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THE NETWORK NATION REVISITED
A thesis, presented to the faculty of Stevens Institute of Technology in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
David Belson
dbelson@web.cc.stevens-tech.edu
May 4, 1994
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"For now, imagine that it is breakfast time in 1994, and you have
just settled down with a cup of coffee-substitute heated on your
solar stove, to read your computer-generated equivalent of the daily
newspaper, including all the news that is fit to display on your
home terminal" (Hiltz 1978, xxxii).
So ends the preface to The Network Nation, the seminal 1978 text on
Computer Mediated Communication, written by Starr Roxanne Hiltz and
Murray Turoff. Hiltz and Turoff, already experts in the field of
Computer Mediated Communication in 1978, drew on their experiences to
that time, and prognosticated what they felt the future of Computer
Mediated Communication would be. Their predictions were:
1. Computerized conferencing will be a prominent form of
communications in most organizations by the mid-1980s.
2. By the mid-1990s, it will be as widely used in society as the
telephone today.
3. It will offer a home recreational use that will make significant
inroads into TV viewing patterns.
4. It will have dramatic psychological and sociological impacts on
various group communication objectives and processes.
5. It will be cheaper than mails or long distance telephone voice
communications.
6. It will offer major opportunities to disadvantaged groups in the
society to acquire the skills and social ties they need to become
full members of the society.
7. It will have dramatic impacts on the degree of centralization or
decentralization possible in organizations.
8. It will become a fundamental mechanism for individuals to form
groups having common concerns, interests or purposes.
9. It will facilitate working at home for a large percentage of the
work force during at least half of their normal work week.
10. It will have a dramatic impact upon the formation of political and
special interest groups.
11. It will open the doors to new and unique types of services.
12. It will indirectly allow for sizable amounts of energy
conservation through substitution of communication for travel.
13. It will dramatically alter the nature of social science research
concerned with the study of human systems and human communication
processes.
14. It will facilitate a richness and variability of human groupings
and relationships almost impossible to comprehend.
"Breakfast time in 1994" has arrived, coffee drinkers are as loyal as
ever, and solar heating never really caught on. But what about the
computer-generated daily newspaper and the rest of the predictions
made by Hiltz and Turoff?
In my thesis, I will be examining each of the 14 predictions made by
Hiltz and Turoff, and will evaluate each of them relative to the
developments that have taken place with regards to Computer Mediated
Communication over the past 16 years. I hope to determine if
sufficient growth has taken place for "the Network Nation" to become a
reality, or if additional time is necessary for it to come to
fruition.
Section One, Introduction to Computer Mediated Communication Systems,
gives a brief background on Computer Mediated Communication. It traces
the history from Turoff's original work, through the resources
available today.
Section Two, Prominence of CMC Within Organizations, assesses the
usage of Computer Mediated Communication within the workplace. Its
usage is growing, but it is not yet to the point where it can be
considered prominent.
Section Three, Extent of CMC Usage, asks if societal use of Computer
Mediated Communication is on par with that of the telephone. A number
of factors appear to be impeding its widespread growth.
Section Four, Recreational Usage of CMC, looks at the impact that
Computer Mediated Communication has had on television viewing habits.
Television continues to eclipse CMC as a form of recreation.
Section Five, Psychological and Sociological Impacts of CMC, examines
the impact of Computer Mediated Communication in these areas. It has
indeed had a profound impact, as would any major shift in means of
communication.
Section Six, Comparative Costs of CMC, attempts to determine whether
or not the use of Computer Mediated Communication costs less than the
mail or telephone. In the long run, it becomes significantly cheper
than either of the other two media.
Section Seven, Opportunities Offered by CMC, reviews the opportunities
offered to disadvantaged members of society. It has enabled the blind
"to see the world" and the homeless to find jobs.
Section Eight, Centralization and Decentralization, explores the
impact of Computer Mediated Communication on decision making and
organizational structure. It is hard to determine any clear result in
these areas.
Section Nine, Formation of Groups, assesses the aid that Computer
Mediated Communication has provided in the formation of groups.
On-line groups have brought people together to discuss nearly every
topic imaginable.
Section Ten, Facilitation of Telecommuting, examines the growth of
telecommuting as related to Computer Mediated Communivation. It has
not yet grown to extent that Hiltz and Turoff had hoped.
Section Eleven, Formation of Political and Special Interest Groups,
once again looks at group formation, but this time in a focused
manner. Computer Mediated Communication has assisted in bringing
lobbying power to the networked masses.
Section Twelve, New and Unique Services, looks at the interesting new
services that have been made possible with the advent of Computer
Mediated Communication. People are coming up, on a regular basis, with
new ways to put computers and networks to use.
Section Thirteen, Potential for Energy Conservation, questions whether
the usage of Computer Mediated Communication will lead to increased
energy savings. Unfortunately, it has not, to any significant extent.
Section Fourteen, Altered Nature of Social Science Research, discusses
the changes in social science that have accompanied Computer Mediated
Communication. The potential for anonymity has brought with it
interesting changes in behavior, for better and for worse.
Section Fifteen, Virtual Communities, looks at how people are reaching
out and creating on-line communities of their own. The inhabitants of
these communities can play the roles of friend or foe, just as in real
life.
Section Sixteen, Survey Analysis, analyzes the results of a survey
conducted via the World Wide Web. The survey was conducted to gather
timely, real world data to answer some of the questions raised during
my research.
In the preface to the Revised Edition of The Network Nation, published
in 1993, Hiltz and Turoff had this to say:
"The first edition had one major mistake: over-optimism about the
speed at which computer-mediated communication would be adopted
around the world, to create a 'network nation' that spans political
and social boundaries. At the time we so readily perceived and
experienced the benefits of the technology that we seriously
underestimated the time it would take for it to spread" (xxix).
However, they recognize the impact that the introduction of the
personal computer has had, noting, "The personal computer is the
facility by which users seek to integrate all of their computing,
using these machines to communicate both with computer resources and
other humans. There is thus a new and pervasive technological
foundation for the growth of the Network Nation" (xxxi).
_________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
"In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively
through a machine than face to face," predicted J.C.R. Licklider, back
in 1968 (21). He believed that communication is based on more than
sending and receiving; for him, modeling is basic and central to
communication (22). Licklider, a visionary in the field, saw the use
of computers and computer mediated communication systems as an
invaluable tool in modeling, and therefore, in communicating.
Computer mediated communication systems have exploded in the
quarter-century since Licklider made his prediction. They began with
conferencing systems used in times of national crisis and electronic
mail on the ARPAnet, and today include global electronic mail, Usenet,
IRC, bulletin board systems, and subscription-based on-line services.
Murray Turoff, characterized by Howard Rheingold as "the standard
eccentric prodigy" ("Tools", 306), can be considered the father of
computerized conferencing. While employed at the Institute for Defense
Analysis in the late 1960's, Turoff began to computerize the "Delphi
method," a process developed at Rand in which printed questionnaires
and responses circulate among a group of experts (306). In 1971,
during the Nixon administration's wage and price freeze, the Office of
Emergency Preparedness commissioned Turoff to "computerize" the voice
conference call. EMISARI (the Emergency Management Information and
Reference System) was the result, and today it is widely recognized as
the prototype computer conferencing system (Rapaport 2-4).
EMISARI modeled group communications through the use of five elements.
The first was the notebook, an open text area to which any number of
people had read and write access. The party-line was an extension of
the notebook, and grouped text streams into "conferences." Both the
notebooks and the conferences supported keyword searching of the text.
The data fields / data tables contained data entered by one authorized
person for review and analysis by everyone. Delphic voting was built
into the system, with voting results automatically tabulated.
Electronic mail was also supported by EMISARI, as was the ability to
associate mail messages with data fields or notebook entries (Rapaport
4-6). It is important to note that EMISARI supported both asynchronous
and synchronous communications.
Turoff later joined the New Jersey Institute of Technology to research
the uses, effects, and design of computer conferencing software, and
developed the EIES conferencing system, which went on-line in 1975
(Rapaport 6). Conferencing systems continued to evolve over the next
decade with the development of PLANET, PLATO, Notepad, Caucus,
Picospan, and Participate. All were asynchronous/synchronous
text-based systems, and all sought to assist in the task of group
communication.
Also in the mid-1970's, users of the ARPAnet (Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network) began to utilize a "unique" feature of the
electronic mail system -- the capability of communicating with a
specialized, albeit unknown audience (Rheingold, "Tools" 307).
"At a technical level, the users of these systems were able to share
computer resources and research findings, as they were supposed to.
But it also turned out that whenever people are introduced to a
computer network, they seem to want to use it to communicate with
each other.
People on the ARPAnet devoted hours to composing messages. For the
small community of people who had access to such systems, the
continuing dialogues on AI and foreign policy, space shuttles and
Spacewar, diatribes, puns, puzzles, gossip, pranks, and running
jokes became a combination water-cooler and customized daily news
medium" (Rheingold, "Tools" 307-8).
This "unique" feature is still strongly utilized today on the
Internet, a descendent of the ARPAnet. The Internet, a global
internetwork, connects several million people, and specialized
listserver software for a variety of platforms enables them to
communicate on topics of interest from A to Z.
The Internet, in addition to its electronic mail facilities, has both
exclusively asynchronous (Usenet) and synchronous (IRC) conferencing
systems available. Both allow a user to communicate with someone
across the room, or around the world.
"The structure of Usenet is best described as a 'cooperative
anarchy.' Usenet is administered, if at all, by volunteers,
non-profit organizations and corporate research groups. Despite this
lack of organization, or perhaps because of it, Usenet offers
exciting possibilities for electronic publishing, information
sharing, and rapid communication over large and diverse computer
communication networks" (Hardy, "The Usenet System" 1)
Usenet began in 1979 as a means to facilitate UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy
Program) communications between the University of North Carolina and
Duke University. It has grown exponentially since then, and it is
estimated that there are now more than 62,000 sites and over six
million people exchanging messages (Hardy, "The Usenet System" 10).
Usenet communication is done via messages posted to newsgroups, which
can be seen as computerized special interest groups, organized in a
hierarchical fashion. The focus of the newsgroups run from the serious
to the sublime, as do the contents of their postings. Text posted to a
newsgroup is sent out via a "flooding" algorithm, and responses are
received anywhere from several hours to several days later. Henry
Edward Hardy spoke highly of Usenet in his paper "The Usenet System,"
commenting, "Usenet may be said to be the example of computer mediated
communication par excellence" (7).
Communication over the Internet, as stated before, can also be
synchronous. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) originated at the University of
Oulu, Finland, in 1988 (Reid 6). IRC users, in order to participate,
must join a "channel." These channels host real-time conversations
between people from around the globe on a variety of topics. By the
early 1990's, there were hundreds of channels and thousands of people
chatting across the Internet, at all hours of the day (Rheingold, "The
Virtual Community" 179).
