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This issue of Netweaver was distributed in December 1985
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Volume 1, Number 5 ---CONTENTS--- December 1, 1985
1 - Masthead and Index
2 - ENA Update
by Lisa Kimball
3 - REPORT FROM THE ENA CONFERENCE, Part I
by Mike Greenly
4 - REPORT FROM THE ENA CONFERENCE, Part II
by Mike Greenly
5 - GROWING PAINS
by Andrew Finkenstadt
6 - SAVE IKEGO FOREST
by Izumi Aizu
7 - THE CHARM OF LONG-DISTANCE MODEM-TALK
by George Por
8 - THE SCREEN PERSONALITY
by Robert Harper
9 - CENTER FOR NEW DEMOCRACY GOES ONLINE
by George Por
ENA UPDATE
by Lisa Kimball
The most important thing that has happened in ENA since the last issue of NETWEAVER is our *very* successful conference in D.C.!
We exchanged incredible amounts of information and experience in a group which included people from many different countries, many different networks, and many different networking backgrounds. We talked about global networking, telecommunications policy, managing computer conferencing, educational applications, networking in government, electronic enterprise, user support, marketing, regional and local networks, organizations with network structures, and the current and future state-of-the-art of conferencing technology. We also heard speakers using conferencing in a wide range of business applications. Excerpts from Mike Greenly's coverage of these sessions are included in this issue of NETWEAVER. In addition, we are planning to publish a compendium of the conference both online and in print form.
This conference also gave ENA members a chance to adopt a structure for the organization. We decided that we wanted to reflect the way we were already working as much as possible. We wanted to achieve a structure which could provide a way for decisions to be made quickly and *also* a way for people to initiate activity without going through a cumbersome process. We needed a structure which met the requirements of the IRS and the environment in which we want to have influence. We also wanted to be able to reflect our intersystem nature, be *inclusive* of new participants, and allow flexibility. AND we wanted to take advantage of the medium of computer conferencing as much as possible.
Challenging task!
We chose the RING as the image most reflective of the idea of a circular organization which could steer ENA on its course. We developed the concept that there would be SEATS on this RING which represented each major activity of ENA. These would not be held by individuals but would be the shared responsibility of
the people working together on the activity represented by the SEAT. The RING will have the authority to generate a smaller group empowered to take quick action (the BOARD) and appoint officers as needed to comply with incorporation requirements.
The RING conference will be open for anyone to read and will reside on our HOST system (UNISON) where business will be conducted. The results of this activity will be reported via our intersystem porting work.
ENA activities will be generated by clusters of individuals who have an idea and want to participate. Any three or more people can form a CLUSTER at any time and propose that they have a SEAT on the RING. Those already in the RING will make all decisions about adding and subtracting SEATS from the RING. In this way, we can maintain a flexible and organic structure and distribute the decision making about ENA activity widely. Once the RING is formed, it will be self-organizing.
We have already identified many activities for which there are clusters of people willing to work. Many of these are reflected in our conference program topics and, of course, some are related to the administrative needs of ENA. NETWEAVER readers who want to join an existing cluster or form one of their own can contact the porter who brought you this issue for additional information. It may take us some time to work out the "kinks" in this process. But ENA's new structure is already a tribute to the ability of groups to develop ideas online. The members of ENA's Interim Organization team worked online for months to create a structure which met our needs. When it came time for our f-t-f meeting, we could build on what they presented to us and move forward rather than starting from scratch.
* * *
You'll notice articles by several writers new to NETWEAVER this month. We're always looking for material about interesting applications, individual viewpoints, and all aspects of using computer conferencing technology. Let us know what you'd like to read about and feel free to submit ideas and articles to NETWEAVER any time!
REPORT FROM THE ENA CONFERENCE
by Mike Greenly
How all of this has progressed!
Only last April, a few dozen people came together in a Greenwich Village loft to share a hazy but emerging vision: to link diverse people on diverse electronic networks together. Would that be achievable, amidst the hope-clouds?
Well, a half year later, here I am among six times as many people as the original hand-holders who stood in a circle around a geodesic dome. We are row after row after row...in a college auditorium. Folks: this thing is looking more established now.
"Using the Medium" is the theme of our conference, says Lisa Kimball. She says the 150 people gathered today are much more interested in the uses of technology than in the 'techiedom' of hardware and software.
