accessible. Schools picked it
up, and Computer Science students learned the intricacies of the
operating system. Unix was a widely used operating system. This
paved the way for a massive public communications system to form.
Usenet News was created by graduate students Tom Truscott
and James Ellis of Duke University in conjunction with graduate
student Steve Bellovin of University of North Carolina in 1979.
A 5-page leaflet introducing Usenet News was distributed at the
Winter 1980 Usenix Unix Users' Conference in Boulder, CO. Later
that year, at the Summer Usenix Conference in Delaware the
software needed to participate in was put on the Conference tape.
By this time, Stephen Daniel rewrote the basic programs and had
called it A-News. The software was immensely popular.
Usenet was patterned to mean "Unix Users Network." The
developers thought Usenet would be used to discuss people's
problems and to share experiences about Unix. Usenet did provide
a forum for people to solve problem with Unix, especially since
AT&T provided no support for Unix. In an early handout, Usenet is
referred to as a "poor man's ARPANET."(13) Stephen Daniel told me
that people who didn't have access to the ARPANET were hungry for
similar opportunities to communicate.(14) The developers had two
thoughts of the uses Usenet might be put to.
Usenet News has been full of surprises from the beginning.
The originators of Usenet News underestimated the hunger of the
people. As the initial intentions were to produce an easy method
of communicating with other users at the same site, the writers
thought people would want to have local bulletin boards.(15)
However, people were attracted by the possibility of communicat-
ing with others outside the local community. Even today, the
wide-spread communication is part of what makes Usenet so attrac-
tive. It was also thought News would be useful as a method of
communications at individual locations, and between sites close
to each other.(16) Usenet grew as a grass-roots connection of
people. The people who utilized Net News wanted to communicate,
and communicate they did! People have a fundamental need to
communicate and Usenet News aptly fills the bill.
Early in 1980 or 81 the gap between ARPANET and Usenet was
bridged.(17) The University of California at Berkeley had connec-
tions to both ARPANET and Usenet News. This allowed another
pioneer, Mark Horton, to bring discussions from ARPANET mailing
lists into Usenet newsgroups.(18) This was a significant achieve-
ment. Communities other than ARPA sponsored researchers were
finally able to see what the ARPANET had made possible. More
people became attracted to Usenet News when two ARPANET mailing
lists (SF-LOVERS and HUMAN-NETS) began to appear on Usenet.(19)
These lists provided interesting material and discussions. The
size of the News Feed (i.e., the content of Usenet News) thus
became larger and provided more for people to read. Later other
sites would serve as gateways to even more discussion lists from
the ARPANET. Netnews was also seen as a superior method of
holding discussions. Gatewaying these fa (i.e., From ARPANET)
newsgroups proved to be politically courageous. The ARPANET was
only accessible by a certain group of people, and these gateways
challenged that notion. The effect on the ARPANET was important
as Steve Bellovin wrote:
The impact of Usenet on the ARPANET was more as a (strong)
catalyst to force re-examination (and benign neglect) on the
strict policies against interconnection. Uucp mail into the
ARPANET became a major force long before it was legit. And
it was obviously known to, and ignored by, many of the
Powers that Were. (20)
The network made possibly by UUCP expanded to connect people
across the entire country. Rather early UUCP expanded interna-
tionally when the University of Toronto Zoology department joined
the net in May of 1981.(21) Two companies proved helpful to this
communication by distributing Netnews and electronic mail long
distance. Each UUCP site had to either pay the phone bill to
connect to the next system, or arrange for the other system to
call. System Administrators at AT&T and DEC did the footwork in
order to take e-mail and news where it might not have reached.
These people went through the trouble in order to try to see the
system work. However easy connections were not always available.
In one example, Case Western Reserve University graduate students
had to route mail across the continent twice in order to send
mail through UUCP to reach their professors who were connected to
the ARPANET next door.(22) Usenet News seems to have introduced
the idea of connectivity to the ARPANET, as gradually the ARPANET
connected to other networks until it became more known as a
BACKBONE to other networks than a self-contained network.(23)
Voluntary effort is the crucial foundation of UUCPnet and
Usenet News. On one side, there are those who donate time and
energy by participating to Usenet's content - writing messages
and answering messages or participating in a debate. Without the
effort and time put in by the users of Usenet News, the whole
effort would be in vain. On the other side, there are the system
administrators who make the running of Usenet News possible.
