Development and field testing of an electronic information exchange system : final report on the EIES development project

The Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) is a particular design of a computerized conferencing system intended to allow both the facilitation of scientific and technical communications and experimentation and research into human information-communication processes. To meet the first objective EIES offers functional components of messaging, conferencing, notebooks and bulletins for its users. To meet the second objective EIES allows for the tailoring of interfaces by individuals and groups, and the incorporation of special processing and interconnect options to other computer and information systems. EIES is designed as a research tool or laboratory without walls in order to allow information scientists and those in related fields to observe, evaluate, experiment with and investigate the utilization of such systems by individuals and groups. During the test period EIES was utilized by about 200 individuals. Approximately 10,000 hours of usage occurred, 40,000 items of text were composed and over 123,000 items of text delivered. This comprised approximately 2 million lines of text communicated among the user population. The initial results demonstrate very different behavior patterns for individuals than exhibited by other types of interactive systems. By a process of induction from the various types of data collected during the pilot project, a number of conclusions were arrived at, stated in the form of a list of hypotheses for further testing. The results of this grant are: The development of an operational system Initial concepts on evaluation, utilization and experimentation with this type of system. Test usage and observation of usage over a one year period, comprising the single largest experiment with any computerized conferencing system to date. Numerous papers were published and professional presentations made

Studies of computer mediated communications systems : a synthesis of the findings

This report is an attempt to collect and synthesize current knowledge about computer-mediated communication systems. It focuses on computerized conferencing systems, for which most evaluational studies have been conducted, and also includes those electronic mail and office support systems for which evaluative information is available. It was made possible only through the participation of the many systems designers and evaluators listed below, who took the time to help to build a common conceptual framework and report their findings in terms of that common framework

Research options and imperatives in computerized conferencing

This is the report resulting from a computerized conferencing workshop held on the subject of potential research opportunities and requirements in the area of utilizing a computer to aid human communications. It was sponsored by the Division of Mathematical and Computer Sciences of the National Science Foundation (grant # MCS76-80514). The views expressed in this report are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect NSF views or policy. The workshop utilized the Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology

Functional requirements for computer conferencing and computer mediated communications

This paper is a compilation of the desirable functionality for Computerized Conferencing Systems. It is based upon the research and evaluation activities of the Conferencing Center at NJIT and can he considered as an overall set of objectives for the development of its Conferencing Systems

The impact of a computerized conferencing system on scientific research communities

The author is indebted to Murray Turoff for coauthoring the sections describing the EIES system and for his suppport and encouragement for this study at all stages. Mary Anne Solimine served as a research assistant, supervising the distribution, coding and tabulations of questionnaire responses. Without her diligent efforts, the study would not have been possible. Ann Marie Rabke, Joanne Garofalo, Diane Price, Duchess Brooks, Margaret Wnorowski, Christine Naegle, Sonia Khalil, and Marion Whitescarver provided valuable assistance with coding and data entry and editing tasks. Larry Landwebber was most cooperative in providing access to the Theory Net group. Alan Leurck, Thomas Moulton, and Sanjit Chinai are among those at NJIT who prepared statistical data from information on users recorded by the system monitor. Among those who have made helpful contributions to the project are Diana Crane, Kenneth Johnson, Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, Elaine Kerr, Ian Mitroff, Nicholas Mullins, Ronald Rice, Julian Scher, and Barry Wellman. Initial interest in the sociology of science was inspired by the work of Robert Merton, who of course bears no responsibility for the directions taken by his student. Last but certainly not least, Fred Weingarten, formerly of the National Science Foundation, has the author\u27s gratitude for his support of research in the interdisciplinary (and therefore controversial) area of computers and society

EIES 2 : a distributed architecture for supporting group work

The Computerized Conferencing Center (CCCC) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been researching on-line group communications for 17 years by developing and studying tools to advance the collective intelligence . The Electronic Information Exchange System 2 (EIES2) provides a research, development and operational environment for distributed computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems. The EIES 2 distributed Smalltalk processor provides for rapid prototyping and implementation of muti-media CSCW facilities in the network environment. The Smalltalk support of the object model, and meta-language properties make it ideally suited for incremental development CSCW applications. The EIES2 communication environment supports a decentralized network architecture. Modern standards are used in the implementation of data structures, communication interfaces and database. The EIES2 application layer protocols support use ASN.1 data representation to access to an object-oriented distributed database via X.ROS remote operation services. EIES2 can serve as a foundation on which group work systems may be built and defines protocols that can allow them to inter-operate. An initial system presents a powerful metaphor of conferences and activities which provides an extensible framework upon which to add group work applications. Work to date has provided structures for information exchange, inquiry networking, information filtering, the on-line virtual classroom, and group decision support. This paper presents the system architecture model used for EIES2 and describes the implementation and current applications

Confronting the Future: Coping with Discovery of Electronic Material

Earlier research has found that housing and childbearing are linked, difficulties accessinghousing possibly delaying childbearing and negatively effecting education opportunities. Toincrease housing accessibility, some municipalities have earmarked apartments for youngadults. These “youth dwellings” are criticized for being small and not necessarily facilitatingfamily formation and fertility, better suiting students’ needs. We analyze the childbearing andeducation patterns of young adults entering youth housing in 1996. We follow them for 14years to examine the causal effect of youth housing on childbearing and higher educationusing a propensity score matching technique. Results indicates that gaining access to small,low-rent inner-city rental apartments earmarked for young adults promote higher educationbut negatively affect childbearing, unless the rest of the housing market permits these rentersto advance their housing careers.Qc 20150205</p

Communication Processes in the Design and Implementation of Models, Simulations and Simulation-Games: A Selective Review and Analysis, From the Vantage Point of Computerized Conferencing

Computerized conferencing is a new form of communication which permits a group of individuals, who could be separated in time as well as space, to engage in an interactive dialogue with each other through the convenience of their computer terminals. The software for a computerized conferencing system is designed to keep track of all messages communicated in the system, as well as insure that the various protocols for communication are observed by all. Our objectives in this report are to examine the communication processes found in the design and implementation of models, simulations and simulation-games, and to identify those areas where computerized conferencing, as a new form of communication, has the potential to impart a significant impact on the aforementioned disciplines. The theme which underlies this report is that computerized conferencing presents us with the capability to structure a communication process to satisfy a set of preformulated design objectives. In Part I, we introduce the reader to some basic terminology used to identify models, simulations and simulation-games. Part II attempts to enumerate the potential impacts computerized conferencing is expected to have on the model building process. A key component of this section is the author\u27s causal-loop model of the modeling process which seeks to capture the feedback relationships responsible for both the growth processes and limitations inherent in modeling, and the key role computerized conferencing is expected to play. Our attention next turns to the area of simulation-games. In Part III, we define a simulation-game as a gestalt communication process, and reiterate many of Richard Duke\u27s thoughts on the communication processes found in simulating-games. The next chapter examines the marriage of computerized conferencing and simulation-games, and identifies the numerous benefits to be achieved by this union. These benefits include not only logistic breakthroughs and the attainment of new degrees of verisimilitude to the object human interaction systems being modeled, but an opening up of the simulation-game as a research tool to gain theoretical insight into the sociological processes that take place in human interaction systems. In Part V, we present to the reader summaries of those major efforts relating to conferencing based simulation-games. These include the work of Lincoln Bloomfield and his associates at MIT (the CONEX simulation-games), the Polis system of R. Noel at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the experiments conducted by the Institute for the Future with the CRISIS simulation-game. In Part VI, we explicity prescribe some methodologies by which a simulation-game designer can structure the communication processes found in simulation-games to satisfy certain design objectives. We refer to this as a constrained computerized conference (i.e., dynamic constraints are imposed on the communication process). A mathematical model is developed for the communication that takes place in the simulation-game. Design applications are then discussed as specific extensions of the mathematical model. The penultimate chapter presents a hypothetical language for describing the communication processes found in simulation-games and other group communication models. The language begins with the world view of SIMSCRIPT 11-5, acknowledged to be the most powerful discrete event simulation language, and builds in some powerful features designed to model and structure human communication processes. The language is illustrated with both a university fiscal crisis simulation-game and the SYNCON communication model. The final chapter synthesizes the ideas expressed in the preceding chapters by an analogy of models, simulations and simulation-games with the conceptual foundations of the scientific method, and sees computerized conferencing as a key aspect in making scientists out of systems scientists. It calls for a conferencing-based International Archives of models, simulations and simulation-games, both to aid in model scrutinization and confirmation as well as to provide a mutual pooling of resources from which users can draw as they please