IRC is not entirely for play, however. It is used by scientists and
scholars to convene informal discussions among geographically distant
colleagues (Rheingold, "The Virtual Community" 179), and Elizabeth
Reid notes in her Master's Thesis, "It is an excellent forum for
consultations between workers on different parts of the globe -
everything from programming to translation to authorial collaboration
goes on on IRC" (2).
The introduction of the personal microcomputer in the mid-1970's began
a movement that brought computer mediated communication to the masses.
In 1978, Ward Christensen wrote CBBS (Computer Bulletin Board System),
whose function, as stated by Matthew Rapaport, "...was to reproduce,
in computer form, the mundane cork bulletin board covered with
thumb-tacked three-by-five cards" (19). Hobbyist bulletin board
systems (BBS's) proliferated extensively during the 1980's, and it is
estimated that today there are between 10,000 and 15,000 BBS's in
operation, allowing users to exchange text messages as well as files
(Rapaport 20).
The advent of the personal computer also spurned the growth of
commercial, subscription-based conferencing systems. According to
Rapaport, the three largest public services supporting conferencing
functions are CompuServe, GEnie and BIX (179). These services, as well
as others including Delphi, Prodigy, ZiffNet, and America On-Line,
allow their subscribers to take part in asynchronous conferences as
well as synchronous conversations.
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PROMINENCE OF CMC WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS
Webster's defines prominent as "of distinction or eminence; notable;
leading; eminent." Has Computer Mediated Communication become
organizationally accepted to the point where it is a "prominent" form
of communications in most organizations, as Hiltz and Turoff felt it
would be by the mid-1980's?
In the 1993 edition of The Network Nation, Hiltz and Turoff noted that
the use of CMC in organizations has grown, and that it is now used to
accomplish a wide variety of objectives. Among these objectives, they
list: project management, collaborative composition of reports, task
scheduling and tracking, collaborative budget estimation, product and
customer support, and the exploration of complex situations (456).
Trask offers a number of reasons for the wider use of CMC, including,
"... communication is easier and less expensive across time and
geographic locations, communication is more rapid and with greater
precision to targeted groups, communication is better recorded and
indexed, and communication access control and participation control is
greatly improved" (23-24).
As part of the research for his Master's Thesis, Gardner Trask
surveyed 132 top New England managers, computer programmers, and MBA
candidates to determine the impact of new communication technologies
on their companies. All of his respondents, as would be expected,
noted the availability of paper, face-to-face verbal communication,
and telephones. These standard means of communication were extremely
prominent -- how prominent was CMC, though? The most common subset of
CMC was electronic mail, with 80 respondents noting its availability.
Just more than half of the respondents noted the availability of
electronic document transfer and shared document databases. Much lower
on the scale were computer bulletin boards, available to 43
respondents, and multi-media systems, available to 22 respondents
(Trask 50). Despite the fact that the sample size is relatively small,
it appears that CMC has not achieved the level of prominence in
organizations that Hiltz and Turoff had hoped.
Despite the lack of widespread availability, as characterized by
Trask's findings, how is CMC utilized in the companies in which it is
available? Once again, paper, face-to-face, and telephone were used
overwhelmingly in communicating with co-workers higher, lower, and on
the same level in the hierarchical structure. Electronic mail was used
by fewer than ten respondents in each case, for the same purposes. To
communicate with people outside the company, 79 respondents used the
phone, while only three reported using e-mail. CMC's effectiveness in
widespread communication is realized in communication to the entire
company, beating out face-to-face and the telephone, yet still falling
far behind paper (Trask 51). These rather poor showings are certainly
not representative of a "prominent" form of communication.
Even though we are now nearly a decade past Hiltz and Turoff's focus
date, we can look a bit further into the future. Trask asked his
respondents which methods, if they were given all possible options,
they would use for communication. Electronic mail showed an increase
in preference for use in communication among the corporate hierarchy,
with an average of 15 respondents selecting it. One respondent would
prefer to use a bulletin board system for the same task, while 11
would use one to communicate to the entire company. Once again, the
ability of CMC to facilitate widespread communication was recognized,
as e-mail beat out all other options for communication to the entire
organization (Trask 53).
Unfortunately, it seems that even given the chance for prominence, CMC
still fights an uphill battle. Face-to-face communication, among
Trask's respondents, was clearly preferred for intra-company
communication, even with the availability of all other possible
options. The telephone demonstrated an increase in preference for
communicating with people outside the company. The preference for
using paper, however, did show a decrease.
Although CMC has achieved a place of prominence in large computer
corporations like Digital, IBM, and Sun, why has it failed to do so
among smaller companies? It is possible that smaller organizations
feel that they are served adequately by the conventional means of
communication. Additionally, smaller organizations may not be able to
afford the costs associated with bringing CMC into the workplace. The
costs include initial hardware and software costs, maintenance,
upgrades, and most importantly, the training of company personnel.
Until CMC becomes demonstrably cheaper and "better" than the
time-honored methods of organizational communication, it will not be a
prominent form of communication in most organizations.
_________________________________________________________________
EXTENT OF CMC USAGE
"The telephone had extensive and unanticipated effects in part
because it routinely extended attention, social contacts, and
interdependencies beyond patterns determined by physical proximity.
Reducing the constraints of physical proximity increased people's
choice of interactions, whether with family members who had migrated
from the farm to the city, or distant employees, or the boss.
Amplification occurred because communication networks have a
mutually causal, spiraling relationship with information networks,
close relationships, conformity, and cultural change.... Our
research demonstrates that, as the telephone did, new computer-based
communication technology in some organizations is changing
attention, social contact patterns, and interdependencies" (Sproull
7).
Has the introduction of Computer Mediated Communication had an impact
on par with the introduction of the telephone? Is CMC used as widely
in society today as the telephone was in 1978, when The Network Nation
was written? Unfortunately, the answer to both of these questions is
no. Why is this the case, and what does the future hold for the spread
of CMC into society?
The usage of CMC can usually be categorized as one of three types of
phenomena: substitution, add-on, or expansion. The substitution
phenomena takes place when CMC replaces an alternate method of
communication, such as the telephone. The add-on phenomena occurs when
people keep their use of alternate communication methods constant, and
just use CMC as another method. The expansion phenomena occurs as an
extension of add-on, where the use of CMC stimulates additional
communication via alternate methods (Hiltz, "Online" 167).
In 1984, Hiltz studied users of the EIES system to determine the
effect of CMC on their usage of the telephone. She states:
"Whether substitution, add-on, or expansion phenomena are observed
will vary with amount of system use. Low levels of use should not
affect communications modes very much. It is probably the EIES users
who spent a relatively high amount of time online (100 hours or more
over eighteen to twenty-four months) who are predictive of the
potential media substitution effects, should such systems become
widely used within an organization or interest community" ("Online"
167).
Hiltz found that there was generally an "add-on" effect, but as system
use increased, the "substitution" effect became more prominent. A
quarter of the members and half of the heavy users reported a decrease
in telephone use; a minority, however, demonstrated an "expansion"
effect, increasing their telephone usage.
Upon the original introduction of the telephone, it is reasonable to
surmise that substitution and add-on were the predominant phenomena.
Phone calls, which were real-time, were substituted for written
communication, as well as face-to-face, both in the workplace as well
as in common society. Personal letters and business correspondence
could be supplemented and followed up on with phone calls. It is
important to note, however, that with the introduction of the
telephone came an important shift in communication norms. No longer
was the focus on text-based communication, and gone were the visual
cues of face-to-face communication. Over time, people adjusted to
these shifts, and the telephone has become an accepted, and generally
preferred method of communication.
The introduction of CMC has prompted similar shifts. With CMC,
text-based communication is once again becoming the norm. Multimedia
systems are available, and are becoming better by the day, but by and
large, communication is still text-based. With the shift back to text
comes the removal of additional communication cues. Messages can no
longer be influenced by the tone or inflection of one's voice, facial
expressions, or even "body English." The current focus on text also
differs a great deal from the pre-telephone textual focus, as a piece
of electronic mail lacks the personality of a handwritten letter, or
the respect of a letterhead.
We now must determine why CMC has failed to become as widely used as
the telephone. The removal of communication cues is one major factor.
Whether it is a electronic mail message, a post in a conference, or a
synchronous conversation, it is still just text on a screen, and it is
considered by many to be impersonal because it is coming from a
computer, despite the fact that there is a real live human being on
the other side.
Cost is another extremely important factor. Organizations have been
slow to computerize over the last fifteen years, and only now are
organizations beginning to realize the benefits inherent in networking
and Computer Mediated Communication. However, this does not come
cheap. Each system alone runs several thousand dollars, and that is
before the costs of the necessary software, wiring, and personnel
training are factored in. Implementing CMC in an organization is major
financial step, and it is one that many organizations cannot afford to
take.
Cost is also an important factor in the spread of CMC through common
society. For the average citizen to take advantage of it, they must,
at the very least, purchase a computer system and the appropriate
software. Add to this the cost of the phone calls necessary to connect
to the BBS or online service, and registration costs, if any. For
most, the costs are prohibitive in comparison to the costs of phone
equipment, monthly charges and the costs of the calls.
With the proposed "information superhighway" that promises network
connectivity to one and all, along with falling prices for hardware
and software, CMC may soon be a reality for the masses. Hiltz and
Turoff were somewhat over-optimistic in their prediction, but given
current trends, CMC should be as widely used as the telephone by the
turn of the century.
_________________________________________________________________
RECREATIONAL USAGE OF CMC
Since its invention in the early twentieth century, television has
extended its tendrils through society, in the city and in the country,
among the rich and the poor. Programming ranges from educational to
political, from thought-provoking to mindless drivel. It has achieved
an almost "drug-like" status, and in this context, is probably the
most widely used "recreational drug" in society today.
Has computer Mediated Communication had a discernible impact on
television viewing patterns? Has CMC offered, as Hiltz and Turoff
termed it, a "home recreational use" that would supplant the hours
spent in front of the TV set? The answer, unfortunately, is a
resounding no. There are a number of factors that have caused CMC to
lose out to television in the recreational arena.
Cost is a significant factor. Consider television -- for an initial
outlay of several hundred dollars, electricity costs, and an optional
monthly charge for cable television services, entertainment can be
provided at the push of a button. The technical aspects of television
have remained relatively constant as well, meaning that a set
purchased over thirty years ago is still useful today. Now consider
Computer Mediated Communication. The initial purchase price of a
computer system with the necessary peripherals ranges from several
hundred to several thousand dollars; this amount will have to be spent
every few years in order to keep pace with technological advances. Add
to system costs the cost of software, monthly charges for online
services, electricity costs, and the associated telephone costs.
Television, in terms of recreational value per dollar, comes out far
ahead of CMC.
Ease of use is another significant factor. To use a television, all
one really needs to do is be able to push a button or turn a dial --
passive skills and trivially simple tasks to perform. To communicate
via computer, one must, at the very least, be able to type at a
reasonable pace and know how to navigate the software and
communications system -- skills and tasks that require an active
effort on the part of the user. Typing skills take time to refine, and
the learning curve on some software packages and communication systems
can be quite formidable. If you are looking for recreation with a
minimal expenditure of effort, then once again, television is the
clear choice.