Resource-wise, Net News takes up disk space on computers through-
out the Usenet, and phone calls often must be made to transfer
the raw data of the news. In particular, system administrators at
AT&T and DEC found it worthwhile to transport the News across the
country. Certain sites emerged as clearing houses for Usenet News
and UUCP e-mail.(24) These machines served as major relay sta-
tions of news and e-mail. A structure grew that was considered
the "back-bone" of "the net." Back-bone sites formed the trunk of
the circulatory system of news and e-mail. A back-bone site would
connect to other central distribution computers and to numerous
smaller sites. These central back-bone sites provided a crucial
organization to the Usenet communications skeleton. People formed
the center of these connections. For example, ihnp4 at AT&T
existed mostly because of Gary Murakami's effort and partially
from management support. After Gary left ihnp4, Doug Price put
time and effort to keep things running smoothly. Certain System
Administrators in Universities also picked up the responsibility
for distributing News and e-mail widely. Often these individuals
would find ways of having their site pick up the phone bill.
Sometimes sites would bill the recipients. However, others who
received a free-connection often exchanged that for spreading
what they received to others for no charge (e.g.; Greg Woodbury &
wolves off of Duke, and plenty of others.)
Initially, expansion of sites receiving Usenet News was
slow. Some statistics are as follows:
1979 3 sites, ~2 articles a day
1980 15 sites, ~10 articles a day
1981 150 sites, ~20 articles a day
1982 400 sites, ~50 (this was after ARPANET mailing lists
were gatewayed into Usenet.)
1983 600 sites, ~120
1984 900 sites, ~225
1985 1,300 sites, ~375 articles per day. 1+Megabyte per/day
1986 2,500 sites, ~500, 2MB+
1987 5,000 sites, ~1000, 2.5MB+
1988 11,000 sites, ~1800, 4MB+
(Gene Spafford, Usenet History Archives from the Mailing List)
[from Gene Spafford, Oct. 11, 1990, based on presentation on Oct
1, 1988 for the IETF meeting.)
Why did this happen? Initially Usenet was only transported
via UUCP connections. Besides UUCP, other resources were used,
such as weekly airmailing of Mag-tape Data to Australia to
provide connectivity. Today, Usenet News travels over all types
of connections. The evolving ARPANET (now the Internet) provided
a faster way of transporting news. However, a large number of
Usenet News recipients only have connectivity via UUCP. Universi-
ties and certain business can afford to connect to the Internet,
but many individuals also want a connection. Today 60% of Usenet
traffic is carried over the Internet via the instantaneous NNTP
protocol, but 40% of Usenet News is still carried through the
slower UUCP connections. From my own research using Usenet News,
I have heard from several examples of various types of connec-
tions using UUCP. These representatives of the "fringe" give a
clue to what the origins of this communication must have been
like.
The number of sites receiving Usenet News continually in-
creased (as already illustrated) and this clearly demonstrates
its popularity. People were attracted to Usenet News because what
it made possible. People want to communicate and enjoy the thrill
of finding others across the country (or today across the world)
who share a common interest or just be in touch with. Besides the
common thrill, it is possible to make a serious relationship.
Usenet News makes this discovery possible because it is a public
forum. People expose their ideas broadly. This wide exposure
makes it possible to find compatriots in thought. The same
physical connections which carry Usenet News often also trans-
ports electronic mail. Interactions and discoveries are only made
possible by the public aspect of Usenet News. Mailing Lists have
as wide a range of discussions, but are exposed to a much smaller
sized group. The appeal of Usenet can become tiresome at
times(25), but it is rare that anyone leaves Usenet permanently.
Unless, of course, someone can't find the time to fit Usenet in
their life. As more universities, businesses, and individuals
connect, the value of Usenet News grows. Each new person eventu-
ally can add his unique opinion to the collection of thoughts
that Usenet already has. Each new connection also increases the
amount of area where new connections can be made through cheap
local phone calls. The potential for inexpensive expansion is
limited only by the oceans and other natural barriers.
ARPANET has been supplemented and eventually replaced by
networks like CSnet and its successor NSFnet. Both were created
by the United States Government in response to research scien-
tists' and professors' pleas to have a similar connection to the
ARPANET. The NSFnet was also created to provide access to the
five supercomputer computing centers around the country. And now
NSFnet provides another route for Usenet News to be distributed.
