VMSHARE is an example of a truly new form of human communication made possible by computers.
Kerr and Hiltz (1980) reported on a survey they carried out in conjunction with experts in the field of computer based conferencing. This survey examined what the impacts of computer-mediated conferencing would be and how this related to the overall impact of the computer on the way we live.
An impact in this context is defined as outcomes, effects or consequences. Kerr and Hiltz further defined impacts into levels and types and then hypothesized various effects that they felt people intuitively held or that could be found in the various literature. The levels defined were: individual, group and societal. The types within each of these levels were: cognitive, affective, and behavioural.
The survey was put to several experts in the computer-mediated conferencing field. The findings included qualitative data as well as quantitative data. In this tradition I will be looking at specific points within each of the categories that are relevant to VMSHARE and make my own observations and speculations. The evidence I cite is mainly anecdotal although, where possible, I've included comments from various appends within the conference.
This category examines the changes in mental constructs as users become familiar with the medium. The rate of change being proportional to the length of exposure.
This is true to a certain extent. As we examine the type of work being carried out by others in a field of common interest we may find that there is a requirement for new information on the topic.
This is true of life in general I suppose but the impact is heightened when using a system such as VMSHARE. The amount and quality of the information provides the opportunity to extend your knowledge. In addition the tools provided by the conference facilitate the learning process.
In terms of computer literacy this is true in the short term as it is easier for those already at speed with a system to get more out of it. However, as I found when first getting onto the conference it is quite possible to get up to speed quickly and thus overcome this initial discrimination. I've found this true also of users in general who do not have a computer background.
If you consider non-computer literacy then there is evidence that there is a certain amount of discrimination. This may take many forms:
From my own experience I believe this to be the case. When I first used the system I would selectively read the latest appends. Now I find I can look at all new appends each day and be able to filter out what I need or am interested in.
To a certain extent my personal goals have been modified after discovering what everybody else is doing. Not having to reinvent the wheel allows the goals to be extended beyond what was first envisaged.
This has been one of the main impacts that I've encountered. The wealth of experience and the plurality of ideas both technical and social has been most illuminating.
The effective scope is also expanded beyond the original intent of the conference. Take for example, an excerpt from a discussion on software packaging:
..1. It makes IBM aware in very certain terms that we would prefer packing material that is a bit less injurious to the environment.2. If IBM doesn't want to change packing materials, then they have to bear the expense (environmental and economic) of filling their landfills with foam.
An examination of the impacts on feelings, opinions, values and attitudes of the individual.
Hiltz and Kerr report a moderately positive response to this. In my own experience there have been times when I've almost gone into withdrawl if a weekend happens to interrupt my signing on.
I, like the study, do not believe this to be the case. The real selling point of VMSHARE is that you can get answers and solicit opinions. There is no shortage of editorial comment in addition to the technical advice. The form of these editorial is for the most part not malicious or condescending. A feature of VMSHARE is the lengths people seem to go to ensure fairness - and I don't mean by that people refrain from 'speaking' loudly when they feel they need to.
Only if your download fails!
To this I can both agree and disagree. I agree in the context of feeling those thousands of kilometres distant from where most of the work is being done. I disagree because after this initial isolation it becomes immaterial (for the most part) how far away you are.
The stranger is close to us, insofar as we feel between him and ourselves common features of a national, social, occupational, or generally human, nature. He is far from us, insofar as these common features extend beyond him or us, and connect us only because they connect a great many people. (Simmel, 1950)
A quote from MEMO AARDVARK(2) (a file containing people's thoughts on VMSHARE) illustrates the effect of isolation is on the conference:
I drive to work with a specialist in solar energy. He turned green with envy when I showed VMSHARE to him. When you are only one or two people working on a given field in an organization you may feel ISOLATED. Going to conferences may help, but the real cure for isolation is TELEconferencing. (Hans Deckers)
Also from the AARDVARK file are comments relating to how people take great care in the way they present their material and themselves on VMSHARE. Spell checking, text formatting etc. are evidence of this.
A Report from one of the conference members indicates that their status has increased with their colleagues and system users who follow a copy of of the conference.
