Eric Nehrlich, CyberGroupie

Eric Nehrlich
CyberGroupie

Warning

This page has not been updated for around 7 years, so most of the links are out of date and useless. However, it does provide an interesting snapshot of my thoughts about internet issues back in the heady days when anything was possible. Probably the most interesting thing on this page is a piece I wrote back in 1993 or so about Forming Communities in Cyberspace.

Cyber-politics

I'm a bit out of touch at the moment (Oct. 16, 1995) with all the cyber-politics, free speech, dumb politician tricks going on at the moment, so I was glad to see a page recently in the CuD that is getting me back on track.

Old outdated stuff that I'm too lazy to remove

For netizens out there, I'd like to draw more attention to the petition to help Senator Leahy fight the Communications Decency Act. It will take only a couple minutes to sign it, and they can use all the support they can get.

Welp. Too late - it passed the Senate 84-16. Here's a copy of my running commentary on the Senate debate as I read it online at VTW. Still, the battle will hopefully continue in the House and the VTW page will keep track of what's going on.

Cyberlinks

I have always been interested in computers and networking and cyberspace and things like that, and the Web is just wonderful in that it lets me indulge these habits to a shameful limit. Anyway, here are links to several sites that cater to my cyber-habit.

Stanford seminars
This is a list of various seminar series at Stanford which are mostly concerned with computer related issues that I drop in on occasionally when the speaker looks interesting. This entry is mostly here for my own benefit.

E-node
This is a really interesting e-mail column, written by Nathan Newman and Anders Schneiderman, which takes on a variety of topics each month.

Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
This is a terribly interesting class offered at MIT. Not only that, but it has a great deal of its info (From class notes to online discussions to course readings) available via the web, which allows me to follow a great deal of the content of the course. Neat stuff.

Phil Agre
Phil Agre is one of the most thoughtful commentators on the current state of the net. He publishes the Red Rock Eater news service, where he sends posts that he finds interesting out to the subscribers, as well as The Network Observer, a monthly newsletter where he muses over several topics, looking at them in depth.

Wired Magazine
Wired Magazine is one of the cooler magazines I've found. Although it gets a bit tedious at times, since they try so utterly hard to be hip, that they sometimes fail completely, I like the layout for the most part, and most of the articles interest me greatly. And heck, all cybergroupies read it :). (6/24/96)The primary thing I'm reading from Wired Magazine these days is their Netizen section, and that's primarily to keep up with Brock Meeks, writer of Cyberwire Dispatch.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
The EFF is one of the few organizations which both has an understanding of computers and networking, and the willingness to fight for what they think is right. Many people are convinced the EFF sold out when they moved their headquarters inside the Beltway to Washington, D.C., but I think they still are more on the ball than most if not all other "cyberspace" organizations. Warning: Seems to take a long time to load

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
This is one of the other groups who has it as together as the EFF. I respect them both. Soon as I start making money, I will probably even become a paying member of both.Warning: Seems to take a long time to load

Computer Underground Digest
Net-happenings
CPSR Announce list
Risks Digest
Highly relevant newsgroups which I read. Check 'em out if you're interested in cyberspace, the net, its advantages, and its risks. The Computer Underground Digest also has a web site of its own now.

Random other stuff

This is random other stuff which has been floating around my directory for years, but I never had any real reason to keep it around. Now, of course, it fits into my grand plan and fits here on my web page. Well, kind of. If you push hard enough, and apply excessive force.

Virtual Community Essay: This was an essay I wrote for some contest I heard about somewhere involving the future of cyberspace. I decided to write about virtual communities since I had some experience with those, and although the essay isn't great, it still has some ideas that I like even now.
Howard Rheingold's home page: Speaking of virtual community, Howard Rheingold wrote a book called "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier" which I read and thought was pretty accurate at capturing the flavor of life on-line. Anyway, I happened to run across his home page, and thought it was pretty neat, so here's a link to it. Rheingold also started up a discussion web site called Electric Minds as a test of some of virtual community theories I think.
Collection of journals about the net: This is a list of several journals about the net that I dug up someplace and keep around for when I am not getting enough email (which, of course never happens, but it's a thought). Sorry it's not html'ed but I'm too lazy.
CyberWire Dispatch: Among the best of the columnists of the net is Brock Meeks, and CyberWire Dispatch is his column. Some of the more recent columns are mighty scary as they portray a government clearly out of touch with aspects of the net community they want to regulate.
List of internet services: This is a list of services available via the internet. I finally found out where they keep WWW copies of it, so now this is a real link instead of just my old copy of it.
The Internet Index: Sorta like Harper's Index for the Internet.