The core of the simple query event is a set of four appends to a computer conference, but the event is a hybrid, built of both computer conferencing and electronic mail. The hybrid is highly efficient, and produces, as we saw in the last chapter, better results more quickly than might have been obtained with other media. Clearly, the kind of communication initiated is desirable, but what kind of communication is it?
However poorly it may meet any of the existing definitions of interpersonal communications media, the event is clearly an instance of interpersonal communication. The interaction may be short and diffuse, but the Tucson employee clearly does nothing more complicated than ask a question, much as he would in any conversation, and the people who respond simply answer that question, much as they might do in any interpersonal interaction.
If the communication event recorded here does not fit the traditional definitions of human communication media, then classifying the event will require a new name for a new medium with a new definition. We can't impose such a name in the absence of one. Only time will tell what names will be assigned to what computer media. We can, however, use one in the absence of any alternative. Before picking a name to represent the form of communication event we have just examined, lets explore the characteristics and implications of the medium further by discussing the following half serious proposals:
By the standards of any form of interpersonal communication except letters, the communication event explored here has gone very, very slowly. It takes a little over three hours to negotiate five dialogue exchanges. If the four people who appended to the conference had been sitting in the same room, they might have talked though the same information in less than five minutes.
This is, in fact, exactly what happened over and over again at the 1984 IBM Personal Computer Symposium in New York, a sort of IBM internal convention of PC users and developers that attracted many of the leading names on IBMPC. The evening was given over to "Birds of a Feather" sessions where conference participants proposed (BOFS) "live" forums, signed up for them, and later participated in them. Many ISTHERE FORUM style questions were posed during these sessions, and many were given good answers immediately.
In fact, the same question that kicked off this communication event was posed during one of the sessions, and the differences between the computer-mediated and "live" events are fairly noticeable in retrospect. Perhaps the most noticeable difference is the lack of a transcript for the live event. The observer cannot remember exactly what was said by any participant of that event, even though he was one of the participants. Indeed, the observer isn't sure who the other participants were or even which session it occurred in. The observer can remember the substance of what was said, in part because he said some of it, and where he was sitting in the group when it was said. But these gross details leave little information for recounting and detailed analysis. It does not provide a precise dialogue that can be contrasted with the dialogue on-line.
Another difference is that only two solutions were proposed at the live session. Sidekick and PSRD. PSRD was explained in greater detail. Some of the dangers of using Sidekick were explained. But the other solutions that were proposed on-line were not mentioned, probably because none of the approximately fifteen people there thought of them; perhaps because no one present knew of them.
The number of participants is another difference. During 1985 alone, ISTHERE FORUM attracted queries and comments from over 150 different people at nearly 100 different locations around the world and has been read by an audience that numbers, at the very least, in the thousands. It may be slow conversation, but the time scale isn't the only thing that grew in the process.
The large number of participants in ISTHERE FORUM is, in effect, a large pool of knowledge and varied expertise. One is more far less likely to find an expert on the subject of a particular question in a pool of five or fifteen people than will be the case when the pool is 150 or 1500 people. This can be clearly seen in the comparison of the on-line FORUM and the BOF. ISTHERE FORUM nets at least twice as many answers as the BOF.
And then there is the question of resources. The Poughkeepsie append indicates that one option, "SNAPSHOT.COM ... seems to have disappeared from IBMPC". He probably couldn't have said that in a "live" conversation. He probably wouldn't have known. His recollection would probably have been limited to having recalled finding SNAPSHOT.COM there once. He probably never would have looked again if he had not sought to answer the query. Since he is giving a "slow" answer via the same computer conference that the software appeared on, however, he can double check his answer before giving it, and it appears that he has. As it turns out, SNAPSHOT.COM is available on the Tucson employee's IBMPC shadow conference, but the Poughkeepsie contributors comment prepares the appender for the possibility that it is not, as seems to be the case for the Poughkeepsie employee's shadow.