A third factor, probably unforeseen by Hiltz and Turoff in 1978, was
the advent of the video game system. The "Atari generation" of the
early 1980's, and the "Nintendo generation" of the 1990's have altered
both their viewing and communication habits, spending hours playing
action and adventure games on video game systems hooked up to their
television sets. These home video game systems, which first became
popular in the early 1980's, usually cost less than $200, and
individual games typically cost from $5 to $50. Viewing habits are
altered because television sets are being used as displays for the
video game systems. Video game players can also alter their
communication habits, becoming reclusive in attempts, often in an
obsessive fashion, to "beat the game."
Looked at from another angle, CMC also has the potential to increase
television viewing. On Usenet News, There are a number of discussion
groups dedicated to television and television personalities. A number
of groups under the alt.fan.* hierarchy are dedicated to specific
programs, characters, and actors/actresses. Groups under the
rec.arts.tv.* hierarchy are dedicated to specific programs, genres, or
television in general. Members of these newsgroups often compile
canonical lists of episodes and broadcast schedules for upcoming
episodes. It is certainly reasonable, then, to visualize a situation
in which someone would watch more television, thereby increasing their
chances of seeing a particular episode or guest star. Discussions
about upcoming shows also have the potential to encourage additional
viewing hours. Here are instances where the use of CMC may add to
television viewing hours, rather than usurping them.
All is not lost for CMC, however. On many college campuses, where
computers are easily accessible, conferencing is a popular method of
recreation. With access to a system on the Internet, many students
utilize IRC, "Multi User Dungeons" (MUDs), conferencing systems and
electronic mail as recreational vehicles, corresponding with people
from across campus and around the world. Students often pursue
communication in this fashion with a religious fervor, most certainly
neglecting television; unfortunately, they also neglect friends, food,
and their studies. To them CMC is as much a drug as television is to
the rest of society.
Computer Mediated Communication still has quite a way to go before it
can make truly significant inroads into television viewing patterns.
The obstacles associated with cost and ease of use must be overcome,
and fast, before the 500 additional television channels being forecast
for the near future turn us from a democratic state to a vegetative
state.
_________________________________________________________________
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF CMC
"Computers could make communication easier, just as the canning of
perishables and the development of can openers made food preparation
easier, or they could have much more complex implications" (Kiesler
331).
The development of Computer Mediated Communication has seriously
impacted group communication. The objectives and processes associated
with group communication have undergone significant changes. Over 15
years ago, Hiltz and Turoff predicted that CMC would have dramatic
psychological and sociological impacts on these objectives and
processes. Have these changes been due to the impact of CMC? What
changes have occurred?
Previously, when group communication took place through mass mailings
and circulated memos, it was understood that communication would be
slow, and project timeframes were scheduled accordingly. In addition,
the geographic distribution of group members may have been limited so
as to save on delay time and distribution costs. However, the use of
CMC now makes it possible to send large amounts of information around
the globe in rapid fashion. The availability of instantaneous
electronic communication has changed expectations, leading
participants to expect nearly instantaneous responses. Kiesler
demonstrates this change, noting, "We have talked with a company
president in Pittsburgh who sends mail at dinnertime asking his
subordinates in Singapore for quarterly projections by breakfast"
(Kiesler 333).
Because CMC is a text-based medium, physical and social cues have all
but been eliminated. The removal of these cues may create some
interesting problems, and resolve some others. The absence of
regulating feedback, such as head nods and tone of voice may create
coordination problems to express prior knowledge of a topic, something
that can be done with a simple cue in a face-to-face group meeting
(Kiesler 333).
Social influences are also weakened with the use of CMC. Taking the
head seat at a table, speaking in a loud voice, and gesturing are no
longer explicitly possible when group meetings are conducted in a
textual format. It is also no longer possible to hear the tone of
someone's voice, or look them in the eye. The loss of this non-verbal
behavior, which is often important in bargaining situations, changes
the way in which, and the extent to which, bargaining among group
members occurs (Kiesler 334).
The loss of these non-verbal behavior cues, however, may have a
potentially positive effect on group behavior, coupled with the
removal of physical cues, especially those with respect to status and
position. Kiesler notes, "Software for electronic communication is
blind with respect to the vertical hierarchy in social relationships
and organizations" (334). To this end, it has been found that high
status people do not dominate the discussion in electronic groups as
much as they do in face-to-face groups (Sproull 61). No longer do
"clothes make the man," and no longer is the meeting "turf" important.
CMC allows meetings to proceed in an egalitarian fashion, creating a
situation in which all members may participate equally.
The introduction of CMC has increased the speed at which group members
can communicate, but it has not necessarily increased the speed at
which they are able to reach a consensus. In fact, certain factors
associated with CMC may delay arrival at a consensus. Discussing a
study they conducted in 1980, Sproull and Kiesler found an interesting
effect, noting, "Groups usually take a position that is more extreme
than the average of the positions held by group members before the
meeting" (64). When CMC is utilized, "flaming" is also common.
"Flaming" is impulsive, highly emotional, and often rude behavior that
is rarely exhibited in a face-to-face setting. Sproull and Kiesler
found that "tendencies to be argumentative and outspoken in electronic
discussions sometimes lead to increased group conflict" (65). The
tendency towards polarization of opinions in an electronic setting,
coupled with the disruptive nature of flaming will certainly retard
arrival at a consensus. Sproull and Kiesler concur with this, stating,
"If a decision requires consensus, an electronic group has to work
harder to get to it than a comparable face-to-face group does" (65).
When a consensus is finally reached, is the quality of the decision
good or poor? A question such as this is hard to answer, yet Sproull
and Kiesler noticed a particular trend in decisions made by electronic
groups. They noted, "Groups that met face-to-face were risk averse for
gain choices and risk seeking for loss choices, just as most
individuals are. Yet when the same groups met electronically, they
were somewhat risk seeking in all circumstances" (67). These riskier
decisions may result from a number of factors. Increased conflict in
solving problems, as discussed above, is one factor. Another is that
electronic groups tend to consult more people before making a
decision, thus increasing the number of alternatives being considered.
A third is that electronic groups will more often ignore faulty
reasoning put forth by members who would be respected in a
face-to-face situation (Sproull 68). Group members must be conscious
of this tendency towards riskier choices, and must remember that
decisions made under CMC may not be valuable in all circumstances.
Not only does the use of CMC for group communication suffer from a
lack of social and physical cues, it also suffers from a lack of
established conventions. Norms that are common in face-to-face
communication are no longer standardized. There are few shared
standards for salutations, be they for personal or official
correspondence. Along these lines, there are also few shared standards
for the structuring of formal and informal messages, and for adapting
message content to both have an impact and be polite. Kiesler calls
the use of CMC "a technology in cultural transition," and asks how
people will go about developing a communication network social
structure for it (334-5).
Hiltz and Turoff were correct when they said that CMC would have
dramatic psychological and sociological impacts on group communication
processes and objectives. Gone are social and physical cues that
formerly provided for efficient group communication. Gone are the
status and position cues that allowed a single person to dominate a
meeting. Gone are established norms and conventions. Group users of
CMC must learn to work around these losses, or find alternative ways
of implementing them electronically. They must be able to don the
proverbial "asbestos jacket" for protection during "flame wars," and
they must understand that decisions made electronically may not be
valuable and valid in all cases. Because group communication via
computer is a relatively recent phenomena, changes will continue to
occur as cues and norms are further discarded, developed, and
replaced.
_________________________________________________________________
COMPARATIVE COSTS OF CMC
"Studies have shown that considering all the costs and overhead
involved, a four page document costs over three dollars to send via
postal mail, nearly $10 via fax, and even more by overnight courier.
Compare that to just pennies for e-mail..." (Thorat 2).
Computer Mediated Communication has all but eliminated the crucial
communication variables of time and distance, and has done so at lower
cost. Has electronic mail, just one application of CMC, become cheaper
than the mails or long distance telephone communications, as Hiltz and
Turoff had predicted? For all intents and purposes, yes. However,
there are those costs associated with electronic mail that are not
associated with sending mail or placing a phone call.
Dana Thorat, discussing the results of studies that have been done on
the cost of electronic mail, wrote, "Those studies examined the cost
categories of purchase price, installation, maintenance, network
infrastructure, gateways, user training, administrator training and
operational costs and concluded that the average cost per e-mail user
in a large organization is approximately $300 per year" (2). However,
he also notes, "Depending on the number of messages a user sends, the
actual cost per message can be just pennies" (2). These additional
costs, though, become almost irrelevant when the savings generated by
the use of electronic mail are compared to the costs of other
communication alternatives.
Sproull and Kiesler note, "Companies appreciate the savings that
result from reducing telephone tag and snail mail delays..." (23).
Just how much money can be saved using electronic mail? Manufacturer's
Hanover Trust estimated that employees saved an average of 36 minutes
per day, translating into an annual savings of $7 million. Digital
Equipment Corporation estimated $28 million in marginal cost savings
among managers using e-mail (Sproull 23).
Consider a comparison of asynchronous methods of communication: e-mail
and "snail" mail, as it has come to be known among e-mail users. A
volley of electronic mail messages on a particular subject can take
place between any number of users. The exchange of each message takes
place in a matter of seconds or minutes, with each message costing
only several cents. In theory, it is possible for a decision to be
made on the subject by the end of the business day. If the exchange
were to take place via the mails, the difference is dramatic. Messages
sent via first-class mail cost (per piece) 29 cents for the first
ounce, and 23 cents for each additional ounce, and suffer a lag time
of several days. If the Express Mail Service offered by the U.S.
Postal Service were used, each piece would cost $9.95, and would
arrive the next day. Couple these additional postage costs with
productivity time lost due to delays and the costs of preparing the
documents to be mailed, and it is clear that Computer Mediated
Communication, in the form of e-mail, is significantly cheaper.
Now consider trying to accomplish the same task using the telephone, a
synchronous mode of communication. If individual calls are made, the
long-distance charges will add up rather quickly, as will the money
wasted on telephone tag. If a conference call is made, an extra cost
is incurred to set it up. In addition, because order can really only
be maintained if one party speaks at a time, a conference call would
tend to be quite lengthy, if an average speaking rate of 1.5 words per
second is accepted (Hiltz 1993, 380). Voice communication is not as
effective as written, because the parties of a phone call are forced
to rely on their individual representations of the conversation,
lacking any concrete text to refer to. The speed at which one reads
also tends to be faster than that at which they speak. Once again, in
comparison, Computer Mediated Communication clearly comes out ahead in
terms of cost.
Computer Mediated Communication is also more cost effective than the
mails or phone calls when file transfers are considered. Most
documents nowadays reside in a computer file, as do financial
forecasts and component designs. If these files can be shared as
attachments to an electronic mail message or via a file transfer
utility, then considerable time and cost savings can be achieved. The
receiver(s) of the file(s) can then make corrections, change numbers,
or tweak design specifications. This is certainly easier than
describing the necessary changes over the phone. It is also cheaper
than printing and shipping multiple copies of a large document or
prototyping and shipping a component of some sort.