Lisa introduces Peter Vaill, Professor at the Department of Management Science of George Washington University. He is a long time educator and electronic conferencer. Lisa tells us he's the man who introduced her to the medium two years ago.
As a college professor, he seems comfortable bypassing the podium and microphone. He stands simply in front of the head table and he welcomes us to his University. He offers a genial overview of local restaurants and road conditions.
Peter asks how many of us have training in Organizational Development. A half-dozen hands go up.
But, "You are all engaged in organizational development," he tells all the rest of us. "You're already in the social change business."
"We need new ways to foster human communication and collaboration," he says. And computer conferencing is a major "social technology" contributing to that end.
"The least interesting and least complex aspects of it have to do with hardware and software."
We receive now a list of words that had "no meaning in the public consciousness" before 1970. These words illustrate new technologies and problems that we in society are learning to cope with. The words mirror our changing consciousness."
Here are a few of Peter's symbolwords:
Acid Rain
Agent Orange
Atari
Clone
Dungeons & Dragons
Grey Panthers
G-Spot
IRA
Jesse Jackson
MCI
Modem
Palimony
PG-13
Sexual Harassment
Techie
Trekkie
Tylenol
Vasectomy
VCR
Zero-based budgeting
60 Minutes
747
They speak with eloquence of a globe in change.
If you believe the stress management people, he tells us, we are all now *feeling* this change. Right in our stomach linings.
In that context, as we talk to colleagues about the promise of computer conferencing, the reaction could be, "Holy shit! Not another one...not one more reason I'm falling behind in the sands of obsolescence."
The other side of the page he has given us this morning notes seven categories of how people deal with organizational change... "Learnings about Objectives," about Resistance to Change, about the Pace and Rate of Change.
"You may not think you're changing a culture when you introduce computer conferencing, but you are," he tells us. "It will not move as fast as you can initiate it. People can't move that fast. They will absorb it at the rate that they can absorb it."
He begins to discuss "Learnings About Objectives," one of the examples on the list.
"If you plunge into a computer network without being aware of the objectives, of what the whole thing is intended to accomplish...you are producing something that no one will know what to do with."
"I'm not even sure I want the software to be too simple," he says provocatively.
"When you think ahead to the way you want me to use a computer network--my own thinking, my personal energy--you want it to be a part of me, my instrument, that I can pick up and make say my song. Maybe I need to sweat over it a little bit to make it mine. Maybe better than 'user friendly' would be the users being more friendly with each other."
Concerning all of us, he says--we're like MASH. Good people, trying to do good work under very difficult conditions...not knowing at first we've signed up to do quality surgery under conditions of flying bullets.
It's also like "Chinese Baseball," he says [a metaphor first used in a paper on management several years ago]. Whenever the ball is in the air, anyone is allowed to pick up any base and head anywhere with it! The first baseman can pick up the first base and head off to the outfield. You don't know what the rules are because they're always changing. The objectives are unstable.
"'Drill imagination right though necessity,'" he quotes from a poem. If there's anything this medium permits, he says, it's that.
"It's allowed" he says, to the potential imagination drillers in the audience.
[The next speakers are Ahmed Namoury, Vice President, Corporate Technology Office, CitiCorp and Denny Gallagher, Washington- based consultant to Exxon Chemicals Company]
Peter Vaill was right, Ahmed tells us. This medium causes "tremendous social change" in how we do business.
"When Citibank looked at computer conferencing, we had a genuine business need," not just curiosity about the new electronic toy. CitiCorp is a totally decentralized corporation with a variety of independent businesses in a long list of cities and countries...a global financial institution interested in "customer satisfaction" worldwide.
The question: How can we make sure that what one CitiCorp business tells its client (e.g. Exxon) in a country is consistent with what another CitiCorp subsidiary tells that client in other countries? Computer conferencing can help solve the problem.
He agrees with Peter Vaill on not wanting a computer conferencing system be so easy to use that it seems trivial. "Business people need a challenge," he says.
(As he says this, I shudder at the statement, first from Vaill and now Namoury. My own experience as a non-technical corporate executive tells me I had plenty enough challenge from running my day-to-day business. I'd be more likely, I think, to *use* computer conferencing to help with my challenges if it were EASY--and if I were shown that its power isn't trivial.)
