Read the text and supply it with a title.

Most books and articles about the Net are "how to" works aimed at novices.

Many thousands of technical papers, proposals, conference presentations, meeting notes, technical specifications and the like have been written. A few works have treated the Net from the standpoint of sociology, psychology, library studies or learning behaviour. Recently, an increasing number of researchers in the field of communications have begun to study the Net as well. Interestingly, it seems that most of the material treating the Net from the historical perspective has come from those on the Net itself. Much interesting material has been generated on Usenet. In

addition, there are an increasing number of electronic journals which have made important contributions, such as the Amateur Computerist, the Electronic Journal of Virtual Culture and Computer Underground Digest. However, the study of the Net is a field which remains undiscovered territory for the historian. The natural scientists who study Man yesterday, today and tomorrow are the historian and archaeologist, the anthropologist, and the futurist respectively; the Net should be of supreme interest to each and all of them. The methods of statistical, social and physical sciences are most suited to an atomistic world in which events are predicable and repeatable. The natural scientist such as the astronomer or the geologist on the other hand might concern herself with a quasar or a volcanic explosion; such events are not at this stage of our culture predicable or able to be reproduced under laboratory conditions, but are nonetheless of great interest to the natural scientist. In the view of the statistical, deconstructivist social scientist who seeks to ape the physical sciences, the Net may not be much good to study: it is a data point of one. There has never been a Net like this in human culture. But it is equally a mistake to think that the changes brought about through the Net are entirely unprecedented. Changes in communications technology have often accompanied great social changes. We have now a unique opportunity - to study a culture in its infancy. We know only that we can not say for certain what the future of the Net may be. But that it is of tremendous importance to the future history of humanity cannot be disputed.

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions using the information from the text.

1. What are traditional and new sources for the Net study?

2. What branches of science are to be backed up by the Net study?

Exercise 2. Topic for discussion.

Give your standpoint of the importance of the Net for future scientific researches.

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