Hiltz and Turoff included a cost analysis in their 1978 edition of The
Network Nation. They found that for a 221-word item (the average size
of EIES items during their test period), the costs were: EIES $.45 to
$1.08, Facsimile $1.92, Teletype $8.10, and Mailgram $3.96 (422). In
considering mail costs between three people, costs of $.87 to $1.47
were determined. The telephone was even more expensive, ranging from
$1.95 to $3.68 per item (423).
They recognized the economic advantages of Computer Mediated
Communication, even as it was in its infant stages, noting, "Even
without the inconveniences of mail and the impracticality of holding
discussions through the mail, it would prove to be too expensive a
mechanism to compete with EIES." They continued, "We doubt the
viability of the telephone for the types of discussions that take
place over EIES due to lack of written material or common file ability
provided by the phone. Even if this were not the case the phone would
still be out of the running on economic terms" (422-3). There are,
however, products becoming available that combine the two media,
allowing users to see and mark up documents on a computer while
speaking on the phone.
As Computer Mediated Communication continues to spread throughout the
workplace and society, e-mail and conferencing systems will become
more prevalent, easier to use, and increasingly cheaper. If the past
is any indication, postal rates will continue to climb, and long
distance telephone rates, although kept in check by competition, will
also go up. The costs of technology, as we have seen, will continue to
fall. Hiltz and Turoff validated their prediction in 1978, when it was
made. It is one that has certainly stood the test of time, and is one
that will gain more strength in the coming years.
_________________________________________________________________
OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY CMC
Computer Mediated Communication is not only for the "able" and
"advantaged" members of society. It has also had a profound impact on
the disabled and the disadvantaged, as it offers them the
opportunities to acquire the skills and social ties they need, as
Hiltz and Turoff stated, "to become full members of the society"
(Hiltz 1978, xxix).
As a case study in assisting the disadvantaged, consider the
SHWASHLOCK proposal, made by the members of the Public Electronic
Network (PEN) in Santa Monica, California. The proposal's name is an
acronym for "SHowers, WASHing machines, LOCKers," which PEN members,
including homeless participants, agreed that homeless job-seekers most
needed (Rheingold, "Virtual" 268).
"In August 1989, an artist, Bruria Finkel, posted her idea for
providing a needed service. Homeless people cannot effectively seek
employment without a place to shower in the morning and a free laundry
service to help make them presentable, as well as a secure place to
store personal belongings. And no city or nonprofit services provided
those key elements" (Rheingold, "Virtual" 268-9).
By holding ongoing virtual meetings, members of the PEN Action Group
were able to research why these services were lacking, as well as
discuss the problems with setting them up. Ultimately, the group was
successful, and was able to assist Santa Monica in making lockers,
showers, and a laundry voucher system available. In addition, the
homeless were able to utilize CMC in searching a job bank set up by
PEN members.
Howard Rheingold best summarized how PEN was able to assist
disadvantaged members of the Santa Monica community, noting, "PEN was
doing what it was designed to do: enabling citizens to discuss their
own agendas, surface problems of mutual concern, cooperatively design
solutions, and make the ideas work in the city's official government"
("Virtual" 269).
Community computing centers also offer opportunities to the
disadvantaged. Peter Miller notes, "As computers become more and more
ubiquitous, their appearance among programs and agencies which serve
primarily poor people is part of their natural development" (Miller,
electronic mail). CMC serves as a powerful tool, as he explains:
"... participants of all ages improve their communications, writing,
keyboarding and literary skills and gain knowledge of the world and
others through growing telecommunications options -- online chats,
e-mail and pen pals, contributing, posting and commenting on essays
and stories, and working on joint projects frequently involving
graphics and desktop publishing."
The disabled have also benefitted from Computer Mediated
Communication, manifested in the Internet and regular
telecommunications. CMC is used by the disabled to learn, collaborate
on projects, meet others with disabilities, and even for employment.
Project DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and
Technology) is a program at the University of Washington, directed by
Sheryl Burgstahler, that recruits students with disabilities into
science, engineering and mathematics academic and career programs. A
key component of DO-IT is electronic mentoring, where program
participants (high school students with disabilities) are brought
together with mentors (college students, faculty, engineers and
scientists, most with disabilities). Much of the student-mentor
communication is electronic, occurring over electronic mail
(Burgstahler, electronic mail).
An outstanding example of how the Internet has helped the disabled can
be found in Randy Hammer, a totally blind high school junior, who is a
DO-IT member. Randy was a runner-up in a national essay contest on the
Internet that was sponsored by the National Center for Education
Statistics, the NASA K-12 Internet Project, and the National Science
Foundation.
"Getting Internet access was the best thing that ever happened to
me. In a way, my computer and access to the net has become my eyes
to the world. I can read a newspaper, talk to people around the
world, and get materials for class papers, unlike before when I had
to depend on others to get the resources I needed" (Hammer, qtd. in
Burgstahler, electronic mail).
Randy goes on to explain that he was able to read a newspaper for the
first time in his life upon receiving his net access in August 1993.
He notes, "So, the net has helped me get in better contact with the
world via online newspapers." Randy is planning a career as a foreign
language expert, and he uses Internet chat systems to practice his
language skills with inhabitants of foreign countries. He also chats
with people across the US about current events. He explains, "Thus,
the net is a tool for me to get feedback from people all over the
world on what they think of different things, and it's an interesting
way to make new friends."
However, Randy has decided that "the best aspect of the net is the
ability to get information on any topic," through listservs, Gopher
space, or a host of other resources. He concludes, "In closing, the
Internet has become a great part of my life...It is hard now to
remember how I lived without this wealth of materials and information
at my fingertips."
The disabled also utilize CMC for employment purposes. In 1971,
SIEMENS AG in England began offering computer programming work to
suitably qualified handicapped residents of a rehabilitation center.
The program was successful, and by 1987 had become a separate company
with 89 employees. Two additional offices, employing thirteen people,
were opened in other parts of the country. This telecommuting setup,
as well as a similar one in which the disabled perform clerical
duties, are a means of offering employment and training to people with
physical disabilities (Huys, 93-4).
Why has CMC achieved such a level of success in offering opportunities
to the disadvantaged and disabled? Several factors play a role in the
success. Adaptive technology can be used in conjunction with
computers, allowing even the severely disabled to create the text with
which they can communicate, and in Randy Hammer's case, "see" the
world with the aid of a screen reader.
CMC encourages the growth of "virtual communities." These communities
can rally to a cause in assisting the disadvantaged, as did the PEN
Action Group, or they can become peer groups, as the disabled mentors
and students of the DO-IT program have formed. The egalitarianism that
exists within these communities is also important. CMC removes the
social cues found predominantly in face-to-face and voice
communication. As far as the members of the community are concerned,
everyone is equal -- no longer is anyone disabled or disadvantaged.
However, it is not all a bed of roses. Access to CMC systems must be
made available to everyone if they are to continue their role. Peter
Miller warns, "Recognizing that in out increasingly technological
society, people who are socially and economically disadvantaged will
become even further disadvantaged if they lack access to computers and
computer based technologies" (Miller, electronic mail).
_________________________________________________________________
CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION
In The Network Nation, Hiltz and Turoff (1993) wrote, "If you change
the communications structure of an organization, you inevitably change
also the nature of the decision-making process within it and the kinds
of decisions that are likely to result. Ultimately, you change the
form of the organization itself" (141). What sort of impact have the
introduction of computers and CMC had -- have organizations and their
associated decision-making processes become more centralized or
decentralized? When the smoke clears, who holds the power?
Herbert A. Simon, in his essay "The Consequences of Computers for
Centralization and Decentralization," notes, "Any change in technology
that makes it cheaper and easier either to centralize or decentralize
decisions will tip the balance in that direction" (216). He argues
that there are three main motives for the centralization of the
decision-making process, and attempts to show how the introduction of
the computer affects those motives.
The first motive Simon puts forth is "to gain economies of scale
(expertness)". He feels that the computer is making major
contributions to raising the level of expertness in decision making on
complex matters. However, he explains that there is no reason that
computerized decision aids "should either be or appear to be
centralizing mechanisms," if they are carefully introduced into an
organization (226).
Simon's second motive was "to coordinate interdependent activities."
The modeling capabilities afforded by computers allow decision makers
to consider large numbers of interacting variables when looking for
solutions to problems. He concludes that decisions will not become
more centralized, but that centralized decisions will be made "in a
far more sophisticated way," due to the advantages offered by the
ability to model real-world complexities (227).
The final motive put forth by Simon was "to control lower-level
activities in the interest of higher-level goals." In respect to goal
setting, the use of computers opens the related decision-making
process for inspection by all, making the process more objective. He
feels that the use of the computer will make it easier for management
to control decisions made elsewhere in the organization, and notes,
"... in this way reconciling the notion of central control over goals
with the notion of decentralization of the actual decision process"
(227).
Michael Hammer, author of Reengineering the Corporation also found no
clear impact of CMC. If "old" technologies like the U.S. mail,
telephone, and even overnight express are used to move information,
Hammer feels that centralization must be sacrificed in favor of
flexible and responsive field operations. He notes, however, that
organizations can "simultaneously reap the benefits of centralization
and decentralization" (93), or even a combination thereof, by
utilizing "new" technologies, including computer conferencing. He
drives home his point in noting, "Every field office can be part of
headquarters, and headquarters can be part of every field office"
(94).
Other CMC researchers have been more pronounced in their opinions,
arguing strongly in favor of decentralization. Hiltz and Turoff (1993)
state that computerized conferencing can facilitate decentralization,
and cite the results of a Bell Northern Research study that found that
with the introduction of a conferencing system, branch managers did
not need to involve the central office when solving problems, but
rather were able to solve the problems amongst themselves. They
support decentralization, saying, "If decisions are being made
autonomously, at the local level, they might be made much more quickly
and with a better understanding of the nature of the problem" (142).
In looking at the potential impact on industrial relations, Michael J.
Earl also found computerized conferencing to be an aid to
decentralization (363). Conferencing allows information to be
distributed throughout an organization, and when coupled with the
notion that information is a source of power, it can be inferred that
conferencing represents a threat to the concentrated power found in a
centralized organizational structure.
Elaine Kerr, collaborating with Hiltz in 1982, discussed
decentralization effects on a group level. They found that
computerized conferencing served to decentralize communication, and to
discourage the formation of hierarchical teams in favor of more fluid
ones (150). The use of computerized conferencing allows everyone to
talk and listen at the same time, leading to greater group
participation, and a more egalitarian distribution of power.
Marshall McLuhan took a more no-holds barred approach, and spoke of
the computer moving us towards a "world consciousness." He said, "...
and at the same time it dissolves hierarchy in favor of
centralization." He continued, "Any business corporation requiring the
use of computers for communication and record-keeping will have no
other alternative but to decentralize" (103).
In summary, the introduction of computers and CMC has had no absolute
impact on organizational structure, although it appears to foster the
decentralization of the decision making process. By allowing for the
redistribution of information, and therefore power, CMC allows
everyone to take part in the decision-making process, effectively
flattening organizational hierarchies.