(I'll have to remember to ask about this in the Question and Answer system.)
Denny Gallagher is a consultant to Exxon. He has also worked for the Army and U.S.Steel. He skis. He is a marathon runner. He has a beard. And he's one of those Organizational Development (O.D.) people who wears a necktie grudgingly and delights at making bureaucracies more human. Computer conferencing plays right into his hands.
He is not talking, he tells us, about the humongous Exxon that is bigger than most countries. No. Merely Exxon Chemical-- "something they toy with, whether to keep or not" at the parent company. "It's only a $7 billion corporation" employing more than 300,000 people worldwide.
Exxon Chemical began an excellent organizational development program back in the 1950's, he says. But the company's internal O.D. staff members were each on their own, in separate locations.
"They put people in the middle of no place and expect them to communicate and network," he says dryly. They were brought together only twice a year. People began to quit, frustrated with the isolation of their jobs.
Susanna Opper and Bill Paul had a chance discussion in October 1983 saying, "wouldn't it be nice if all these people could talk to each other on a regular basis?" The result was Exnet, established in January, 1984.
Now people working for Exxon in different geographies could start to talk to each other about what they were doing. The system has 230 users, people internal and external to the company. Line management and senior people are now beginning to join in. Conferences are including plant managers and senior vice presidents, and are focusing on topics like how to make the organization a better place to work.
"A lot of professionals are enjoying what they're doing now because they have a forum where they can bounce ideas off each other," Denny says.
One manager, planning a Senior Executive forum, asked for feedback on taking the business leaders to a magic show to encourage a mental "stretch."
"'Wanna lose your job?' he was asked. But he went on to receive a half-dozen other suggestions he hadn't thought of. He ended up using some of them *and* successfully going to the magic show.
"The result of that conference was management asking itself: If we say we want people to take risks, what risks are we taking? Why do we ask for 15 pounds of justification before we ask them to take a risk? There is something wrong with our process and we can improve it.
"The moderator of that seminar was feeling alone and shaky. But every night, he got online and told people what was happening. And every night, he was cheered by "love letters" of support-- from fellow Exxon employees in Australia, Singapore, Washington, Darien, Connecticut.
"'Whatever you're doing, it's okay,' he was told. 'There's no way to backslide because we've already bottomed out.' 'And if you ever need a job, we've got friends!'"
So a pioneering manager, trying to help the organization grow, enjoyed the magic of networking and the emotional support it provided.
"You are not dealing with technology," he sums up. "You are dealing with social change. Exxon's climate is different as a result of computer conferencing."
He mentions other examples of the medium's impact. There was an "unspoken rule," he says, that plant managers were not to speak to each other--not with peers.' But via electronic networking, there is now a Plant Manager's Conference. The medium is subverting previous organizational norms, he says, and that's positive, because some of the norms actually keep plants from operating effectively.
He mentions the death of a valued and respected colleague. At the very moment a memorial service was held in Maine, 80 people around the world celebrated his life and mourned his loss electronically, in a touching and beautiful use of the medium bringing people together.
The original intention of the Exxon system was to get people to talk to each other, he says. But the impact actually goes well beyond that.
"How can we continue to have a class system?" he asks about business that uses the power of the new communications medium to let ideas cross established hierarchical lines.
Progress takes work. He tells us about the simple, one page instructions Susanna provided him, and how important that simplicity has been. He mentions built-in typing programs, privately accessible by senior executives.
Denny mentioned, at the beginning of this talk, that he is sharing information with the approval of Exxon Chemical. I ask him how Exxon's management feels about the positive "subversion" he says computer conferencing is creating.
"I think they're schizophrenic as hell about it," he says. "It's Chinese Baseball and the norms are starting to change. Power positions are starting to change. Lots of interpersonal stuff is happening. It's frightening but it's also exciting."
Bottom line, he says, despite aspects of anxiety, "very few would like to go back." Why? Because ultimately computer conferencing helps people do the job better.