This ability to double check answers before giving them is one of the biggest advantages of the form of "slow conversation" that occurs on IBMPC. It allows people to think over answers and potentially formulate better ones before contributing, changing the entire tenor of the dialogue in the process. Questions are stated better because they can be edited before they are posed. Answers are stated better because they can be checked and edited before they are given. Because questions and answers are better, the answer to a question will require fewer words and dialogue exchanges than will typically be required to arrive at the same answer in a face-to-face conversation.
While thinking of this communications event as "slow conversation" clearly yields some interesting insights, it is equally clear that classifying the event under that name does not do the event justice. Certainly, the name can be applied almost as well to almost any existing form of computer-mediated human interaction. Today, interaction through a computer is interaction through a keyboard, and keyboard-mediated conversation will always be slower than face-to-face communication and other audio media. A good typist (40 words a minute) is working at one fourth the speed that he or she would normally talk, and most typists will tell you that they don't even know what they've typed when they work at those speeds. Typical computer-mediated interaction probably proceeds at a far lower rate. We can talk far faster than we can type.
By the standards of letters, on the other hand, things have proceeded very quickly. Even assuming the same number of people can, with fairly minimal effort, be reached with an letter, the same three-hour conference process would have taken at least two days (presuming the use of expensive overnight letter services). The difference in speed is not unlike the speed difference between a car and a jet.
Still, the event has a great deal in common with correspondence. Both, at least at this point in time, are generally written. Because both are written, they both unfold at a slower pace than face to face communication. Because both proceed at a slower pace, both allow the writer to take a little extra time and write a more carefully considered document. Indeed, a portion of this communication event, the electronic mail that the appender received the next day, is certainly best described as correspondence.
Still, the differences between the messages of which this event is built and everyday correspondence are striking. Consider the opening and closing appends of the event, for instance. Neither is addressed to anyone in particular. The query starts with "Does anyone know ...". The closing statement says "Thanks to everybody who ...". The closest a letter or memo will typically get to being this nondirected is with an opening like "To whom it may concern" or "Dear Occupant". Openings like this are more typically found in group meetings.
The same can be said of the replies. Although the Yorktown appender was the only respondent to compress his answer to a single sentence, all of the replies come without frills. Each writes as if it is assumed that the reply will be of general interest. No append addresses the Tucson appender by name. There are forms of published correspondence, notably letters to the editor, that will sometimes approach this lack of a defined personal target, but it is unusual even there.
The messages are, moreover, short by the standards of any normal correspondence. Each respondent writes as if it is only the pointer to the information that matters. The Yorktown and Poughkeepsie appenders do little more than name a piece of software, state what it does, and point to where it can be found. The Santa Teresa appender also explains how to make use of the software she names, but only because the software she suggests is a multipurpose package, and its use in the context of the Tucson employee's append might not be clear at first. Most memos are far longer than any of the appends which occurred during this event. Even telephone messages are often longer.
The brevity of the appends is, at least in part, a recognition of the immediate availability of other information on IBMPC. The Tucson appender can leave the Santa Teresa reply and immediately learn more about Sidekick in SIDEKICK FORUM on the IBMPC conferencing facility. He can immediately leave the Yorktown append and find more about PSRD in PSRD DOC on the the PCLIB electronic publishing facility. He can also find information on IBMPC about TEE (TEE AVAIL) and SNAPSHOT (SNAPSHOT FORUM).
The brevity is also a recognition of the purpose and style of ISTHERE FORUM, which is supposed to be a "Forum for short queries and answers to questions". Appends to ISTHERE FORUM are almost always short. The average append to the forum is less than 60 words long (less than a paragraph, including "signatures", location information and other niceties). This average length is rather low even by the standards of computer conferencing. The average length of an append on the IBMPC conferencing facility, roughly 170 words per append, is almost three times as long as is seen on ISTHERE FORUM.
