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Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility (CPSR) announces the creation of "Community Memory -- Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace," a moderated discussion list whose purpose is to explore the origins, history and development of computer networks, computer hardware, software, and computer science, and the environment collectively known as "cyberspace." Emphasis is placed on human factors -- on who knew whom, how ideas spread and originated.

This list is dedicated to the belief that awareness of history is an essential ingredient which can help us make reasoned decisions in the present and future. By exploring the history of cyberspace, topical issues we face today -- such as privacy concerns, equality of access to computing, hacking, computer literacy, intellectual property rights, funding long-term R&D -- are placed in a broader, historical context. A primary focus will be the evolution of ideas in computing and the use of computers.

Many of the people involved in the creation of important technologies and organizations are on-line and we ask them to consider joining this list. CPSR hopes to attract people who can provide first-hand accounts from a wide-range of experiences, going back to origins of digital computing in the 1940s to the present day. These include government-funded projects, academic programs and organizations, private enterprise, grass-roots organizations.

CPSR also invites anyone with a curiosity and interest in learning about the origins and history of cyberspace to subscribe.

This list is named Community Memory for two reasons. It wishes to store and record the memories of how this world of interconnected computers and people came to be -- discussing the history of cyberspace using the tools of cyberspace and, in a sense, drawing out the collective memory of 50 years of computing. The name also makes reference to the original Community Memory Project in San Francisco, created in the early 1970s, which may be the world's first grass-roots electronic bulletin board (whether this is true is an example of an appropriate discussion subject). This list will be archived and stored in a companion World Wide Web site, with information stored by topic. Archival material, in electronic format, is also welcome on the Web site. The URL is: