Table Of ContentHUMAN COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH SERIES
PETER R. MONGE, Editor
Monge and Cappella:
MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES IN
HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH 1980
Cushman and McPhee:
MESSAGE-ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR
RELATIONSHIP 1980
Woelfel and Fink:
MEASUREMENT OF COMMUNICATION
PROCESSES 1980
Kerr and Hiltz:
COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS:
STATUS AND EVALUATION 1982
COMPUTER-MEDIATED
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Status and Evaluation
Elaine B. Kerr
Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center
New Jersey institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey
Starr Roxanne Hiltz
Department of SocioJogy
Upsala College
East Orange, New Jersey
and
Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center
New Jersey institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey
1982
@
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kerr, Elaine B.
Computer-mediated communication systems.
(Human communication research series)
Includes index.
1. Information networks. 2. Computer networks.
3. Electronic mail systems. I. Hiltz, Starr Roxanne.
I I. Title. III. Series.
TK5105.5.K47 1982 001.6V404 82-8841
ISBN 0-12-404980-X AACR2
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
82 83 84 85 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To our friendship:
Now twenty-one years and stiJJ growing
To our children:
Jonathan, Katherine, and Paul
And to Murray Turoff:
Who got us both into this
Preface
The idea seems simple enough at first glance. Communications or
information entered into a computer from one terminal can be retrieved
immediately or at a later time from any other terminal linked to the
central computer.
It is the applications and impacts that are startling, and the ac
ceptance of the technology that is problematical. Essentially, computer-
mediated communication means that large numbers of people in busi
ness, government, education, or at home can use the computer to
maintain continuous communication and information exchanges. It
also requires that people accept fairly radical changes in the way they
work and even in the way they think, if they are to reap the potential
benefits.
More than a replacement for the telephone, mails, or face-to-face
meetings, computer communication is a new medium for building and
maintaining human relationships. It is faster and cheaper than alter
native methods for linking geographically dispersed people in working
groups. But more importantly, it tends to expand greatly the human
and information resources to which one has constant and convenient
access.
This volume has its origins as a report for a National Science Foun
dation-sponsored project (Hiltz and Kerr, 1981). In expanded and re
worked form, it synthesizes current knowledge about computerized
ix
X Preface
conferencing systems, electronic mail, and office information-
communication systems. It should be of interest both to students and
researchers studying this new form of electronic communication and
to organizations that are planning the installation of electronic mail
or other computer-mediated communication systems and that need to
be aware of the information gleaned from the studies presented here.
The book is organized into four main sections, focusing on the fol
lowing issues:
1. What are the important considerations in designing software or
choosing a system from the many available options and capabilities?
2. What factors determine whether such systems are likely to be
accepted or rejected?
3. What are the likely impacts of such systems upon the individuals,
groups, and organizations which use them? It is not the economic
costs and benefits, but the social problems and "payoffs" in the
form of enhanced performance and organizational efficiency that
should be the main considerations in deciding whether or not
to use a computer-mediated communication system.
4. Given the conditional nature of many of the possible impacts,
no system should be implemented without formal evaluation and
feedback from users to guide the implementation. The major
kinds of evaluational strategies that have been successfully em
ployed are described in this book.
To date, implementations of this technology have taken the form
either of proprietary electronic mail systems, with little or no assess
ment and reporting of the results, or of relatively small-scale field
trials with associated evaluations, generally published as organiza
tional research reports and not available in the open literature. For
this project, we attempted to gather all of the acquired knowledge and
insights gained from existing evaluations by using the researchers as
a panel of experts to systematically report their findings within a
common conceptual framework. We also used a panel of system de
signers to rate the importance of the many optional features an or
ganization or individual can choose from the technology. The result
is a synthesis of the "state of the art," designed as a reference for
anyone contemplating the use of computer-mediated communication
systems.