In general, I can find no evidence of ego-stroking. Unlike student oriented conferences where there is a lot of abusive and egocentric comments VMSHARE is primarily used by people established in their field who have no need of such pettiness.
Another related effect is that of users developing personal eccentricities (I mean this in the nice sense of the word). For example, the signature line at the top or bottom of an append becomes an opportunity to add a personal touch that differentiates you from the rest:
...phsiiiVal (But I only think one thought at a time!) Breault Val (simple concepts come from simple minds) Breault Val (We had personal computing LONG before Personal Computers) Breault
Append on 03/17/87 at 21:33 by Virginia Hetrick, here in sunny Florida:
A definite yes as far as I can tell. Take for example files such as MEMO HUMOR, MEMO TRIVIA, MEMO MOTRCYCL. These files contain things not at all connected with work but provide a social aspect to the conference. Consider also, the amount of banter within appends and the amount of personal mail that goes through the system. I have no figures on the amount of mail system wide but if I extrapolate from my own case then it would appear that there are a lot more personal exchanges than purely technical.
A lot of the people who become friends via the conference supplement their contact via telephone calls, visits, and normal mail. There have even been reports of some romances!
One of the "older" conference participants sent me this insight into friendship formation and solidification:
....I might also mention that I was at the interim meeting in Denver last week, and my feelings of support were reinforced by seeing a lot of these folks in person again; my relationship with many of them was formed, I think, as much by personal contact as by electronic contact, but it's certainly been nurtured by the conference. On the other hand, I certainly felt like I knew a lot of them very well before I ever actually met them-- I'd been on the conference for some time before I actually got to spend any time with the VM Group.
The evidence from MEMO MOVINGON and MEMO THANKS indicates to me that this is so. See Appendix C. "Social Bonding" for extracts from these files. Similarly, files such as MEMO ITSABOY, MEMO ITSAGIRL, and MEMO ITSATHEM also demonstrate the ability of a physically diverse group of people to bond.
Individual communication styles and patterns; effectiveness of such communication or work patterns for individuals.
This is very true of VMSHARE. The conference is due almost 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
The evidence from MEMO AARDVARK and within this memo indicate that this is one of the principle functions of VMSHARE - people need to be in touch with the issues.
The concept of Netlag(3) was originated to describe those people living in one time zone operating under another time zone just to be on the system at peak times. It is interesting that whilst one of the benefits of computer-mediated conferencing is the temporal independence that it provides, people still like to be working when they know others are.
Routine travel would seem to decrease (I can't tell - I don't do that much routine travelling out of Australia) but the exchange of technical personnel has increased as a result of people becoming known.
Terminals have already found their way out of the office and into the home. In my own case when I do get a terminal home the motivation is always there to connect 'out-of-hours'.
Some other quotes from MEMO AARDVARK serve as a good indication of this:
VMSHARE allows us the luxury of having people highly experienced in different areas of DP available to lend advice, review our work and correct our errors.
When I started using VMSHARE myself in 1979, as a brand-new VM system programmer, I quickly learned that if I had a problem or didn't know how to do something, I could logon to VMSHARE, type in my question, and be almost certain that by the next day I'd have answers from several kind and knowledgeable souls -- from Copenhagen to California.
The ability to access the resources of VMSHARE - its files and its people - provide the opportunity for an increase in both the range and quality of the work performed by the individual. The NOTE files in particular prevent you from having to reinvent the wheel.
Kerr and Hiltz find strong negative support for this view. MEMO AARDVARK also indicates that this view is supported under VMSHARE:
Most contributions to VMSHARE are written on the fly, so to speak, with little organization in advance (like conversation); but it is received by the reader like any other form of written communication. We are trained to expect better organization in written matter, and rambling contributions (like this one) sometimes start out in one way then take the reader off in an unexpected direction, leaving an important point unfinished. This is frustrating for both the reader and the writer.