Calling this communications event "Fast Correspondence" clearly does not do it justice. It may be fast by comparison to correspondence and it is clear that correspondence is somewhere in the mix, but the event is really only analogous to correspondence. It really isn't the same thing.
ISTHERE FORUM was created to be the electronic equivalent of the classifieds section in a newspaper or magazine. It is supposed to be a place where you can say "Help Wanted, a program that will do ... on my PC", and that is exactly what somewhat less than half of the people who append there do. Consider the following sample of queries taken from ISTHERE FORUM:
I am interested in any software that can take host files whose info. is column/row oriented, and convert to LOTUS format. There exists many host files/listings, etc., that have information that could be further analyzed/ "what-if'd" with tools like LOTUS, provided one could translate/convert into required format.
Is there a basic or 'otherwise' program that will print labels on my IBM Graphics printer. I don't want to go out and buy one of the "Mail Merge" type programs, just to print labels on parts bins etc.
Is there an easy way to use some of that spare storage above 64K bytes, in BASICA ?
Does anyone know of a source for varied paper sizes (for tractor feed) such as 5.5" x 8.5 (net) and 3.75" x 6.75" etc. Is there anyone who generally stocks this kind of thing.
What is (sorry, cannot say "is there") "Document Content Architecture" as referenced in Ivory 284420?
Is there anyone out there who has developed a CHEAP temperature monitoring device for the PC? More specifically, I would like to monitor the room temperature with a PC. Can I use the Game controller card and a cheap thermister to accomplish this, or do I need to buy a more expensive A/D converter? Better yet, has anyone built there own card to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
Is There anyone out there who has interfaced an IDS Prism 132 printer to the PC? I'm having a heckuva time coming up with a driver for the thing.
Does any one know of a way to get around the necessity of typing the password when firing up a PC hooked to the Corvus local area network? The cordrv.bin file gets executed from the config.sys, so I can't redirect standard input (eg: cordrv.bin < password.fil) Nor will keyin work, since config.sys is processed before autoexec.bat
The content of these "advertisements" is varied. Some appenders are seeking software. Some seek hardware. Others are simply seeking information that will be used in undisclosed ways. Some are seeking information that is specific to a particular product. Others are seeking fairly generic information that could be used across a range of products. The answers to some of these questions are easy. The answers to others are hard.
By the usual time scale of classified advertisements, these are truly "Instant" classifieds. It will typically take at least a day, from the time of submission, for a classified ad to appear in a newspaper, and it will typically take weeks or months for that ad to appear in a magazine or technical journal. These ads will typically appear on ISTHERE FORUM within minutes of the time they are sent, however, and there are documented cases of their being answered within twenty minutes.
The content of the advertisements differs somewhat from the usual content of classified advertisements. Where normal classified ads may advertise for jobs or goods, these ads seek information. But the idea is the same as that of a classified advertisement. People who don't have something are seeking to obtain it from people who do by letting it be known that they need it. ISTHERE FORUM shows answers to most of these queries, and clearly shows that what works for goods and services can work for information as well.
Indeed, advertising for information is probably an inevitable consequence of the information age. It is inevitable because nobody knows everything. It is inevitable because nobody even knows all the places where everything known is stored anymore. Consider the "Knots" of the information age:
There are too many things to know
for any person to even hope to know
everything about anything
and still manage to accomplish something
We have to rely on what others know
to supplement the things we don''t know,
but we can''t know
who knows
what we need to know
unless they have some way to let us know
that they know
and we have some way to let them know
that we need to know it.
And every knowledgeable person and new area of knowledge makes the situation worse.
The only way to cut these knots is to find new ways to allow people to find the information they need when they need it. At some point in time it may be possible to build a universal database of recorded knowledge with an intelligent and efficient search mechanism that is able to do the job for us, but there is certainly no technology on the horizon today that will be able to manage the task. But even if we are able to store all recorded information on some future mega-super-computer and find a way of searching that database of information efficiently, there will be some difficult problems:
The skills implicit in the first of these three questions can be expected in people. None of them can be expected in computers any time soon. One does not, moreover, expect the trait sought in the final question ever to be achieved in anything. We cannot rely on the processing capacity of computers to solve the problems of finding information in the "distributed information age." We must instead find new ways to rely on other people. You need to be able to tap into what I know. I need to be able to tap into what you know.