-----
Author's note: Mike Greenly is a prolific electronic journalist
who publishes his work on PARTI on The Source. His coverage of
ENA's first "Intersystem Symposium" in April, 1985 contributed
significantly to the momentum which resulted in the conference
held in November. This article is composed of excerpts from his
more extensive coverage of the conference, the full text of
which will be included in the Conference Compendium
GROWING PAINS
by Andrew Finkenstadt
Once upon a time there was a 14-year-old boy who just loved to play with computers. He had noticed that some computers had telephone lines so people who wanted to could dial the telephone and use a funny kind of computer called a terminal to get another computer to do some work. He also noticed that some people wrote letters (word processing) and sent them across the country (electronic mail) to someone they had not ever met "in- the-flesh." He thought, "Boy! If only we could do that right here in Lafayette, Indiana, without having to pay a lot of money. Ya know, I'd use that kind of service."
And thus began the little boy's journey into telecommunications.
That was five years ago. Today, that little boy is a man. He's still telecommunicating across the country.
Some things have changed, though. A couple of years ago other people began calling *me* on their computers, instead of me calling other people. I wrote a couple of programs to run what were beginning to be known as Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs). My first BBS, running on an old IMSAI, was crude and little more than a glorified, electronic poster board like the one at the local Krogers announcing jobs and activities. But it worked and was used extensively. Having a far better memory than I did, my BBS would remember that 4000 people had called to date and would tell everyone that Granny's cat had a litter five kittens. Still, that was about all that first BBS could tell people.
The second program, adapted for an Apple ][, was a bit more refined. It remembered when people had called in last. It kept track of personal mail. It could store programs for other people to take and use in their own computers. It let people who called "CHAT" with me, the system operator (SYSOP). CHAT was the most used part of the board, too. People would call in and talk with me about anything and everything: computers, what happened at the Mall, how ol' granny's kittens were taking the heat (not very well). I'd pass on what was going on at school, how the other users of the system were faring, and news of the latest love of my life.
The other most often used part of the board consisted of discussions posted as public mail. At any once time, several trains of thought could be found: everything from "Who'll win the Democratic Nomination for president?" to "How's school?"
People would call in, read what others had said, and type their own opinions. It was informative to read why someone thought Jesse Jackson would be our next President and how David Martin, a close friend of mine, was doing in Indiana History class.
Unfortunately, this good thing did not last. Young people started calling in to try to "crash" my BBS. Daily, I would come home and find my computer blithely munching on a floppy diskette. Security measures were introduced to make the BBS more private, but they only inconvenienced those who were legitimate users and didn't slow down the hackers (in the newer sense of the word). Finally, things became too much to handle, and I faced the sad task of telling the users what was happening and informing them that the BBS was going to close. My heart was broken. The users were hurt and lonely without their periodic "fix" on my BBS. The hackers lost a toy. In the end, no one benefited from shutting down my BBS.
Thinking back on the whole experience I realize that I am better able to communicate and relate to people through written words (and an occasional
-----
Author's note: Andrew Finkenstadt is a third year student at the
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. He is majoring in
Mathematics and Computer Science. He currently works as a free-
lance programmer and consultant. He can be contacted care of
University of Steubenville, Box 22, Steubenville, Ohio 43952.
SAVE IKEGO FOREST
Using Computer Conferencing for International Collaboration
of Environmental Protection
by Izumi Aizu
Citizens and elected officials of Zushi, a small city 30 miles from Tokyo, recently used computer conferencing to help people around the world "link up" to find solutions to issues relating to environmental protection. The "Zushi Project" addressed a local situation, but the methods used there point to ways computer conferencing can be used to address global environmental concerns.
THE CHALLENGE
=============
Ikego Forest is one of the few tracts of forestland remaining inside the densely congested Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Used by the U.S. Navy as an underground ammunition depot for nearly 40 years, public access to Ikego has been prohibited, allowing the land's plant and wildlife to develop and flourish in an undisturbed natural environment.
Recently, the U.S. Navy asked the Japanese government to make lands available for the construction of 1,000 homes for Navy personnel working at Yokosuka Naval Base. The Japanese government responded with the proposal that Ikego Forest be used for this purpose--even though at least five alternative sites are available within 30 miles of the base.
Knowing that allocation of Ikego lands as a housing site for Navy personnel would destroy the forest, the citizens of Zushi banded together and formed an impressive movement to oppose the proposal. The citizens' initial efforts were successful: the
mayor was forced to resign and the citizen-based group won the local elections and installed their own mayor, Kiichiro Tomino.