Again the append from which the previous quotation was taken gives qualitative evidence for this impact:
The fact that one is forced, on VMSHARE, to put one's thoughts and opinions in writing does have several curious side effects worth noting. I have no idea who else shares these, but.....It forces me to say exactly what I mean (i.e., use more precise language than I would in informal conversation) because
- I'm committing myself in writing, which means other people can laugh and point;
- The reader doesn't have an immediate chance to ask for clarification of sloppy language.
Ideas, purposes, goals; group and intellectual resources.
This was the express purpose in the creation of VMSHARE.
From my own experience of requirement writing and evaluation the process seems to occur much better when done on VMSHARE. The ability to focus peoples attention in a timely way enhances the resulting product.
This is very much the case. Understanding how a product is being exploited in one location subsequently has an impact on the rest of the group as well as the individual.
Appending a file with opinions, comments, or observations is a controlled form of brainstorming and results in a creative process that is qualitatively different from anything else.
This is the foundation stone of VMSHARE. Here is a longish quote from the paper presented at SHARE that introduced VMSHARE to new users:
....In those days, VMers were fighting hard to keep VM alive, and they saw that their only hope was to support one another and new installations to the very best of their ability. One part of that effort was the Waterloo Tape; another was the tradition of always trying to respond to requests for help.Around the time that Dave Smith was giving birth to VMSHARE, IBM was giving birth to the 3350 disk drive and deciding not to support it under VM. That was clearly a death sentence for VM.
IBM had always maintained that MVS/TSO was what its customers should be using for time-sharing. Most local branches at that time were openly hostile to VM and were providing little or no VM support.
Faced with VM's imminent death, and joined together electronically via VMSHARE, the VM community in SHARE united to support new VM installations and, ultimately, to help IBM to see where the future lay. The esprit de corps that evolved during that period persists today.
I don't think anyone could dispute this.
Informal structures; group cohesion; attitudes towards purposes and goals.
From experience I would disagree with this effect. I can detect no desire or evidence of people wishing to remain anonymous. I also have the a priori belief that those who logon are those who are interested in what is going on and not a surrogate collecting the days appends.
The evidence that I have seen indicates that people are aware or are soon made aware that the lack of non-verbal cues affect the way in which their contribution is seen. As such great care is taken to ensure that their point is made clear and that no unintended inferences are made. The ability provided by the Contact system to revise appends facilitates this. A special file MEMO CONFICON contains various symbols constructed of normal alpha-numeric characters that can be used to convey feelings in a simple manner. Much of the contents of the file are tongue-in-cheek but the principle is interesting.
So, someone suggested the VMSHARE usage of parenthetic expressions of emotion -- SIGH, GASP, and so forth. Then someone else suggested "icons" inserted into the verbiage. Some obvious examples::-) - Happy :-( - Unhappy :|l - Disgusted :|c - Real unhappy :|C - Just totally unbelieving! (jaw dropped) :|< - Forlorn >-( - displeasure
Relations with other groups, organizations and the community.
The introduction of SEAS and ASG to the VMSHARE system is indicative of its effectiveness.
I cite the evidence of mailbox traffic that I referred to earlier.
The asynchronous nature of the conference means that no one user can tie up a 'conversation'. Murray Turoff (1974) makes the following observation:
Individuals communicating through such a system tend to develop a feeling of equality with the other group members.
I believe, along with some of the survey participants, that facilities like VMSHARE reduce inequality rather than increasing equality.
VMSHARE seems to differ most with other computer-mediated conferences in that there is more reliance on self-regulation and self-direction. The bureaucracy of VMSHARE is very small considering the base which it is serving. Once the critical mass is reached the need for explicit leadership should diminish. People such as Umpleby (1980) believe that strong leadership is required because groups are unable to steer themselves.
The conference administrators do perform background policing to ensure that nobody is 'dumping' on another user, that the material is not slanderous or libellous (a major concern for a place like a University), or no proprietary information is being exchanged without permission.
I have no quantitative evidence for this but I suspect that it is true. Certainly the visits made to Australia by SHARE members provide support for this view. Certainly Appendix C. "Social Bonding" also provides some evidence in favour of this effect.
This is very true of VMSHARE. The number of files is huge as is the amount of information contained within them. Certainly, at any one time only a subset of these files are active but there are always new topics being added as old topics are exhausted (these old topics are often resurrected at a later time).
