Network Communities in early “Online Service” Age in Japan

Abstract

　For a short period before the Internet became widespread in Japan, personal data communication services- so-called "Pasokon-Tsushin" in Japanese - were popular. I joined NIFTY-Serve, a major commercial service, in the early 1990s and experienced communication through computer networks as a relatively active user. The experiences I had in this period formed the foundation for my subsequent use of networks in my academic work. In this article, I look back on the communities that I took part in during this era and try to provide some clues for thinking anew about networks as "society.".