Netizen, eCitizens, Cyber ID . . . being human in the digital age

“In conduc*ng research four years ago online to determine people's uses for the global computer communica*ons network, I became aware that there was a new social ins*tu*on, an electronic commons, developing. It was exci*ng to explore this new social ins*tu*on. Others online shared this excitement. I discovered from those who wrote me that the people I was wri*ng about were ci*zens of the Net, or Ne*zens.“ (1995) Michael and Ronda Hauben's -­‐ "Ne*zens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet." Computers have been around for about half a century and their social effects have been described under many headings. During one of his talks, Weiser (*) outlined a set of principles describing ubiquitous compu*ng: • The purpose of a computer is to help you do something else; • The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant; • The more you can do by intui*on the smarter you are; the computer should extend your unconscious; • Technology should create calm. Calm technology = "that which informs but doesn't demand our focus or aden*on.“ Technology is evolving . . . PCs . . . ubiquitous access to services. (*) Mark D. Weiser (July 23, 1952 – April 27, 1999) was a chief scien*st at Xerox PAR