Determinants of acceptance of computer mediated communication system

Acceptance of Computer-Mediated communication Systems (CMCS) by managers and professionals corresponds to its incorporation into their daily patterns of communication and work. Acceptance includes at least three inter-related dimensions: amount of use, subjective satisfaction with the process of using the system, and a perception that system use has positive impacts upon productivity. Pre-use and follow-up questionnaires were distributed to 150- 250 new users of four different CMCS. Three are conferencing systems, designed to support group work. They differ in terms of comprehensiveness or complexity of design, and size and nature of the user communities; COM/KOM, a Swedish system with mostly European users, was included to provide a cross-cultural dimension. The fourth system is a commercially available electronic mail system used for internal communication within a single corporation. Users\u27 pre-use expectations are the strongest determinants of learning time, getting to know other people online, and subjective satisfaction with the system interfaces. Satisfaction with CMCS as a mode of communication, particularly for emotional or personal content, is most strongly affected by group-level variables. Those who have not previously communicated (offline) with group members and who do not like or trust them have the most problems with expressive communication via CMCS. Group membership and pre-use expectations in combination are the strongest determinants of amount of system use. The dropout rate varied from zero or 1% for some groups to over 50% for others. Among those who did use the three conferencing systems, the best predictor of cumulative time online at four months is the user\u27s own expectation of the amount of time that would be spent online, made at pre-use. In turn, expected usage is explained by a combination of importance of the online task; convenient access to a terminal, especially at home; and previous lack of regular communication channels with the online group. The pattern for the internal mail system was quite different; regular previous communication with the online group (rather than its absence) is correlated with use. The strongest correlate is an expectation that using the system will be hard; those who thought so simply did not use the electronic mail system. The contrasting pattern of association underscores the quite different functions of the two types of CMCS. Mail systems are used as a supplementary channel of communication to support ongoing communication within an organization. Conferencing system usage is maximized when it represents a new opportunity to communicate with others who were not conveniently available via traditional channels, about an important task. An experimental intervention in training and user support suggests that interactive online tutorials can be an effective learning mechanism and increase time online. The placement of a single personal telephone call offering assistance did not increase amount of use, within the context of the availability of a variety of other sources of information and support. Two factors comprising productivity impacts were identified. PRODUCTive is comprised primarily of improvements in the quantity and quality of work, the overall usefulness of the system, and improvements in the ease of reaching people. CAREER encompasses contributions to long-term and short-term career advancement, and the provision of information and ideas. The strongest correlates of PRODUCTivity improvements, for all four systems, are pre-use expectations about whether the system would increase productivity. The second strongest determinant appears to be the perceived leadership skill of the group moderator or leader. Another group-level variable, the level of satisfaction with previous channels of communication with one another, also significantly adds to predictions of productivity increases as a result of system use. Four process variables play an important part in determining positive productivity outcomes. One is the perceived value of the items contributed by the other group members. Another is time spent online, which is positively related to perceived productivity impacts, once pre-use expectations and motivations have been taken into account. A third is whether or not there were mode problems encountered, and the fourth , how many new people users came to know online. SYSTEM software differences do appear to make a significant impact on whether or not there will be productivity increases; but system enters the stepwise regressions in only fifth or sixth place, or not at all, depending on the combination of candidate variables entered. The best equations for predicting productivity increases are markedly different for the four systems. This is the main impact of software differences: given four basically well designed but quite different CMCS, the social context and software differences will interact to affect the most productive way to use the system. The best overall predictor of whether CMCS use will be seen to lead to CAREER advancement is whether the user was able to adequately express social-emotional content in communications in this mode. For individual systems, the specific variables and factors which are included in the best stepwise multiple regression equation to explain variations in CAREER vary markedly from one system to another, but all the equations include a subjective satisfaction factor in the selected variables. Career advancement depends to a large extent on strengthening and widening personal relationships with a network of peers and hoped-for peers. Thus, it is reasonable that this process was most likely to occur for those users who felt most comfortable and satisfied with the system as a communication mode. Only then is a user likely to go beyond the immediate task-oriented online activities and engage in the kinds of information exchanges and relationship-strengthening exchanges that may be related to general career advancement rather than just the efficient completion of a specific task at hand

Integrating working at home with information systems management

The history of computerization has its origin in the automation of manual processes - searching out the segments that could be put on a computer. The intended result was that the entire job would be done faster and cheaper. Thus, current computer-based information systems tend to make more efficient use of computers than people. The management function, on the other hand, often seems to focus on competitive skills and salesmanship rather than on the ability to attract and hold talented people. But, such impersonal factors that have driven management practices are changing. There has been a complete reversal in the relative costs of one computer versus one employee. The cost of a computer is now a fraction of that of an information worker. Another change to be reckoned with is the emergence of computers as facilitators of human communications (Turoff, 1985). Since there are other costs besides salary that must be considered in maintaining the office workforce, some corporate managers are looking for alternatives to the traditional locational and temporal aspects of office work. Recognizing that technology for personal computing has progressed in just a few short years from video games to some very sophisticated applications, management may even consider if it would be beneficial to encourage employees to buy personal computers for use at home. One way to do this is a computer purchase program subsidized by the employer. There are many different views of what working at home really is; there is much conjecture as to the success or failure of such programs. This paper attempts to review the current literature associated with the subject of remote work and to provide a framework for further understanding. The author thanks Dr. Murray Turoff, professor at the Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center of New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, for his help and guidance in the preparation of this paper. The author also thanks Ms. Carol D\u27Agostino, Electronic Services Unlimited, New York City; Mr. John L. Johnsen, Integrated Resources Life Companies, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Mr. Ralph S. McCrae, Control Data Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Mr. Charles W. Schmidt, Lift, Inc., Northbrook, Illinois, for their valuable input