Similar to the ARPANET, NSFnet is a constant connection run over
leased lines. Netnews is distributed using the NNTP protocol over
Internet connections. This allows for News and e-mail to be
distributed quickly over a large area. Internet connections also
assist in carrying news and mail internationally. The Internet-
class networks and connections are the established government and
university sponsored connections. However much of the way indi-
viduals are connected at home are through the phone lines and
various versions of UUCP. There are also commercial services that
exist now for a fee that serve to provide connections for elec-
tronic mail and usenet news access, as well as access to the
Internet.
Much of the development of Usenet News owes a big thanks to
a general negative attitude toward commercial uses. Where else in
our society is the commercial element so clearly separated from
any entity? Many other forums of discussion and communication
become clogged and congested when advertisements use space. On
UUCPnet, people feel it wrong to assist any commercial venture
through the voluntary actions of those who use and redistribute
news and e-mail. When people feel someone is abusing the nature
of Usenet News, they let the offender know through e-mail. In
this manner users keep Usenet News as a forum that is free from
the monetary benefit for any one individual. Usenet is not
allowed to be a profit making venture for any one individual or
group. Rather, people fight to keep it a resource that is helpful
to the society as a whole.
On what was the ARPANET and what is now the NSFnet, there
are Acceptable Use Contracts (AUC) that exist because these
networks were initially set up, founded and financed by public
monies. On these networks commercial use is prohibited, which
means it is also discouraged to other networks that gateway into
the NSFnet. However, the discouragement against commercial usage
of the global Usenet News is separate and developed differently
than the AUC.
The Social Network that Usenet News represents supersedes
the physical connection it rides on. The current Netnews rides on
many of the physical networks that exist today. However, if need
would ever be, Usenet could re-establish itself outside of the
current physical organized networks. Usenet News' quality is such
that it will survive because of its users will. As a peer to peer
network, Usenet draws its importance. People who use Usenet News
wish to communicate with others. This communal wish means that
people on Usenet find it in their own and in the community's
interest to be helpful. In this way, Usenet exists as a world-
wide community of resources ready to be shared. Where else today
is there such an availability of knowledge that is freely avail-
able? Usenet News represents a living library. Usenet News is
only a part of the worldwide computer networks that are "part of
the largest machine that man has ever constructed - the global
telecommunications network."(26)
Usenet News began with the spirit that still exists today.
On several newsgroups I posted a message with the following
subject: "I want to hear from the four corners of the Net - That
means YOU!" In return I received numerous wonderful answers. One
new pioneer was going to use packet radio to send e-mail up to
the CIS's orbiting Mir Space Station in the heavens. One person
criticized Japan's lack of understanding the technology they
supposed have "lead". Another user from France told me how the
government charged a lot of money to access e-mail and Usenet
News, and how there were at least two other "unofficial" connec-
tions. Since the government didn't recognize these other gate-
ways, e-mail was to be sent via the United States in order to
reach others across the street! Certain cities (e.g., Wellington,
New Zealand and Cleveland, OH) have free public connections to
Usenet News, E-Mail and other network resources. Others in Krakow
in Poland, Australia and the ex-USSR sent me notice of their
connection. Some told me of how they made other connections
possible. One user in South Africa told me how he distributed
news and e-mail and was trying to gain access to a satellite in
order to set connections up with the interior of Africa that
lacks the otherwise needed infrastructure. We are still in the
infancy of this communications interconnectivity! (See Appendix
for a sample of interesting messages I received.)
The very nature of Usenet News promotes change. Usenet News
was born outside of established "networks", and transcends any
one physical network. Currently at this time it exists of itself
and via other networks. It makes possible the distribution of
information that might otherwise not be heard of through "offi-
cial channels." This reasoning makes Usenet News a herald for
social change. Because of the inherent will to communicate,
people who don't have access to News will want access when they
understand what it is, and people who currently have access will
want News to expand its reach so as to further even more communi-
cation. Usenet News might grow to provide a forum for people to
influence their governments. News allows for the discussion and
debate of issues in a mode that facilitates a mass participation.
This becomes a source of independent information. An independent
source is often helpful in the search for the truth.