But the battle was not won, since Japan's central and prefectural government would make the final decision regarding Ikego's fate. It would take an outpouring of public opinion to stop the project, and one particular method of expressing public opinion--the "Written Opinion"--plays a key role in official procedures relating to the preparation and submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Since an Environmental Impact Assessment may contain the opinions and concerns of *any* individual regardless of nationality or location, the citizens of Zushi organized a domestic and international campaign to ask their friends to send written opinions about why Ikego Forest should be preserved. The citizens hoped to obtain as many as 100,000 opinions in support of their position.
Obtaining domestic opinions in support of the Save Ikego movement proved relatively easy. Obtaining opinions from around the world posed a greater challenge. A challenge that computer conferencing and networking helped solve.
HOOKING UP
==========
As the end of the Save Ikego campaign approached, an Apple IIe, communications software, and an acoustic coupler were installed in the Mayor of Zushi's living room. A voluntary project team was organized to prepare appeals, a personal message from the mayor, and a list of 108 species of birds inside the forest. These documents were then transmitted over the "nets." First to the Meta Network. Then to Unison. Then to Parti on the Source.
The first overseas "written opinion" arrived within days. It was from Billye Lemon, wife of a U.S. Army Colonel. It was just what the citizens of Zushi had hoped to receive:
I would not want to create poor relations because of
construction of housing for the military and their
families... One must look beyond the immediate needs
with much broader vision... When by chance a part has
been preserved which remains in its natural state,
then these special places we need to *treasure*...for
future generations.
More warm and supportive responses followed, making the efforts of the volunteers--virtually all of whom were tackling the intricacies and eccentricities of packet switching, uploading, downloading, log-on sequences, etc., for the first time-- worthwhile. The fact that the people of Zushi were also organizing and moderating conferences in a foreign language makes their achievements even more remarkable!
NETWORKING AND A REUNION
========================
The work wasn't all "work"! The volunteers had fun, too, as they explored the online global community. Mitsuyo Sawa, a 44- year-old housewife recalls, "Making contacts through electronic networks was very exciting, and I personally enjoyed it very much. I found an alumna of my Catholic High School--Sacred Heart--on Meta Network, too!"
In her opinion, Jill Herndon, Mrs. Sawa's Sacred Heart schoolmate said,
In my experience growing up on the base as the
daughter of an officer, base housing traditionally
lacks in attention to nature, aesthetics, or any sense
of culture or community. I lived in Yokosuka Navy
Base housing in 1959 and 1960 and I have to say it
looked like a military parade ground with buildings
stuck on it... I ask you to look into other options
for providing additional housing of Americans... There
must be a way to use the opportunity of having
foreigners in your country to also introduce them to
the beauty of your culture and your spiritual
heritage.
With three weeks of the deadline for receipt of written opinions to be submitted to the Japanese government, close to two dozen additional online opinions were received in Zushi. It was not as many letters as the citizens had hoped to receive. Still, the *quality* of the letters made quite an impact. The letter of well-known online journalist Mike Greenly was typical of the deep concern members of the online community brought to the issues of the Save Ikego movement:
I will tell you the truth: I don't think about that
[Planet Earth] very often! Most of the time the
"geography" that concerns me is simply the apartment I
pay rent on, the offices of clients for whom I
consult, and the homes of the people who read my
journalism.
Mostly, to be very honest about it, I take our
environment pretty much for granted... There are so
many other matters that more urgently press in on my
attention and consciousness.
And, yet I care about Ikego Forest...
I realize that Ikego Forest has become an extremely
precious sanctuary for nature...once destroyed it will
never be restored. There are many, many, many--so
many--housing projects on this planet. There is only
one Ikego Forest.
SUCCESS!
========
When all was said and done, the citizens of Zushi received more than 100,000 letters from their domestic supporters. An additional 700 letters from around the world were received through both the electronic and human network. That's an extremely satisfactory and encouraging showing!
The Save Ikego campaign demonstrated that organizing online communities to support environmental concerns can be done! Still, obstacles and challenges must be met in order for this form of grass roots movement to take hold: technological, cultural and linguistic barriers, and economic issues ($500 to $1000 for international telephone and network connect charges) must be addressed. Psychological and social elements must be considered, as well.