Electronically advertising for information via a computer conference appears to make it possible for us to treat a network of people as if it were a universal data base. People who append to ISTHERE FORUM and other forums on the IBMPC conferencing facility are taking advantage of each other's knowledge and abilities. The advertising on ISTHERE FORUM is helping people to overcome the problems of distributing information to those who need it when they need it in the midst of a knowledge explosion.
The success of ISTHERE FORUM can only be regarded as a portent of the future. If electronic classified advertising solves the problem of putting people in touch with each other's expertise, it will inevitably be widely used by those who need the knowledge of others.
Information-wanted ads are not the only constituents of either ISTHERE FORUM or this communication event, however, and labeling either as "Instant" classified advertising ignores some of their primary features. The forum will typically show both the question and its answer, allowing other people to take advantage of them. There are occasions where a classified may be used to answer a classified in the real world of classified advertising, but these occasions are fairly unusual. They are the routine on ISTHERE FORUM. Once a real classified ad is published, moreover, it cannot be changed except in a new publication. This is not the case with the electronic classifieds on ISTHERE FORUM, which can be modified and clarified when there is a need. The event, moreover, includes both the replies on ISTHERE FORUM and several pieces of correspondence. It seems clear that "classified advertising" properly describes part of both the forum and the event. But the label doesn't fully fit either.
Each of the three alternative names that have been discussed so far -- slow conversation, fast correspondence, and "instant" classified advertising -- are really traditional media that have been revised along a single key dimension. Conversation is all but defined by its occurrence in real time. Calling something "slow conversation" is saying that something that doesn't happen at the speed of conversation can still be like conversation.
Correspondence is all but defined by its slow delivery mechanisms. It is written and physically transported before it is delivered. Calling something "fast correspondence" is saying that there is something that is like correspondence insofar as it is written that does not depend on transportation mechanisms that define the speed of traditional correspondence. Computer-mediated communications makes this "fast correspondence" a reality, but the result is not the same kind of correspondence that we are familiar with. It is not just faster. It is different.
The same is true of "Instant" Classifieds. Publication, and the publishing process, is a defining characteristic of a classified ad. The publishing process makes the concept of an "instant" classified a misnomer. Yet the classified ads on ISTHERE FORUM escape both the publishing process and the publication. In the process of becoming an "instantaneous" classified advertising column, ISTHERE FORUM has been translated from a mass communication event to an interpersonal communication event. It is an interpersonal communication event that encompasses a mass media event.
In each case, a change to a key attribute of an existing medium of human communication results in a new and different communication medium that has radically different characteristics and applications than existing media. ISTHERE FORUM is not a true electronic classifieds because it also accepts answers. But true electronic classified advertising is possible. Indeed, they were, in the early 1980's. the object of intense lobbying efforts on the part of the U.S. newspaper industry, which fears that a telephone company sponsored "Electronic Yellow Pages" service will destroy a large portion of their advertising base. However successful they may be at keeping AT&T out of the business (and they have been fairly successful), the new media that these publishers fear is probably inevitable. All the publishing industry can buy is the time needed to recreate itself for the new age of electronic advertising.
But changing an element of a single existing communication medium is not the only way to build a new computer-mediated communication media. It should also be possible to take two existing media and merge them, building something else in the process. That, of course, is exactly what we do when we label the request for a "print screen to file utility" and the ensuing communication as "Citizens Band 'Dear Abby'".