Acknowledgments
The initial phases of this project were financed by a grant to Upsala
College (IST-8018077) from the Division of Information Science and
Technology of the National Science Foundation. The opinions and
conclusions reported here are solely those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz wrote the section on "groupware"
that appears in Chapter 2, and Murray Turoff coauthored the first
section of that chapter. In addition, Valarie Lamont provided a first
draft for the section on group determinants of acceptance, and Jane
McCarroll contributed a first draft for the section on group level im
pacts. Their contributions to the planning and review processes are
also gratefully acknowledged.
We wish to thank others who helped to make this book possible.
From participation in the Electronic Information Exchange System
(EIES) project to sharing of data on design and evaluation to critical
reading of early drafts of the manuscript, the following have provided
invaluable assistance in one or more capacities: James Bair, Robert
Bezilla, John Bregenzer, David Brown, Richard Dalton, James Dan-
owski, Morley Greenberg, Edward Housman, Kenneth Johnson, Hubert
Lipinski, Clifford Lynch, Joseph Martino, Richard Miller, Jacob Palme,
Robert Parnes, Charlton Price, Ronald Rice, John Senders, Elliot Siegel,
Sarah Spang, Richard Stern, Don Tapscott, and Stuart Umpleby.
xi
XII Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Harold Bamford for his support and encourage
ment throughout the project. We would also like to thank Upsala
College, and particularly President Rodney Felder and George Fen-
wick, for support that assured completion of the project when it greatly
exceeded initial time estimates.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Research in a new area is like an assault on the wilderness: Skilled
observers are first sent forth to explore promising new territories and
gather information. Next comes the phase of gathering this information
together to systematically map what is known of the terrain. The in
formation in this book can be likened to the mapping of available
knowledge gained from exploratory studies of computer-mediated
communication systems. Having identified the opportunities and the
dangers, we are in a better position to conclude that the new technology
is "safe" for permanent settlers who are less adventuresome or perhaps
less foolhardy than the pioneers who first explored it.
This book was stimulated by the desire to capture and document
what was learned from the completion of the operational trials of the
Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES), and to compare these
findings with those of other computer-mediated communication sys
tems: conferencing systems, electronic message systems, and general
information-communication systems designed to support ''knowledge
workers" (managers, administrators, and professionals who retrieve,
process, and communicate information). In our post-industrial econ
omy, or "information society," there is an expanding population of
1
2 1. Introduction
such white-collar and service workers who can potentially achieve
significant productivity gains from the use of these communication
systems.
Following are examples of current applications:
1. Hewlett-Packard's internal message network handles more than
25 million messages a year.
2. Small science and technology advisory offices in many states try
to respond to questions bearing on proposed new legislation. The
same inquiry frequently occurs in several states, producing du
plication of effort. By joining an electronic information exchange,
they share their "inquiries" and "responses" and build a common
knowledge base to aid them in their work.
3. Half a dozen authors located throughout the United States jointly
write a major report. Each can read, edit, and make comments
about the others' work as soon as it is entered.
4. Middle managers in a major corporation take a "continuing ed
ucation" course; much of the "class" is conducted on-line.
5. College-educated professionals in many fields resign from their
nine-to-five office jobs and work full-time from their homes, as
free-lance consultants on nationwide communication networks.
6. A group of cerebral palsy children in New Jersey establishes
"computer pen pals" across the world.
7. Approximately 250 individuals, representing most of the utilities
which currently operate nuclear reactors, use a computer-me
diated communication system to share technical data on a daily
basis.
This small selection from hundreds of groups currently working on
dozens of systems represents only a sample of the uses of this new
technology.
OVERVIEW OF THE MEDIUM
Computer-mediated communication systems use computers to struc
ture, store, and process communications. Users compose text items by
typing on terminals linked to a central computer, either directly or by
telephone lines and a packet-switched network such as Telenet or
Tymnet. The terminal may have a typewriter-like device that produces
printed "hard copy," or it may have a television-like screen, called
a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube).