The online phase of the Save Ikego movement stands as one of the first attempts to use computer conferencing to contact and connect a global electronic community in support of environmental concerns. In some ways it was an experiment. But it was also much more. The online experience gave the people of Zushi a sure passage to future collaboration that not only makes the world smaller, but makes it more beautiful for all of us, too. Mrs. Sawa speaks for all of us when she says:
I feel this medium has a tremendous power for grass
root citizens in the world...especially for anti-
nuclear weapon and disarmament issues. It is the very
direct voices that we can exchange that can make for a
very strong relationship and collaboration that
extends beyond oceans, time and national borders.
Thank you all the people who responded, supported and
watched.
(NOTE: The conference "SAVE IKEGO" can still be found on Unison and The Source. Please have a look if you haven't read it.)
THE CHARM OF UNLIMITED LONG-DISTANCE MODEM-TALK
by George Por
Until now, long-distance computer communications was limited by the choice between paying long-distance phone rates for it, and using an electronic mail or conferencing service that wouldn't allow you to send/receive messages but to/from subscribers of the very same service. Let's say you live in San Francisco and you have a friend, a relative, or a business associate in New York, and one of you is a member of The Source, the other is with CompuServe, two information and communication utilities that are not in talking relation with each other. The only way to get instantaneous electronic text delivery is calling computer-to-computer, which implies an average $10 per hour long-distance phone charge. That was the situation until the recent introduction of new service by GTE Telenet, called PC Pursuit.
For a flat fee of $25 per month, PC Pursuit offers unlimited non-primetime connection to online databases, bulletin boards, regional networks, and communicating personal computers in the following metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Some of the hundreds of bulletin boards you can reach with a call to your nearest Telenet node in any of the areas listed above are: NASA GAS-Net, Net Exchange Fido (Washington, D.C.); The Invention Factory, New York Medical (N.Y.C.); Martians Mixed-up & Matching Machine, Investor's Resource (L.A.); K.A.O.S. (Philadelphia); World Peace, PSInet, Writers Resource (Denver); Lawyers Micro User Group, Individual Investors BBS (Chicago); Universal Joint (Detroit); Boston Computer Society (Boston); Computers for Christ, and The WELL (S.F. area).
The last two systems are located respectively in San Mateo and Sausalito, and if you call them frequently from Oakland, San Francisco, or from any other 415 area code location, your phone bill might run up unexpectedly high. If you happen to live in a city with a Telenet node, you can save money even on same-area-code communications, by calling your favorite boards through PC Pursuit.
Although the service is pitched towards BBS users, I think those who really will benefit from it are the operators and users of systems running on minicomputers that can accommodate a larger number of simultaneous callers. Popular, micro-based bulletin boards are already congested with local traffic, and people calling them have to wait in the queue, listening to the busy signal for hours before getting in. Adding nationwide access will only increase their congestion. In contrast, regional multi-user systems, like The WELL, or the soon-coming New England Commons in Boston, will truly benefit from PC Pursuit by being able to recruit information providers and subscribers both locally and nationwide.
To use PC Pursuit, you must register first, then do the following: a) Use your modem to call the local access number; b) Request the city and destination phone number you wish to dial; c) Hang up and then receive your call-back; d) Await the connection and out-dial, then proceed just as if you had dialed the destination phone number yourself.
For registration or further information CONTACT: (800) 368-4215 (voice), or (800) 835-3001 (modem).
[Re"printed" from TeleTalk, a column I write for Computer Currents]
THE SCREEN PERSONALITY
by Robert Harper
Everyone who works hard at conferencing tends to develop a character that is ON all the time, a SCREEN personality. For some people it is not sufficient to have the *ONE* SCREEN personality. Depending on their mood, or the things they have been reading lately, they display multiple SPLIT SCREEN personalities.
The discrepancy between the SCREEN personality and the REAL personality is a manifestation that confronts anyone who uses CC systems regularly. Both writers and readers soon come to recognize that a person's ID will usually give a clue to what he will write about. The TITLE that is used to set off the writing may also tell which SCREEN personality the author is currently using.