Citizen's band radio is an unabashedly interpersonal medium. It is a highly transient radio equivalent of a forum on IBMPC, and allows any one of many listeners to make short contributions to a discussion within the constraints of some fairly straightforward rules. CB, as it is generally called, has already been translated directly to a computer-mediated equivalent. Indeed, in its incarnation on the CompuServe timesharing network, it is called "CB". Alfred Glossbrenner (1983) describes CompuServe's CB as follows (p. 92):
CB Simulator. Connects your system to a special "multiplayer host" computer. Gives you access to 36 to 40 "channels" to carry on real-time conversations with people all over the country.CB is one of the most innovative and exciting features on CompuServe or any other information utility. ... Individuals use CB-like "handles" like "Charlie Chaplin," "Octaplus," "Sexy Lady," and so on ad infinitum. And you can "talk" on one channel while monitoring up to three others.
Computer-Mediated CB is not, of course, the same as real CB. There is no interference. When two people talk at the same time both messages come out clear and readable in an order that an automatic "mediator" decides. And there's no local limit on distances. Participants can be anywhere. The only requirement is that they are dialed into CompuServe. The jargon of real CB is both unnecessary and missing. There are no conversations about "smokies" or "bears". No one asks "What's your 20" or replies with "10-4, good buddy". The formal rules are missing, or at least different. There is no restriction on how often one can speak.
It is also difficult to say much of anything if more than two or three people are dialed in to the same channel, as CB only accepts one line of text at a time. Thus the effect of CB is very much like that of succeeding at listening to several conversations at a party. All the content is there, but it is up to you to draw the connections.
"Dear Abby", on the other hand, is an advice column. People mail Abby letters which she (or an assistant) reads and then, for a select few, answers in the newspaper. If you mail in a question and Abby selects it, your letter and her response are published together for all to see on the presumption that there will be others that share your problem and will benefit from her advice. The advice column has also been translated directly to the computer. One advice column on CompuServe is called "Ask Aunt Nettie". "Aunt Nettie" (I leave the pun in the name to you) is described as CompuServe's "on-line expert on life, love, and trivia." "Her" column is structured in the exact form of a newspaper advice column. The only real difference between "Aunt Nettie" and "Ann Landers" is that the latter has a publication deadline and a limitation on column inches while the former can append "her" column at any time at whatever length seems appropriate.
If you combine the open accessibility of Citizen's Band Radio both for the person who queries and the person who answers with the style of the advice column, the result is something like ISTHERE FORUM.
The simple query explored here is, in effect, a short letter which is posed conversationally to a citizen's band advice column. Once the letter is posted, the community of readers that are "tuned in" to the forum can respond, if they feel they have something to say. The response can be made either directly to the forum, allowing other readers to "tune in", or privately, so that only the person who initially posed the question can see the answer.
This flexibility is built into the system from the start because the Tucson employee's append identifies his electronic mailbox; because the same electronic mail system that carried his append to the computer conference will also carry either a private message to back or an a public response on the forum at the option of the sender. Indeed, the sender has the option to do both.
There are several reasons why a person might want to respond privately. A private message is a good way to insure that a questioner sees your response quickly. Most computer systems that have electronic mail facilities will alert you to mail when it arrives. It may also reflect, as one of the private messagers in this event indicated in his message, an inability to make the append for whatever reason. People who really know what they are doing may answer privately out of a desire to keep the answer quiet while they complete work in the area.
Others may, as has already been mentioned, answer privately because of underconfidence. If you think you have a good answer but you aren't sure, providing the message privately is a good way to assure that only one person will suffer any negative consequences from it. It also provides a means of discovering whether the answer was indeed a good one, as the results of following your advice may well be communicated back to you. On some occasions it can reflect a desire to avoid embarrassing the questioner when the answer shows a question was poor or poorly stated.
There are also a variety of reasons for responding publicly. One hopes that most public answers are given because the answer is felt to be interesting, or of service, to others. One expects that, by and large, this is the case. IBMPC appender's have, on numerous occasions, indicated that it "feels good" to be able to help someone. Indeed, some participants have expressed considerable pride at being able to "repay" IBMPC and its participants for the good information they have received. One suspects, however, that at least some people answer publically at least in part because there is prestige and recognition available to those that do answer such queries. The hope, in such cases, is that the answer is better than the motivation.