However, the availability of CMC does not offer a necessary or
sufficient condition for decentralization. Other conditions must be
taken into consideration, including physical dispersion of
employees/subgroups, the commitment of the organization, and the
ability and willingness of employees to use CMC tools. In addition, it
is possible for decision making to be decentralized, while control,
which refers to the limits on decision options, remains centralized.
_________________________________________________________________
FORMATION OF GROUPS
As a general rule, people tend to form groups, clustering themselves
around common concerns, interests, or purposes. Hiltz and Turoff saw
CMC as providing a fundamental mechanism for this grouping to occur,
and in this regard, they could not have been more correct. Beginning
with the SF-LOVERS mailing list on the ARPANET in the late 1970's, the
development and extensive spread of mailing lists, USENET, localized
conferencing systems, and bulletin board systems have provided fertile
ground for the growth of groups around every imaginable topic.
As soon as ARPANET went on-line, people started sending electronic
mail, far beyond the requirements of maintaining the network
(Rheingold, "Virtual" 76). According to Rheingold, the first large
mailing list to foster its own culture was SF-LOVERS, made up of ARPA
researchers participating in public discussions about science fiction
(77). Over the past 15 years, ARPANET has grown into the Internet, and
mailing lists have flourished with it.
A quick glance through the list of "Publicly Available Mailing Lists,"
posted periodically to the news.answers newsgroup, provides a sizable
amount of evidence in support of Hiltz and Turoff's "grouping"
prediction.
There are a number of face-to-face networks concerned with all facets
of adoption, and their CMC analog can be found on adoption@think.com,
a list whose purpose is to "discuss anything and everything connected
with adoption." Mailing lists allow net.denizens to find groups of
people with related interests, be they social, recreational, sexual,
or political. ba-poker@netcom.com allows residents of the San
Francisco Bay Area to discuss poker as it applies to them, while
powderworks@boulder.colorado.edu allows fans of the musical group
Midnight Oil to discuss the band and its music.
Bisexu-L@brownvm.brown.edu provides a forum for the discussion of
issues of bisexuality, and those with political interests can join
fairness@mainstream.com, which monitors issues of "fairness" with
respect to the government. A group of people with the common purpose
of providing AIDS information can be found on info-aids@rainbow.UUCP.
The list acts as a clearinghouse for information and discussion about
AIDS.
USENET, the asynchronous conferencing system developed in 1979, has
gone global in the past 15 years, and it too supports the formation of
groups. The newsgroups are organized in a hierarchical fashion under a
number of main headings. Each newsgroup acts as a meeting place, where
participants discuss computers hardware and software, television
shows, recreational activities, politics, cultures of the world, and
innumerable other topics.
Localized conferencing systems also provide a "virtual" hall in which
groups can meet. At Stevens Institute of Technology, the VAXNotes
conferencing system is used by the students, faculty, and
administration for asynchronous conferencing. The Office of
Cooperative Education uses the CO-OP conference to disseminate
information to those students that are a member of the program. ERULES
is an on-line meeting place for students working on a class project to
discuss, of all things, rules for on-line meetings. Linux (a PC
version of UNIX) enthusiasts can meet and discuss the merits of the
operating system in the LINUX conference. Localized conferencing
systems can be found, in some form, on campuses and in corporations
world-wide.
"You can use a BBS to organize a movement, run a business,
coordinate a political campaign, find an audience for your art or
political rants or religious sermons, and assemble with like-minded
souls to discuss matters of mutual interest" (Rheingold, "Virtual"
132).
Rheingold, in that one sentence, described the essence of the function
that bulletin board systems have come to serve. Boardwatch magazine
estimates that sixty thousand BBSs existed in the United States by
1993 (Rheingold, "Virtual" 132). Local governments often maintain a
BBS to discuss issues of local interest. There are religious boards
for people for people of all faiths, including the Catholic
Information Network, Keshernet (Judaism), Zen Connection, and even the
Temple of the Screaming Electron, for those that want to "step
entirely off the scale," as Rheingold puts it. There are also BBSs
devoted to health and medical discussions, disaster preparedness, sex,
UFOs, and a myriad of other topics of concern and interest (Rheingold,
"Virtual" 132-4).
The development of the personal computer, along with the explosion of
facilities for CMC have not led to the development of a
depersonalized, anti-social society as many had feared. Instead, they
have drawn people closer together, by providing a fundamental
mechanism for group formation, as well as the formation of subcultures
among these groups.
Why has this happened? In studying social interaction with respect to
CMC, Jill Serpentelli noted:
"First, the computer is not, especially for this subculture, purely
an anti-social medium. Rather, it becomes a new medium, and for
many, a better medium, of achieving new social relationships.
Second, it appears that computer users see themselves as being part
of something set apart, something unique and special" (6).
Geographical boundaries and time constraints have fallen by the
wayside, as have the social stigmata of being associated with a
particular lifestyle or hobby. The removal of the first two
impediments have collapsed the globe into a "virtual community," where
all of your neighbors are no more than a few keystrokes away.
Belonging to a group is obviously much easier when one no longer has
to worry about meeting schedules and poor travel directions. The
removal of the social stigmata, coupled with removal of conversational
cues and the potential for anonymity, eases the anxiety of group
members who would otherwise face embarrassment.
_________________________________________________________________
FACILITATION OF TELECOMMUTING
"Given the capability of modern telecommunications and computer
technologies to efficiently produce, transmit, and store
information, it appears probable that many information industry
workers could 'telecommute.' That is, they could perform their work,
using communications and computer technologies, at locations much
closer to their homes than is the case now. If telecommuting could
be shown to be feasible, an alternative to commuting would be
available to a significant portion of the central business district
labor force" (Nilles, qtd. in Hiltz (1993) 432).
Hiltz and Turoff forecast in 1978 that CMC would allow a large
percentage of the work force to telecommute for at least half of their
normal work week. Unfortunately, they appear to have been overly
optimistic, as telecommuting, or telework, as it is also commonly
called, has not been as influential as they had hoped.
Jack Nilles, as quoted in The Network Nation, calculated that as of
1970, 38 million white collar workers, or 48.3 percent of the work
force, were "information industry" workers who would be candidates for
"telecommuting to work," and that the "exponential growth" of this
portion of the work force suggested that a majority of all workers
would soon be in this category (qtd. in Hiltz (1993) 432).
The estimates, both from Nilles and from others, have been revised in
a downward fashion over the years. In 1981, Nilles was forecasting
that there would be 10 million teleworkers in the United States by
1990 -- a figure representing less than 10 percent of the total
workforce (Huws 204). In 1983, Bikson, of the Rand Corporation,
prophesized that 10 percent of the office-based workforce (around 5
percent of the total workforce) in the United States would be doing
all, or a significant part, of its work as telework (qtd. in Huws
204).
Just how short of reality have these estimates fallen? Figures
indicate that today there are 7 million telecommuters (Levin 32). This
is apparently an increase of 1 million people over last year's
figures, representing a 15 percent increase in company employees who
telework (Machado, electronic mail). Census figures from 1990 indicate
that over 58 percent of U.S. employees are, as Nilles termed them,
"information industry" workers (Levin 32). An increase of 10 percent
over 20 years hardly agrees with the exponential growth curve that
Nilles predicted.
Why telecommute? What benefits are offered to the teleworker and to
the employer? There are a number of forces that have driven, and will
continue to drive the spread of telecommuting. Technology has played a
major role, as prices have dropped, and computing power has risen. The
movement in the United States for a national information
infrastructure will also aid in easing the "virtual" commute (de Heer,
USENET News).
Increasing numbers of telecommuters means decreasing numbers of cars
on the road. The teleworker can save time and money by not having to
travel to the office, and not being stuck in traffic means they can
lower their stress level, thereby increasing productivity and morale
(Sproull 121). In addition, telecommuting will help 13 severely
polluted cities comply with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990, which
requires all companies with 100 or more employees "to reduce solo
driving among their employees." (Levin 32). Less reliance on
automobiles also serves to mitigate the effects of natural disasters
like the recent Northridge earthquake in California. Damaged, flooded,
and snow/ice covered roadways will not keep the telecommuter from
getting to work.
Employers also benefit from telecommuting. By having employees work at
home, money can be saved on facilities costs (Sproull 121) and office
expenses (Travica 46). It is also claimed that the employer will
receive higher quality work -- achieved by reducing the distractions
of the office and not forcing an arbitrary office schedule onto
workers (Sproull 121). By incorporating a telecommuting program into
the workplace, employers can provide the impetus for a shift in
management culture from attendance-oriented to output-oriented (de
Heer, USENET News).
Why hasn't telecommuting lived up to the expectation of Hiltz and
Turoff? A number of issues have clouded the way, both for employer and
employee.
The big problem for employers is control -- both performance and
social control. Monitoring performance is more difficult for those
working at home. Sproull and Kiesler state, "When progress is
difficult to measure hourly, managers may feel uneasy if they can't
literally see their people at work" (121). They continue, "All
stay-at-homes pose problems of social control for employers" (121).
Because they are not "in the office," teleworkers see fewer reminders
of corporate goals and identity, learn less from more experienced or
successful workers, and are less easily managed by mechanisms in the
physical workplace that influence employee behavior (Sproull 121-2).
For many teleworkers, the expected homelife benefits were
overromanticized, and the career costs underestimated (Sproull 122).
The workplace, for many, is a refuge from their children. With a home
office, working is no longer necessarily a 9 to 5 affair, and may
impact negatively on family life. Sproull and Kiesler point out the
costs to one's career, noting, "Internal career mobility is lower
among people who are unable to participate in the informal contact
networks that operate in the workplace" (122). However, the
opportunity cost of the loss of "internal" social networking must be
factored in with the positive potential of computer-based social
connections. CMC affords a teleworker the opportunity to make both
social and professional contacts among people in their field and
related fields. Sproull and Kiesler also note that a substantial
measure of self-identity for professionals in our society comes from
going to the office.
It has taken a while for the workplace to become aware of, and
accustomed to, Computer Mediated Communication. People are becoming
increasingly more comfortable using technology to communicate. Couple
this with decreasing numbers of industrial jobs, and the increasing
number of "information" workers, and the percentage of telecommuters
and telework will continue to climb. However, Nilles suggests that
"roughly half the office workforce is the upper limit," so percentages
may not climb as high as Hiltz and Turoff had hoped (Huws 204).
_________________________________________________________________
FORMATION OF POLITICAL AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
Political wars continue to be fought on the battleground of the
conventional news media, but "the people" now have a weapon that
becomes more powerful with each passing day. Hiltz and Turoff
forecasted the dramatic impact that CMC would have on the formation of
political and special interest groups. Grass-roots political
movements, thanks to the electronic interconnection of millions of
people, are now more powerful than ever before. Supporters of
candidates, as well as the candidates themselves, can now share
information in a matter of minutes.