Every individual does his best to consolidate his SCREEN personality and also signals others about the ways in which he expects his text to be treated. In much the same way that an animal marks off his own territory so that others should not infringe on it, the SCREEN personality develops a STYLE that is instantly recognizable as his own and marks out his territory with words rather than with body odors...although sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
It can be said that some people come alive at the keyboard, and their SCREEN personality bears no relationship to how they conduct themselves when engaged in normal human communication. Those that stammer, blush, and are lost for words in public, often find the keyboard and the CRT perfect channels for expressing ideas that would otherwise remain bottled up inside.
To a certain degree the opposite is also true. People who are very strong OFF-SCREEN may stumble when it comes to expressing themselves in a computer conference. This well known syndrome of the manager who has a micro on his desk as a status symbol yet never has the time or the inclination to use it, can lead to what has been called TECHNISTRESS and cause hostility and fear of the medium.
The SCREEN personality has mastered all the high-tech details and his basic concern is not how to COMMUNICATE technically but how communications are RECEIVED and ACTED upon. The SCREEN personality may also suffer from TECHNISTRESS, but for different reasons.
TECHNISTRESS hits the SCREEN personality at two different levels which contrast with each other...INFORMATION OVERLOAD and APATHY.
The SCREEN personality hates to read long texts. If he does read them it is generally because they are comments on a previous long text that he has entered. He devises shortcuts in an attempt to avoid too much reading. He will SCAN HEADERS on the look out for texts of interest and read and comment on them.
The biggest vice that he has is egoism, and his greatest fears are that irony will be misinterpreted as bitterness, humour condemned as rubbish, compassion scorned as weakness, level-headedness dismissed for boredom. He has to remind himself that the more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed, and that it is naive to believe that increased communication is always for the better.
Indeed, when under the stress of INFORMATION OVERLOAD, he is inclined to suggest that too much communication is just as bad as too little. The only time when he regards INFORMATION OVERLOAD as being appropriate is when he himself is a major factor in creating it.
But it is only the most resolute SCREEN personality that can continue to ply his trade in the face of APATHY. This is felt as an even bigger burden than INFORMATION OVERLOAD. When his glorious vibrant texts sink into oblivion without drawing a single comment, the SCREEN personality fears that his messages may be misunderstood in a way that does the most harm.
In computer conferences, it is not important how things ARE but how they APPEAR to be. Generally the SCREEN personality would like to be serious but more often than not, serious topics scare people off and create APATHY. If the SCREEN personality does not evoke some response when he is serious, then the next thing to try is humour. If humour does not work then the SCREEN personality will go into hibernation. If everyone else on the system is asleep, then the best policy is to do likewise.
In his heart of heart the SCREEN personality knows that the global village is at not at hand. Experience tells that even though the telecommunications links and networks are fast falling nicely into place, the real barriers to be overcome are the same as ever...man's inhumanity to his fellow man.
-----
Author's Note: Robert Harper is a microbiologist who lives in
Finland. He has been involved in various international projects
where computer conferencing has been used for the exchange of
ideas and information between scientists in the life sciences,
and he is particularly interested in applications for exchange
of information between the developed and developing countries.
He describes this piece as "partly a political broadcast from
the Finland Station."
CENTER FOR NEW DEMOCRACY GOES ONLINE
by George Por
Gary Hart has founded a broad-based think tank organization called Center for a New Democracy, which says, "policy making in this time is too important to be left to its traditional practitioners only." The national membership network of the Center includes federal policy makers, state and local officials, business and labor leaders, grassroot community activists, and academics. Two key members of CND's founders circle and board of directors are Bay Area executives: Regis McKenna, the PR and marketing guru of Silicon Valley, and Don Kimball, Chairman of Consolidated Capital.
What makes the Center worthy to mention in this column is its dedication "to establish a modern communications system using cutting edge computer and telecommunications technologies to enable a computer membership network to conduct online conferences and maintain regular communication among its members. The Center plans to use teleconferencing and other means of electronic networking as appropriate. Well, we're talking about plans, so there's nothing up and running as of today. Stay tuned and you'll be the first to know when your modem can dial Gary Hart and his friends.
For more information CONTACT: Center For New Democracy, 2201 I Street, NE, Suite 220, Washington, DC 20002. Phone: (202) 675-6050.
[Re"printed" with permission from TeleTalk in Computer Currents.]