Administrators and individuals who handle the flow of
information have been predicting the "imminent death of the net."
since 1982.(27) The software that handles the distribution of
Netnews has gone through several versions to handle the ever
increasing amount of information. People who receive News have
either had to decrease 1) the number of days individual messages
stay at the site, 2) the number of newsgroups they receive; or
they have had to allocate more disk space available to the
storage of News. Despite all the predictions and worries,
people's desire for this communication have kept this social
network floating. Brad Templeton once wrote "If there is a
gigabit network with bandwidth to spare that is willing to carry
USENET, it has plenty more growth left." (28) Brad, and everyone
else will be happy to know that such a network does exist!
Various research labs (including the NSF Center for Telecommuni-
cations Research at Columbia) are close to producing usable
gigabit networks.
Usenet News is a democratic and technological breakthrough.
The computer networks and Usenet News are still developing.
People need to work towards keeping connections available and
fairly inexpensive if not free, so as to encourage the body of
users to grow. There are several cities and governments across
the world where the public has access to network services as a
civic service. This direction is to be encouraged. Exclusive
arrangements for access are to be discouraged. The very nature of
Usenet News means people are going to be working for its expan-
sion. Others will be working for the expansion for their own
gain, and I wouldn't doubt some forces will be an active force
against expansion of Usenet. I can only ask that people attempt
to spread this document in an attempt to popularize and encourage
the use and fight for Usenet News.
Footnotes
1. "In September 1969, the embryonic one-node(!) ARPANET came to
life when the first packet-switching computer was connected to
the Sigma 7 computer at UCLA. Shortly thereafter began the
interconnection of many main processors (referred to as HOST's)
at various university, industrial, and government research
centers across the United States." (Kleinrock, "On Communications
and Networks," IEEE Transactions on Computers vol. c-25 No 12,
Dec 1976, PAGE 1328)
2. F. Heart, A. McKenzie, J. McQuillan, and D. Walden, ARPANET
Completion Report, Washington, 1978, p.II-2
3. Alexander McKenzie et al, "ARPANET, the Defense Data Network,
and Internet" in The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommuni-
cations, vol. 1, p. 346
4. Lawrence G. Roberts, The ARPANET and Computer Networks, p.145
5. Leonard Kleinrock, "On Communications and Networks", IEEE
Transactions on Computers, vol C-25, No. 12, December, 1976, p.
1327.
6. Alexander McKenzie, p.357
7. F. Heart, p.ii-25
8. Alexander McKenzie, p. 369
9. "For many of the people in government, at the major contrac-
tors, and in the participating universities and research centers
the development of the ARPANET has been an exciting time which
will rank as a high point in their professional careers. In 1969
the ARPANET project represented a high risk, potentially high
impact research effort. The existence of the net in practical
useful form has not only provided communications technology to
meet any short term needs, but it represents a formidable commu-
nications technology and experience base on which the Defense
Department as well as the entire public and private sectors will
depend for advanced communications needs. The strong and diverse
experience base generated by the ARPANET project has placed this
country ahead of all others in advanced digital communications
science and technology." (ARPANET Completion Report, section II -
109.)
10. Unix was born in 1969, the same year as ARPANET.
11. D. M. Ritchie, "The UNIX System: The Evolution of the UNIX
Time-sharing System," Bell Systems Technical Journal, vol. 63,
No. 8 (October 1984), p.1578.
12. IBID.
13. Stephen Daniel, James Ellis, and Tom Truscott, "USENET - A
General Access UNIX Network," Duke University, Durham, NC, Summer
1980.
14. Stephen Daniel, 1992, Personal Communications, November 1992.
15. Bellovin, Steve. M. and Mark Horton, "USENET -- A Distributed
Decentralized News System", an Unpublished manuscript, 1985.
16. IBID.
17. KEY POINT - The first gateway of ARPANET mailing lists to
Usenet in was an early force to have gateways with ARPAnet.
Gateways to ARPANET were on the side things and in all likelihood
not officially sanctioned. However, this provided the impetus for
future gateways into ARPANET. This was the first pressure on the
ARPANET to provide service to a larger number of people - a first
step to transforming of the ARPANET to become a part of the
backbone on the Internet.