This is fairly true of VMSHARE as in any one file (or forum) there can be a number of threads active and there can be some confusion as to which answer refers to which discussion. There seems to be a degree of self-regulation that results in the refocussing of the discussion.
Appendix A. "VMSHARE Usage" shows that there is a hard core of active users and other not so active users. By active I mean those who append to the various fora. Within this activity user group there is a sub-group of very active users (up to 91 appends in one quarter).
Whilst the discussions are often lively and there are extremes in the points of view held I don't believe that there is a decrease in consensus greater than that experienced in a face-to-face group. In fact the fact that people have time to read before responding should enhance the likelihood of agreement being reached.
The fact that the contents of VMSHARE is shadowed in many other places as well as being accessible in a read/write mode by IBM staff attest to this.
Like Kerr and Hiltz the amount of evidence to support any hypotheses is scant, projective, and basically intuitive. The lists I've provided for this section contain those hypothesized impacts that I feel may be true or appropriate for VMSHARE. In most cases I have no substantive justification for these beliefs.
Political; goals and purposes, values and thoughts; basic ideas of society; skills, science and technology.
This may not be true as the borders between cultures seems to become as equally blurred as the geographical boundaries.
Apart from an 'all rights reserved' caveat the tendency amongst VMSHARE'rs is for openness. One of the major issues that the VM community has been dealing with is IBM's policy of not releasing source code. This has caused much anger and discussion and is indicative of the openness of VMSHARE.
Files such as MEMO HUMOR, MEMO TRIVIA etc. provide support for this effect. (Appendix D. "Examples of non-work related files".)
Attitudes toward culture and goals.
I have an intuitive belief that this is not true as it is more a case of redefinition of identity. I have found there has been an increased awareness of my own community but at the same time my sense of identity is increased to encompass a world view.
Changes in social patterns and behaviours.
I believe that this is an automatic process and a function of the design of the conference.
Certainly the problems experienced with the CHRISTMA EXEC(4) in December of 1987 is indicative of the threat of sabotage and the need placed upon information providers. VMSHARE, whilst an unrivaled source of information and help, is not critical to our organization's function. I believe our efficiency would decrease but we could survive.
Membership to the group ensures the ability to have a say. It also provides the opportunity for the group to become a lobby group. This is the original intention of groups such as SHARE, SEAS, ASG, etc. but the capabilities have been magnified.
Whilst this not really a part or intention of VMSHARE it provides the opportunity to carry out a lot of work at home. Telecommuting in general is really an issue for commercial organizations and not user groups. The following quote from Hiltz and Kerr (1982) provides some insight into this effect:
Teleconferencing fits well into the lifestyles of some people - they can do their job, make reports, and talk with colleagues wherever they are, regardless of time. They can work as well as at an office, and they can work at their own pace and time, which may be different from the standard 8 to 5 office job. For them, teleconferencing is a compatible even liberating tool. (Vallee, 1974)
(1) In one documented case a user was described as SHOUTING because their input was in upper case.
(2) This memo was so named by the creator Dave Smith just before he left to join IBM. He wanted to have the first file in the collating sequence as a lasting reminder of his presence.
(3) Netlag n. The result of one's internal (biological) clock being out of synchronization with local time due to working on an electronic network. For example, there is a tendency among European IBMers to live on the USA clock in order to have a maximum working time overlap with their US colleagues. This means that they constantly look as though they just stepped off an overnight flight. (Taken from IBM Jargon and General Computing Dictionary, Ninth Edition, February, 1988, p. 33.)
(4) In December of 1987, a student in Europe created a procedure that would display a christmas tree and a welcoming message on the console of the user executing it. This procedure also had, however, a mechanism to propagate itself throughout the network. So from Europe people all around the globe received copies of this procedure, including the President of IBM. Each time it was executed more copies would be propagated. This became so bad that whole systems would be clogged with these copies. The IBM internal network (2700 nodes) was infected by this 'virus'. As a result whole countries were pulling out of the network.
The culprit was eventually found thanks to the co-operative effort of system programmers all around the world.