The alt.politics newsgroup hierarchy is chock-full of people
discussing politically-related topics of all kinds. Discussions cover
the spectrum, from alt.politics.radical-left to
alt.politics.usa.republican. alt.politics.correct allows the
proponents and opponents of the political correctness movement to slug
it out in a war of words. Ross Perot and Bill Clinton have newsgroups
dedicated to them (alt.politics.perot and alt.politics.clinton,
respectively), allowing people from around the world to watch the
American political circus. Clinton and Perot themselves have also
jumped into the fray:
"Whereas it took years for information and ideas to circulate by
hand and to arrange the face-to-face meetings that drafted the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, computer networks
can greatly speed up the process of people-to-people exchanges of
information, ideas, and plans of actions. Of course, not only small
or 'splinter' groups recognize this potential. By the 1980's in the
United States, many presidential campaign organizations were using
CMC to organize their nationwide efforts. By the 1992 campaign, the
Democratic candidate was uploading position papers directly into
Compuserve, and Ross Perot was promising an 'electronic town hall'
that would directly involve citizens in debates and preference
votes, should he be elected (Newsweek, June 22, 1992)" (Hiltz 1993,
480).
Political maneuvers on a state level have prompted CMC based
responses. The amend2-discuss and amend2-info mailing lists, both
based at cs.colorado.edu, were created in response to Colorado's
Amendment 2, which revoked any existing gay/lesbian/bisexual civil
rights legislation, and prohibited the drafting of any new
legislation. Members of the mailing lists discuss the implications and
issued that surround the amendment. CMC political movements occur on a
national level, as well.
"This is a pivotal moment in history." begins a message entitled
"Electronic Privacy -- A Call to Action," written by the staff at
WIRED Online. It focuses on an announcement made by the Clinton
administration on February 4, 1994, in which the administration
expressed its support for the Clipper Chip and SKIPJACK encryption
scheme as national standards (1).
The message notes, "The proposed encryption scheme ... relies on a
'key escrow' system with a built-in 'back-door' so that security
agents can decrypt and monitor even supposedly 'secure'
communications" (1). The WIRED staff is straightforward about its
feelings for Clipper, stating,
"The security agencies and the administration are involved in a
stealth strike at our freedoms that could effectively abrogate the
Bill of Rights in cyberspace, where we and our descendants will be
spending increasingly larger parts of our lives" (2).
WIRED Online has joined together with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) and the Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility (CPSR) in organizing a campaign to fight the Clipper
proposal. The CPSR put together an "electronic petition to oppose
Clipper." The petition has been widely circulated across the Internet,
on mailing lists, USENET newsgroups, and gopher sites. To sign the
petition, all one has to do is send e-mail to
Clipper.petition@cpsr.org with the message "I oppose Clipper." A
special edition of the "CPSR Alert" bulletin notes that over 10,000
responses were generated in the first two weeks, with daily signatures
totals running at almost 2,000 per day. It also points out an
interesting fact in that "The number of people who have opposed
Clipper already exceeds the current estimated government orders for
Clipper chips" (1).
The citizens of any country have always resisted when their rights
were infringed upon, and the development of cyberspace opens a vast
uncharted area in terms of rights and liberties. However, the advent
of cyberspace also opens up new ways in which citizens can organize
against these infringements, allowing them to fight in ways and
numbers never before possible.
"The technology that makes virtual communities possible has the
potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at
relatively little cost -- intellectual leverage, social leverage,
commercial leverage, and most important, political leverage. But the
technology will not in itself fulfill that potential; this latent
technical power must be used intelligently and deliberately by an
informed population. More people must learn about that leverage and
learn to use it, while we still have the freedom to do so, if it is
to live up to its potential" (Rheingold, "Virtual" 4-5).
No longer are political "think tanks" going to be the exclusive domain
of wealthy universities and government agencies. The fact that the
Internet has become so widespread and easily accessible allows layman
and expert alike to collaborate on equal footing. The asynchronous
facet of CMC allows people to participate at their convenience, and
the high-speed nature of electronic communication allows quick
turnabout for results, as the Clipper movement is demonstrating. In
addition, the self-policing of the Internet allows discussion to be
focused, so goals can be accomplished with a minimum of interference.
_________________________________________________________________
NEW AND UNIQUE SERVICES
So, you've corresponded via e-mail, contributed to a computer-based
conferencing system, and conversed using a synchronous chat program.
Is that all that Computer Mediated Communication has to offer? Not by
far -- there are a number of "new and unique" services available via
the Internet and online subscription services.
Are you tired of the three-hour tape loop that your local radio
station seems to be playing? Try tuning in Internet Talk Radio, a
service provided by the Internet Multicasting Service. Internet Talk
Radio "broadcasts" its programs as digital sound files, made available
via anonymous FTP.
"Geek of the Week" is the flagship show, and features interviews with
members of the technical community. "TechNation: Americans and
Technology" and "SOUNDPRINT" are syndicated public radio shows that
are also carried on Internet Talk Radio. Public affairs broadcasts are
done by the Internet Town Hall, which carries speakers from the
National Press Club Luncheon series.
Digital Equipment Corporation is helping its customers and its cash
flow through its Alpha AXP Internet program. According to a press
release from DEC, "The program provides customers with access to Alpha
AXP systems to test, qualify, or port software, and to help them make
purchase decisions." Gail Grant, the Program Manager, noted, "By
putting systems on the Internet, which [Vice President Al] Gore
referred to as a prototype of the information superhighway, we are
allowing a larger number of potential customers to try our systems to
see if they meet their business needs."
Internet-based fax gateways are also becoming an increasingly popular
means for communication. With access to Internet electronic mail, you
can send and receive facsimiles from nearly anywhere in the world.
AnyWare Associates FAXiNET(sm) is one such service. Their Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) file states, "Using a special electronic mail
address, you can have your e-mail messages delivered to any fax
machine. To receive faxes, a dedicated telephone number is provided,
and faxes received to this number are automatically delivered to the
e-mail address of your choice."
"An Experiment in Remote Printing," run by the Internet Multicasting
Service in conjunction with Dover Beach Consulting, is another such
service. Their FAQ file explains the purpose of the experiment: "The
experiment is a project in outreach: to integrate the e-mail and
facsimile communities...The ease in which the Internet mail
infrastructure can be used to provide this facility is (yet) another
example of the power of a general-purpose infrastructure."
Similar gateways can be found on CompuServe and America Online, as
well as at elvis.sovusa.com. elvis.sovusa.com also offers an e-mail to
postal mail gateway, as does America Online.
After a tough day at work, you remember that you have to pick up some
things for the house and the kids. No need to trudge out in the lousy
weather - many stores and products are now available online. The
Electronic Mall, available on CompuServe, allows you to order clothes,
books, music, music, coffee, fruit, and software from a number of
major retailers. A similar online shopping center can also be found on
America Online.
These "consumer access services," as they are denoted in Scott
Yanoff's "Special Internet Connections" list, are also proliferating
across the Internet. In the March 15, 1994 edition of the list, one
can find 16 Telnet, Gopher and e-mail addresses that offer CD's,
flowers, books, software, videotapes, and even sunglasses and electric
shavers.
Before you send in your order, have you considered the security and
privacy problems related to sending your credit card information over
the Internet? Why not use NetCash, a service conceptualized by Gennady
Medvinsky and B. Clifford Neuman.
"NetCash is a framework that supports realtime electronic payments
with provision of anonymity over an unsecure network. It is designed
to enable new types of services on the Internet which have not been
practical to date because of the absence of a secure, scalable,
potentially anonymous payment method.
NetCash strikes a balance between unconditionally anonymous
electronic currency, and signed instruments analogous to checks that
are more scalable but identify the principals in a transaction. It
does this by providing the framework within which proposed
electronic currency protocols can be integrated with the scalable,
but non-anonymous, electronic banking infrastructure that has been
proposed for routine transactions" (Medvinsky 1).
After a rough evening spent shopping, you'd like to relax with the
day's paper or a magazine, right? Now, you no longer have to fight the
dog for it -- you can just bring it up on screen. Many major
newspapers and magazines are now supplementing their print
distribution by publishing online as well.
The day's news is right at your fingertips. USA Today is available
over the Internet at a number of Telnet and Gopher sites. CompuServe
offers news from The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Reuters,
and United Press International, as well as international news from
ITAR, Kyodo News Service, Xinhua News Agency and Deutsche
Press-Agentur.
Still in the demo stages at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Media Lab is NewsPeek, "a selective home-publishable semiautomatic
electronic newspaper that knows the reader, made of material drawn
daily from Dow Jones News Retrieval, Nexis, XPress, and wire services,
along with television news" (Brand 36). Stewart Brand explains its
importance, noting, "With an electronic newspaper, the whole 100
percent of what the newsroom has could be accessed, and most of what
would be selectively delivered to the reader might be used" (38).
If you'd rather peruse a magazine, America Online features TIME, OMNI,
Compute!, PC World, and Windows Magazine. On the Internet, WIRED
Magazine is available via Gopher or the World Wide Web. A number of
smaller, more eclectic "'zines" can also be found on the Internet,
usually at Gopher and FTP sites.
In 1978, Hiltz and Turoff foresaw the advent of these "new and unique"
services. In the past 16 years, CMC systems have become available on a
global basis, and available bandwidth and computing power has grown by
several orders of magnitude. The public has gained greater access to
CMC, and have become more comfortable using it for communication. This
increased access and greater acceptance have played a major role in
the development and usage of these services.
Factors including increased bandwidth, powerful yet inexpensive
systems, the continued growth and spread of CMC, and the development
of secure fund-transfer mechanisms will support the growth of these
services. In another 16 years, there will be services available that
Hiltz and Turoff could have only dreamed about. We must be careful,
however, that we do not create a society that never leaves their
terminal.
_________________________________________________________________
POTENTIAL FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION
Telecommuting not only holds potential for the employer and the
employee, but for the environment as well. By substituting Computer
Mediated Communications for travel, sizable amounts of energy (fuel)
can be conserved. Hiltz and Turoff realized this sixteen years ago,
and time has served to uphold their realization, to some extent.
The United States government has also noticed the energy savings to be
gained by telecommuting -- "Telecommuters working for big companies
count as people who don't drive to work" (Levin 32). The Clean Air Act
of 1990 mandates that the number of riders per car increase from 1.3
to 1.5. It is estimated that this increase will save 1.5 billion
gallons of fuel by the year 2000. Telecommuting also cuts down on
pollution, as this mandate is expected to prevent 3.5 million tons of
carbon from polluting the air (Levin 32).
Nilles dramatized the amount of energy savings that are possible by
replacing automobile commutation with CMC. He calculated that the
ratio between energy consumption for the average automobile
commutation and the electrical energy necessary for the daily use of
CMC is about 60 to one. Nilles noted that for each 1% of the urban
work force that replaced automobile commutation with telecommuting,
U.S. gasoline consumption would decrease by 5.36 million barrels
(168.84 million gallons) annually (Nilles, qtd. in Hiltz (1993) 432).
