User:Netmouse
Netmouse is the most common internet nickname of smof and fanhistorian Anne Gray. Also Netmouse on Wikipedia, and the owner of netmouse.com, Anne picked up the username as an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) nickname in the mid 1990s, and first used it prominently in fandom as a volunteer conflict manager on the Minicon email discussion list. It was one of her proudest moments when she attended a Minicon at which someone saw "Netmouse" on her namebadge, stood up from his seat, and declared, "I want to shake your hand."
Netmouse has never lived in Minneapolis, and has in fact worked on many conventions remotely, for several of which she also provided web hosting or other IT management. She graduated with a BA in History from Grinnell in 1996, traveled the country for 3 1/2 months with her sister, then settled in Chicago doing professional web design for a bit before returning to school at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, where she received a Master's of Applied Science (MASc) in Systems Design Engineering in 2002.
Most members of fandom have no idea that Netmouse worked professionally as a Human Factors Engineer for 7 years, primarily on military research in Human-Robot Interaction and other types of Command and Control, before she left work to have and raise her daughter, Rosie, and support her husband as he finished his PhD, completed a 3-year NIH Fellowship, and started his career as a professor.
Once at a Nebula Awards Dinner someone asked her what she did, and she spouted a not very clear mouthful of military mumbo-jumbo about semi-autonomous command and control of ground and aerial unmanned assets, then blushed abashedly as Neil Gaiman, for whom she was serving as guest liaison, translated. "Robots!" he clarified, "She's talking about robots! Real science fiction, here!"
Her most recent talk about human factors design was to the Robothon summer program in York, PA, where she lives and works as a part-time substitute teacher, a grant writer, a social justice activist, historical researcher, and volunteer systems analyst.
Fanac will be posted to the Fancy page Anne Gray. This page will be used to note articles to which Netmouse has made significant contributions as an editor.
