Founded a children’s rights list on the early internet; 1990 – likely the first.
Here on October 17, 1991 Y-RIGHTS and CHILD@hamp appeared in Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists for example.
Ran it ’til around 1996 then passed it on to a 14 year old home schooled girl in Alaska and a college professor in NZ to run together which they did until 2002 when apparently the server holding it and a few hundred other LISTSERV lists caught fire and was lost, although a few archives remain on internet archive and I have some stuff I saved from back then.
How 18 year old me convinced a random LISTSERV at some far off university to me to host my list, I have no idea but i was passionate and earnest. It was unfocused intentionally, although mostly centered around helping a bit of autonomy in a world that wasn’t.
UNICEF joined it early; made me feel like a big shot. Several children’s rights organizations spawned from people meeting in the group;
Oh, and I “kicked out” David Deutsche in 1993 with his friend who was starting a movement called “Taking Children Seriously” or TCS – as they were talking over everybody’s heads; libertarian talk that I didn’t understand.
I pleaded with them to try to keep their talking at around an 8th grade to high school level as there were actually middle school classes on there and not just college students and professors but they’d prattle on.
So, I showed them how to start their OWN list; helped them transition – they used majordomo instead of LISTSERV – and encouraged them to go their own way ’cause, well, they refused to do what I asked – like, at all.
So they did. TCS is still around; and I get a mention in one of its blog entries as a “nasty LISTOWNER that kicked them out”.
This is before David Deutsche was writing books on quantum computing ,around 1993 or 1994.
It was cool watching him get big. Good for him.
Other groups coming out of that was NYRA who I think fights for youth voting rights and other stuff – too political for my tastes and I did the same with them – encourage two guys who kept talking about it to form their own group and taught them out, which they did and founded NYRA and I think something called ASFAR? I forget.
I was an early internet advocate – very heavily so. An old soul to online by 1993 it seemed, and one of the very few that welcomed “Eternal September” as n00bs poured in. I still love it. I love watching new groups get online that never were before, even knowing there’s chaos at times for it.