Hiltz studied the substitution of CMC for travel in her 1984 book,
Online Communities. She found that, among EIES users, the use of CMC
did not significantly impact attendance at professional society
meetings. Hiltz noted that among her respondents, 80% reported that
CMC had "no effect". Among those respondents that perceived an effect,
increases in travel were just as likely as decreases. In considering
travel for a personal visit with a distant colleague, Hiltz reported
that travel was again about as likely to increase as decrease (170).
Teleconferencing, which uses specially equipped rooms in remote
locations to allow people to hear and see each other and work together
as if they were in the same room, allows people to meet without having
to travel. Hammer notes, "Initially, most organizations saw the value
of teleconferencing as a means of reducing travel..." (88). Less
travel means higher fuel and energy savings. However, Hammer declares,
"In this respect, teleconferencing has, by and large, proved a
monumental failure" (88). He explains that the undertaking of a trip
attaches an importance to the message ultimately delivered, and that
"The non-verbal communication that takes place in a face-to-face
meeting is probably more important than most of the words actually
spoken" (88-9).
Although, in theory, the use of CMC should reduce travel, thereby
saving energy, there is a flipside. As you spend more time online, the
number of people in your virtual community is bound to grow. Having
never met these people face-to-face, human curiosity would prompt a
more personal meeting. If your virtual neighbor is not also a "local"
neighbor, then these meetings will result in additional travel, and
thus additional fuel consumption. Hiltz supports this, noting that
among the heaviest users of EIES, almost a quarter reported an
increase in travel for personal visits with distant colleagues
("Online" 170).
_________________________________________________________________
ALTERED NATURE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Picture a society in which gender switching is no longer a painful,
expensive, and complicated procedure. In this same society, privacy is
dissolved as full credit, medical, and criminal histories are readily
available. Does it sound like a social scientist's nightmare? If so,
then they better wake up fast, because that society is our society.
The introduction and proliferation of Computer Mediated Communication
has indeed given social scientists a host of new things to study about
human systems and communication processes.
On IRC, a conferencing system on the Internet, participants interact
anonymously, save for their nicknames. This is nearly identical to a
CB radio chat, except that you can no longer identify the gender of
the participants by the sound of their voice. Elizabeth Reid describes
what this can lead to, noting, "IRC destroys the usually all but
insurmountable confines of sex: changing gender is as simple as
changing one's nickname to something that suggests the opposite of
one's actual gender" (9). She also notes that it is possible for IRC
to become an arena for experimentation with gender specific social
roles. Outside the world of IRC, gender experimentation is often a
taboo subject. Users of IRC understand that the medium allows for it,
and many take advantage of the opportunity to play with their
identity. "IRC enables people to deconstruct aspects of their own
identity, and of their cultural classification, and to challenge and
obscure the boundaries between some of our most deeply felt cultural
significances," states Reid (10).
On-line romances are also a new phenomena brought forth by CMC. It is
now possible for two people to meet, get to know one another, and fall
in love, having never met in a face-to-face manner. These net.romances
even, in some cases, lead to matrimony. One must be careful, however,
that these net.romances do not cross paths with the gender switching
phenomena described above. "The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover,"
written by Lindsy Van Gelder, describes Joan, a member of Compuserve's
CB channels. Joan, according to those that knew her, was a
neurophysiologist, in her late twenties, who had been disfigured,
crippled, and left mute by an automobile accident. Howard Rheingold
describes what happened when the paths finally crossed:
"Joan connected with people in a special way, achieved intimacy
rapidly, and gave much valuable advice and support to many others,
especially disabled women. She changed people's lives. So it was a
shock when Joan was unmasked as someone who in real life, IRL, was
neither disabled, disfigured, mute, nor female. Joan was a New York
psychiatrist, Alex, who had become obsessed with his own experiments
in being treated as a female and participating in female
friendships" ("Virtual" 165).
"Personal relationships amongst participants in computer-mediated
communication systems can often be deep and highly emotional," notes
Reid (12). The lack of social context cues allows people to "open up"
to each other, and allows them to form strong friendships. However,
the same lack of social context cues also leads to "reduced
self-regulation," with people behaving "in a more uninhibited manner
than they would in face-to-face encounters" (Reid 10). This
uninhibited behavior often results in "flaming" and hostile,
emotionally charged discussions. It is extremely interesting that the
same lack of cues can have such strongly positive and negative
effects.
The anonymity afforded by Computer Mediated Communication can also
play a positive role. The lack of an established identity plays a
similar role to that of fiction, allowing people to stretch their
horizons. By shedding the physical and social boundaries of real life,
users can let their imaginations run wild, and they can assume any
persona that they desire.
People who have "open" personalities on the net may in fact be
extremely private people in real life. However, with some ingenuity
and some computer work, you can find out a great deal about these
people. Charles Dunlop and Rob Kling comment:
"In any era, organizations use the available technologies for
keeping records; papyrus and paper were used for centuries. But in
modern societies, where computers and telecommunications are a
common medium for storing and accessing organizational records, the
opportunities for social control, and the nature of potential
problems, have changed a great deal" (411).
A great deal of information is stored on nearly every American citizen
by both government agencies and private organizations. However, when
the data that is stored is incorrect or out of date, a person's life
can be turned upside down. Dunlop and Kling illustrate this, noting,
"Consequently, inaccurate police records, medical records, employment
histories, etc., can harm people without their explicit knowledge
about why they are having trouble getting a job, a loan, etc." (413).
Privacy with respect to voting records has also been impacted by CMC.
Now that it is possible to collect and transmit votes via computer,
steps need to be taken that they are properly and securely
transmitted, recorded, and correlated. However, this must all be done
in such a fashion so as to protect the anonymity of the voting public.
Voting records must not reveal to others who a voter chose, yet they
must allow the voter to verify that their choices were correctly
recorded. These records, be they correct or incorrect, need to be
protected so that they cannot be used in a malicious manner against
any individual voter or group of voters.
The introduction and spread of Computer Mediated Communication has
given social science researchers broad new areas to analyze and study.
Privacy of information is more important in this electronic age than
ever before. Friendships and "flame wars" can both be traced to
identical roots. Romances with complete strangers, often of
indeterminate gender, are now possible. These new areas, as well as
others, have indeed, as Hiltz and Turoff projected, dramatically
altered the nature of social science research that is concerned with
the study of human systems and human communication processes. As
greater numbers of people begin to communicate via computer, and as
greater amounts of information are stored on these people, social
scientists will certainly be kept busy.
_________________________________________________________________
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
"The idea of a community accessible only via my computer screen
sounded cold to me at first, but I learned quickly that people can
feel passionately about e-mail and computer conferences. I've become
one of them. I care about those people I met through my computer,
and I care deeply about the future of the medium that enables us to
assemble.
I'm not alone in this emotional attachment to an apparently
bloodless technological ritual. Millions of people on every
continent also participate in the computer-mediated social groups
known as virtual communities, and this population is growing fast"
(Rheingold, "Virtual" 1).
Over 25 years ago, J.C.R. Licklider envisioned these virtual
communities and asked, "What will on-line communities be like?" He
followed up with an answer, noting, "In most fields they will consist
of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small
clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities
not of common location, but of common interest" (37-8). Ten years
later, Hiltz and Turoff expanded on this answer in The Network Nation.
Hiltz and Turoff certainly hit the proverbial bull's eye with their
final prediction regarding the impact of Computer Mediated
Communication. They foresaw that it would "facilitate a richness and
variability of human groupings and relationships almost impossible to
comprehend" (xxx). The mold of the urban community has been shattered,
because within the virtual community, your best friends no longer live
across the street or down the block. On the contrary -- there is a
high probability that they live in another town, city, state, or even
country. Why has CMC made these groupings and relationships possible,
and what sort of groupings and relationships have grown from the use
of CMC?
In his Master's Thesis, Bozidar Travica takes a stab at answering the
first question. He notes that computer conferencing makes at least two
things possible: 1) communication between people who would not have
met otherwise, and 2) group communication regardless of the distance
separating the actors (7). Hiltz and Turoff (1993) also note that
computer conferencing allows for "stored human experience" and a
"shared information space" (427-8). The stored experiences and shared
space allow people to enter a pre-existing relationship or group and
catch up on what has happened to date. No longer is anyone a "new kid
on the block" -- CMC provides the opportunity for everyone to stand on
equal footing. Conferencing allows members to develop trust for one
another, despite the fact that they have never met, and may never
meet. Travica notes this, saying:
"IBMPC [a global conferencing system within IBM] members feel more
commitment and reliance for the people they meet in the 'electronic
space,' than with the people living in the same city or the next
door" (169).
A prime example of a human grouping almost impossible to comprehend
can be found in the WEIRD conference, created under the VAXNotes
conferencing software at Stevens Institute of Technology. The
conference has attracted a large number of contributors, as well as a
sizable number of "lurkers," users who read but do not post.
WEIRD itself serves many functions. Topics in it include "You Know
You're Happy When...", "Things That Piss You Off", "Highlight of the
Day", and "What I Learned Today", among a host of others. The
conference acts as a friend, a sounding board, a shoulder to cry on, a
vent for anger, a showcase, and a straight man. WEIRD has spawned a
rather unique group, dubbed "BiLL's Posse," named after the conference
moderator, which includes contributors to the conference. Friendships
and relationships have developed among "Posse" members. Always
interesting to watch is the first face-to-face meeting of conference
members, who have previously only known each other by their usernames.
Just as WEIRD can be used as a shoulder to cry on, other conferencing
systems are being used in a similar fashion. Howard Rheingold
described how members of the WELL, a conferencing system, reacted when
Blair Newman, a prolific contributor and friend to many, committed
suicide:
"...But death somehow seems more real, even if your only
participation is in the virtual funeral. How could any of us who
looked each other in the eye that afternoon in the funeral home deny
that the bonds between us were growing into something real?
The feelings ran just as high during the virtual part of the
grieving rituals as they did during the face-to-face part -- indeed,
with many of the social constraints of proper funeral behavior
removed, the online version was the occasion for venting of anger
that would have been inappropriate in a face-to-face gathering.
...As one WELLite, John P. Barlow, said at the time, you aren't a
real community until you have a funeral" ("Virtual" 37).
A thoroughly impressive example of the groupings and relationships
possible within a virtual community can be found on LambdaMOO, and
object-oriented multi-user dungeon, developed by Pavel Curtis at
Xerox. Julian Dibbell, author of "A Rape in Cyberspace," gives some
background:
"It's the story of a man named Mr. Bungle, and of the ghostly sexual
violence committed in the halls of LambdaMOO, and most importantly
of the ways his violence and his victims challenged the 1000 and
more residents of that surreal, magic-infested mansion to become,
finally, the community so many of them already believed they were"
(1).
Dibbell relates what happened in the wake of virtual rapes committed
by Mr. Bungle. Within days of the occurrences, the call was made for
him to be "toaded," essentially erasing his character from the face of
LambdaMOO. However, the toading needed to be done by a "wizard,"
described by Dibbell as "master programmers of the MOO, spelunkers of
the database's deepest code-structures and custodians of its
day-to-day administrative trivia" (7). It had been decided several
months earlier that wizards "would make no decisions affecting the
social life of the MOO, but only implement whatever decisions the
community as a whole directed them to" (7).