Such replies make it possible for the concept of a computer-mediated advice column to considerably stretch the idea of electronic classified advertising. By encompassing both the posting of the request for information and the responses to that request, the computer-mediated advice column becomes an interpersonal event. It is possible for you to reach a broad spectrum of scholars, researchers, and/or technicians with an interest in a particular area of enquiry with questions that lie within their expertise. It is also possible for them to answer in such a way that others can read their response.
Those that read the response can, in turn, either take advantage of that information, offer alternative information, or disagree with that information altogether. If the latter occurs, then the question may seed an intellectual debate that, hopefully, will benefit all involved, including the questioner. This kind of intellectual debate is usually reserved for publications or for times when people with differing positions are in the same room. In computer conferencing it simply becomes its own forum.
When conducted via publication, the debate proceeds slowly. It may take years to debate even the finest points at issue, and the time scale works to harden positions as those in each faction both justify their position to themselves and educate others in the finer points of their position.
When conducted with the partisans of each view in the same room, the debate proceeds quickly. The words spoken can be remembered, but not reviewed, and the best arguments for each position are lost on the other side as they attempt to muster counterarguments at the same time they are listening to the other position.
Computer conferencing offers an alternative that allows people at diverse locations to have an ongoing public discussion at a pace which:
Such things almost never happen in the wake of a question in a newspaper advice column, a statement on a CB radio channel, or a scholarly debate.
The computer-mediated citizen's band advice column has some of the characteristics of both citizen's band radio and the newspaper advice column, but it is neither. It is neither as transient and localized as CB nor as permanent and correspondence-like as the the advice column. It is neither as informal and conversational as CB or as formal and presentational as the advice column. Instead, it stands its own ground with characteristics that can be likened to both but which are not identical to either. As a result, it can be applied to problems that neither of the other media would be adept at solving
Thus the name computer-mediated citizen's band advice column is ill-suited to the media. The name describes the characteristics of the medium in terms that are easy to understand given what we already know about existing media, but it is a bad name to live with. All of the names we have just explored describe a new or potential computer-mediated communications medium. Although citizen's band advice column comes close and all get at least part of it right, none of them properly describe the event in question.
The event has elements of conversation, correspondence, group discussion, presentation and mass media all mixed together in a way that would not have been possible without a computer and computer network to do the mixing and mediating. The author proposes referring to the class of events to which it belongs as "Computer-Mediated Query" or "CMQ".
CMQ is not the only new form of communication that is made possible by the computer. This should already be clear from the typology discussion. It will be made clearer in coming chapters. But CMQ is distinctive among forms of human communications that are not mediated by computers, those that are, and even among varieties of computer conferencing.
Some of its characteristics are shared with most existing computer-mediated communications systems:
It is possible to have an excellent group discussion via computer without ever coordinating anybody's schedule. It takes longer than a single face-to-face meeting would. Responses must wait for a respondent to rejoin the discussion. But there are several potential advantages, not the least of which is the fact that time does not have to be spent scheduling the meeting and waiting for that scheduled time.
Because the discussion is written, there is a possibility that it will be terser, better written, and better understood. Because the discussion is continuing, discussion may remain more tightly focused. This may mean finishing things more quickly than might normally be the case; that a computer-mediated group discussion may be completed faster than might be the case if a series of meetings were required. Finally, because it is asynchronous, there is no pressure to make immediate, and ill-advised, replies.
But it is also distinctive in ways that distinguish it from other computer media and other variants of computer conferencing:
CMQ must ultimately be regarded as a genre of computer conferencing. It must either depend on, or duplicate the services provided by, a computer conferencing facility, and its content is not inherently different than the content of most forums on a computer conference. But CMQ has distinctive characteristics that distinguish it from events on other human communications media, including other forms of computer-mediated communication and other genres of computer conferencing.