18. Comment from Steve Bellovin, Oct. 10, 1990 on Usenet History
Archive:
"Correct. The original concept was that most of the traffic would
be the form now known as unix-wizards (or whatever it's called
this week). Growth was slow until Mark started feeding the
mailing lists in because there was nothing to offer prospective
customers. Given a ready source of material, people were attract-
ed."
19. Comment from Tom Truscott, Sept 25, 1990 on Usenet History
Archive:
"The very first news groups were "NET." and local groups such as
"dept". Later Horton et al. oversaw the lower-casing of NET. Only
when ucbvax joined the net did "fa" appear. Indeed I was unaware
of the Arpanet mailing lists such as human-nets until ucbvax
enlightened us."
20. Steve Bellovin Oct 10, 1990 - Usenet History Mailing List
Also - from Lauren Weinstein, Nov. 23, 1992:
"Greetings. It's all too easy to forget, even for those of us who
were there all along, how "small" it all started. When I was at
UCLA-ATS (ARPANET site 1 [Imp 0, Host 1]) in the early 70's, even
tiny mailing lists could cause concern. I still distinctly
remember the concerns regarding network loading from Geoff
Goodfellow's NETWORK-HACKERS mailing list (this was in the days
when "hacker" didn't have the negative meaning it has picked up
since then) as the list passed *100* addresses. A list about wine
caused memos to be sent out from the powers-that-be about "offi-
cial use" of the net. There was also a lot of hand-wringing
about the 255 site limit in the network topology under NCP."
21. Henry Spencer - Usenet History Archives "history" file.
22. From Amanda Walker Tue Oct 16 09:11 PDT 1990 Usenet History
Archives.:
"Indeed. I suspect that there are any number of examples of
this, but the most egregious in my experience was at CWRU. The
ECMP department had a VAX 11/780 on Usenet ("cwruecmp"), and the
campus computer center had a DEC-20 in the room next door. The
machines were separated by a grand total of about 30 feet and a
piece of wallboard, but the computer center was not at all
interested in "catering" to "those CS types" by stringing an
RS-232 line between them. So, it was possible to send mail
between them, but only by sending via a route resembling:
crwuecmp => decvax => ucbvax (UUCP)
ucbvax => columbia (CU20A, I think) (ARPANET)
columbia => cmu-cs-c => cwru20 (CCnet)
Yup, that's three networks, and two coasts just to get through a
piece of sheetrock :-). Took about a week, too."
23. Alexander McKenzie, "Indeed, during a typical measurement
period in June 1988, over 50% of the active ARPANET hosts were
gateways, and they accounted for over 80% of the traffic." pg.
369
24. At AT&T - research, then allegra, then ihnp4 served as major
mail and/or news distribution sites. At DEC - decvax gradually
increased its role (e.g., decvax in New Hampshire would call long
distance to San Diego across the country.)
25. "Flame Wars" (vicious personal attacks) can become annoying.
There are ebbs and flows of interesting posts. Even though Usenet
is addicting, it can also be overwhelming. [MORE DETAILS?]
26. Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies Without Boundaries, Cam-
bridge 1990, p. 56.
27. From the Usenet News history Archives.
28. From the "posthist" file from Usenet News history Archives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Special Thanks to BRUCE JONES for establishing and archiving the
Usenet History Archives. Also thanks to the Pioneers for giving
Usenet News off the right start.
Bellovin, Steve. M. and Mark Horton. "USENET -- A Distributed
Decentralized News System." an Unpublished manuscript, 1985.
Heart, F., A. McKenzie, J. McQuillan, and D. Walden. ARPANET
Completion Report. Washington, 1978,
Kleinrock, Leonard. "On Communications and Networks." in IEEE
Transactions on Computers. vol C-25, No. 12, December,
1976, p. 1326-1335.
McKenzie, Alexander and David C. Walden. "Arpanet, the Defense
Data Network, and Internet." in the The Froehlich/Kent
Encyclopedia. vol 1, p. 341-376.
Ritchie, D.M. "The UNIX System: The Evolution of the UNIX Time-
sharing System." Bell Systems Technical Journal. vol. 63,
No. 8 (October 1984), pp.1577-1593.
Roberts, Lawrence G. "The ARPANET and Computer Networks." in A
History of Personal Workstations. ed. Adele Goldberg, N.Y.,
1988.
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