Suddenly, members of LambdaMOO found themselves faced with the task of
defining a community and a social organization within their "loose,
amorphous agglomeration of individuals" (7). This led to heated
discussions for and against the virtual death penalty, and most
interestingly, to the need for the MOO's resident anarchists to take a
position. After considerable deliberation and discussion, despite the
lack of a clear outcome, a lone wizard made the decision to take the
life of Mr. Bungle.
We have seen here only a small example of groupings and relationships
made possible by CMC. Real life death extends into virtual grief, and
action is necessitated after virtual rapes. On a happier note, CMC
also makes possible new friendships, relationships, and "posses."
Virtual communities transcend the barriers of time and space, and
allow users across the globe to become friendly and emotionally
attached to people they may never meet. Residents of virtual
communities share happiness, anger, humor, and grief, and they band
together if for no other reason than because they can.
_________________________________________________________________
SURVEY ANALYSIS
In the course of doing "book research" for this paper, I discovered
that a few of the predictions that Hiltz and Turoff made were
ambiguous, and that I had not found satisfactory answers to some of my
questions. To this end, I made use of Computer Mediated Communication,
by designing and conducting a survey in an attempt to gather timely
information on my problem topics.
The survey was conducted over the Internet, and was accessible via an
Internet tool known as the World Wide Web. It was conducted with the
assistance of SmartChoice Technologies, and was available at the URL
http://copeland.smartchoice.com/~dbelson/survey.html. Data was
collected from 200 respondents during the period March 20, 1994 to
April 18, 1994. The results of the survey were compiled and analyzed
with the assistance of Dana Fagerstrom of SmartChoice.
A copy of the survey instrument can be found in Appendix A. The
questions were chosen to allow me to gather data on the problem topics
that will be identified below. In addition, a set of questions
concerning the usage of Internet tools was included, as was a set
regarding the survey itself. The questions were carefully worded so
that they were not ambiguous, and so that they were focused on a
particular area. Responses were primarily from the United States, but
users in Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, Estonia, Australia, New
Zealand, Finland, France, Brazil, and Germany participated as well.
More than half of the respondents (102) were affiliated with an
educational institution. Users at commercial sites accounted for 57
responses, and military and government users for 24. Five responses
were logged from users employed by network service providers, and nine
from users at organization sites. The survey can be considered to be
representative of "sophisticated" users -- people familiar and
comfortable with the Internet and CMC.
The first question in the survey is related to Hiltz and Turoff's
first prediction regarding the prominence of CMC. Based on book
research, it appeared that CMC was not a particularly prominent mode
of communication in most organizations. When asked to pick the ways in
which they most frequently communicated with colleagues, electronic
mail came out ahead, with 144 votes. Face-to-face received 128 votes,
reinforcing its importance in communication. The telephone received 92
votes, while "snail" mail garnered only 9. Internet users appear to be
extremely comfortable with CMC, and it appears that it is, in the form
of electronic mail, a prominent form of communication within their
organizations. Figure 1 illustrates the responses to the first survey
question.
[IMAGE] Figure 1
Survey question number 7 is also related to the first prediction. It
was designed to gauge the availability of CMC tools in organizations,
and to assist in determining the most prominent tools. As can be
expected, those users that use e-mail to communicate reported its
availability. On-line calendars and meeting schedulers garnered 52 and
37 voted respectively. Both synchronous and asynchronous conferencing
facilities were available to only about 13% of the respondents. See
Figure 2 for a graphical representation of the results.
[IMAGE] Figure 2
Electronic mail is clearly the most prominent form of CMC.
Organizations appear to be making use on-line scheduling aids as well.
The need to schedule face-to-face meetings can possibly be correlated
with the disappointing showing by conferencing systems. Once again,
more time is needed before people are comfortable with full scale
on-line communication.
The second survey question dealt with telecommuting, the subject of
Hiltz and Turoff's ninth prediction. Research indicated that the
actual number of telecommuters falls far short of Hiltz and Turoff's
hopes, as well as the hopes of others. Analysis of the survey data
indicated that nearly 40% of the respondents chose "Never, I don't
telecommute" while 25% chose "1 day a week." This result validates the
conclusion that telecommuting still has a way to go. The result,
however, be partially attributable to the large group of responses
from users at educational institutions. Commercial users accounted for
only 30% of the responses, but unfortunately, the analysis performed
does not indicate the status of telecommuting within this particular
group.
Survey questions three and four dealt explicitly with Internet tools
and their usefulness. These questions were not expressly related to
any of the problem topics. Figure 3 graphically illustrates which
tools survey respondents make use of. The World Wide Web (WWW), a
hypermedia information retrieval system, closely edged out Usenet News
and Telnet as the most commonly used tool. One potential anomaly with
this result is that both Usenet and Telnet are accessible from within
the World Wide Web, thus causing respondents to choose only one and
not include the others.
[IMAGE] Figure 3
World Wide Web, however, appears to be considered the most useful
Internet tool. WWW browsers function as a high-level Internet shell,
allowing users access to hypermedia as well as other Internet tools.
The World Wide Web is a relatively new Internet tool, and its usage
has grown astronomically over the past year. With the continuing
development of increasingly sophisticated browsers, its utility will
almost certainly continue to grow. Figure 4 illustrates the perceived
utility of WWW in comparison to the other tools.
[IMAGE] Figure 4
Only 82 respondents indicated that they were members of a
network-based special interest group. This fifth survey question is
related to predictions eight and ten made by Hiltz and Turoff. The
subjects of the interest groups varied widely, from social and
recreational topics to academically and occupationally focused topics.
The results of this question are rather surprising. These groups are
easy to join, and generally provide information that is of use to the
member. However, many groups can be "high traffic", quickly filling a
subscriber's mailbox. Organizational or institutional constraints on
electronic mail may provide some explanation for this response.
The sixth survey question was asked with regards to prediction 12, in
an attempt to determine if people do, in fact, use CMC as a substitute
for travel. The results were extremely disappointing, with 74
respondents indicating that they have never used any of the choices
given to replace travel. Video teleconferencing made the "strongest"
showing, with 43 responses. Conferencing systems made an extremely
poor showing, with multimedia synchronous conferencing being used the
least. Figure 5 illustrates the results. Apparently, the need to be
physically "at" a meeting is still extremely important.
[IMAGE] Figure 5
Prediction seven is addressed by questions eight and nine of the
survey. The eighth question asked if a change in autonomy to make
decisions has been perceived since CMC was introduced into their
organizational decision making process. The data collected indicates a
strong consensus among respondents that autonomy has increased. This
result concurs with opinions voiced by those in the field. The ninth
question asks if there is any perceived change in organizational
structure. The data collected indicates a strong consensus among
respondents that there organizations have become more hierarchical.
This result was unexpected, but it may be attributed to a number of
factors. Although it disagrees with the opinions of those who study
the field, it is certainly possible to reconcile an increase in
hierarchy with increased autonomy. More likely, however, is that the
data is biased by the 102 responses from educationally related users.
Unfortunately, the analysis performed does not allow for the
examination of data collected explicitly from commercial users.
_________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
Computer Mediated Communication was in its infancy in 1978, when Hiltz
and Turoff wrote The Network Nation. Today, sixteen years later, CMC
is still in the process of learning to walk. Like any "newborn"
technology, CMC has had to prove its worth in academic, business, and
social situations. However, it is different than other new
technologies, in that it has the innate potential to radically change
the way people communicate. CMC has made remarkable strides in terms
of acceptance since 1978, yet it still has quite a way to go.
Analyzing the predictions made by Hiltz and Turoff in 1978 was a
perplexing task. The predictions were not explicit, but instead were
concerned with the direction and/or magnitude of changes. The
predictions that dealt with the direction of change tended to be
rather vague, and often forecast a "dramatic" impact. Exactly what
constitutes a dramatic impact is open to interpretation, thereby
making it hard to determine the accuracy of the predictions in
question. While undertaking the research and analysis, a concerted
effort was made to interpret these predictions with consideration to
the frame of reference in which they were written. Determinations of
accuracy, in these cases, were based on the current state of the world
with respect to CMC.
Those predictions that were concerned with the magnitude of change
were somewhat easier to assess for accuracy. Even though they dealt
with magnitude, their wording was somewhat vague as well, pointing
towards "sizable amounts" and "large percentages." It was somewhat
easier, though, to interpret these terms, which allowed me to use
concrete figures in assessing their accuracy.
In considering the accuracy of the predictions, it seems that Hiltz
and Turoff were accurate on about half of them. These include
predictions four, five, six, eight, ten, eleven, thirteen, and
fourteen. Predictions three, nine, and twelve, however, have not
withstood the test of time. The impacts of CMC discussed in these
three predictions have failed to materialize to the extent that Hiltz
and Turoff had hoped they would. Predictions one, two, and seven can
be characterized by the phrase "close, but no cigar." The foci of
these predictions are well on their way to validating themselves, yet
I they still need another few years in order to fully develop. Due to
the vague wording of the predictions, however, these assessments of
success or failure should in no way be considered to be absolute.
Alternative interpretations of the predictions may possibly lead to
entirely different conclusions.
Regarding the questions and concerns raised by Hiltz and Turoff in
1978, there are related topics that beg additional research,
especially in light of rapidly advancing technologies. Unanswered
questions that provide grounds for further research include:
* How would Computer Mediated Communication have fared on a
recreational level, had inexpensive home video game systems not
been developed? Will the continued development of more powerful
game machines continue to hold back Computer Mediated
Communication?
* Cost has been identified as a major factor that has slowed the
growth of Computer Mediated Communication -- how major of a factor
is it? In other words, exactly what role has cost played / will
cost play in the growth of Computer Mediated Communication?
* To what extent will people embrace the notion of the virtual
community? Will interaction with members of "real life"
communities be sacrificed for interaction with one's virtual
neighbors?
* How will the development of high-bandwidth transmission media and
higher-powered computer systems affect the text-based means of
communication currently represented by Computer Mediated
Communication?
* Will the proposed "Information Superhighway" provide enhanced
connectivity to the masses, thereby giving Computer Mediated
Communication a much-needed boost, or will it stomp on Computer
Mediated Communication by providing 500 more television channels
of nothing to watch?
* Is there any limit to the "new and unique" services that Computer
Mediated Communication will be able to offer?
These questions may not be answerable now. It may, in fact, be another
sixteen years before satisfactory answers can be determined, or it may
take longer, as was/is the case with Hiltz and Turoff. Computer
Mediated Communication, even in its early years, is having a profound
impact on the way people communicate. As the technologies associated
with it continue to develop, its acceptance in society will continue
to grow. Hiltz and Turoff (1993) claim, "...we will reach the point
where no one will think twice about using a computer for
communication" (511).
_________________________________________________________________
APPENDIX A
COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION SURVEY
_________________________________________________________________
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