Human-Nets-Request@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (Charles McGrew, The Moderator) (10/02/85)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 1 Oct 1985 Volume 8 : Issue 32 Today's Topics: Queries - Voice Mail info & Bboard Usage Within Companies, Computer Networks - Email addressing (4 msgs), Announcement - Social Impacts of Computers Curriculum ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sunday, 29 Sep 1985 16:33:18-PDT From: minow%rex.DEC@decwrl.ARPA From: (Martin Minow, DECtalk Engineering ML3-1/U47 223-9922) Subject: Voice Mail info request I'm trying to write a paper tracing the history of "voice mail" systems and vaguely recall some work done in the '70's on ARPAnet (ARPA Speech Project?) but can't seem to track down any references (except for a few semi-annual reports from Lincoln Labs complaining about memory errors on the TX-2.) Any pointers to the literature would be appreciated. Please mail to me and I'll summarize for TELECOM if there's any interest. Thanks. Martin Minow ARPA: minow%rex.dec@decwrl.arpa UUCP: decvax!minow ------------------------------ Date: 30-Sep-85 21:45 PDT From: William Daul / McDonnell-Douglas / APD-ASD From: <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA> Subject: BBOARD USAGE WITHIN COMPANIES Cc: DCE.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA I would like to make contact with people that are using BBOARDS within a comapny. I would like further information on how you use them and for what purposes. Thanks in advance, --Bi// ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Sep 85 14:48:48 edt From: BostonU SysMgr <root%bostonu.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: Towards a more 'human' method of e-mail addressing (SOLVED!) Dave Taylor of HP suggests that the US Postal system method of addressing be used as a model for electronic mail. The argument goes that a child can manage to use the US Postal system. The point that is missed is that humans do a lot in the delivery of mail, far more than should be expected in electronic mail (probably far more than we can endlessly afford to do in paper mail.) For example, if that same child sends me a letter: Barry Shein Boston Unverstety 111 Cummington St. Boston, Masachoosets 02215 I suspect it will get here in about the same time it would take if everything was correct, because a human usually has little difficulty dealing with minor errors (I can't even represent badly formed/backwards letters that we always see in those cute notes to santy claws.) We are unfortunately likely to have to conform to the stupidity of these machines which, in an area like e-mail, aren't likely to get a whole lot more human (oh, we could handle some little spelling errors, but for the foreseeable future the cost tradeoffs weigh heavily in favor of 'get it right or get it back'. Actually, a more obvious candidate for a model that works quite well is the phone system. Perhaps we need to consider whether or not AT&T got it right the first time and this little foray into 'humanizing' addressing has actually been a total failure. As you say, it takes (for some reason) a techno-nurd to get most mail addresses right, but it seems that little children use the phone system, as 'inhuman' as addressing people by a string of digits is. The defaults are quite rational (assume local area code if none etc etc, in office systems, assume local exchange if none.) What is really wrong with the idea of an e-mail system sending to me via: mail 617-353-9071 (my office line) or possibly mail "Barry Shein"@617-353-2780 (the front desk here) throw in a few mnemonics possibly (like 'Fieldstone 7-7779, the phone # of my childhood, certainly BU3-2780 or some such could be arranged, and more, like companies get (1-800-ATT-UNIX.) Add a simple list processor into your mailer to set-up and automatically use 'frequently called numbers' and re-dial perhaps and I personally think the problem ends up just about solved (oh yeah, country codes too, I think ATT has solved this whole problem, why are we re-inventing a very well demonstrated wheel?) In a commentary on the phone system and its use of digits, Harry Reasoner remarked 'the most miraculous thing about our technological systems are the people who use them' (ie. the way they adapt to them.) I agree. How many of you out there keep lists of people's phone #s and e-mail addresses? A lot I bet, why not consolidate (and hey! you can then maybe use 555-1212 and phone books to possibly get peoples e-mail addresses, for a very small amount of $$ listings could be added like: Boston University CS E-mail 353-1010 right in with the other listings, it might even be a real phone (I guess AT&T would require it to be, but certainly there are enough phones around computers that one could be chosen and given a double listing!) Solved, when do we start? -Barry Shein, Boston University ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 85 11:25:05 EDT From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr." <SIRBU@MIT-MC.ARPA> Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V8 #31 The CCITT is currently developing a draft standard for electronic mail names and a directory service to go with the X.400 standard for message format and distribution. Copies of the latest draft are available from Omnicom in McLean, Va. The standard is very similar to the <name>, <company>, <location> system proposed by Dave Taylor. Marvin Sirbu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 85 22:18 MST From: "Ronald B. Harvey" <Harvey%pco@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA> Subject: Re: Information Overload Mr. Taylor brings up some interesting questions regarding location of individuals by computer. There is currently work going on in several groups of ANSI/ECMA/ISO/CCITT on Directory Services. I believe that the ANSI group is X3T5.4. I don't have any more information about that group at this time (being at home) but by calling ANSI you should be able to get the chairman's name/number and determine next meeting info, etc. What has been proposed so far (and I think this has consensus) is that there would be a global naming tree that would be navigated based upon things like country, company, department, title, name, address, etc. All of the details of all of the attributes are not standardized, nor do I believe they are meant to be. Also, this directory system is meant to be distributed, so that not every system has to know all of the tree, but instead can 'learn' more about parts of the tree as it has to by asking the responsible parties for the information. Of course, there is the issue of directory costs, etc. Suppose you accidentally invoke a search that causes your service to look for all of the people named Murphy in Ireland? There is also privacy - should you be able to find all of the women in France with (or without?) company affiliations? These and more tough questions like them are still open for discussion. I don't think that they have been seriously addressed yet (except as a "yes, we will have to get to that someday"). Note that I am not directly involved in this area of standardization, nor is anybody that I talk to frequently. However, I do try to track it to some extent. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 85 13:18 EST From: Spiros Triantafyllopoulus <spiros%gmr.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: Re: Information Overload I read the posting by Dave Taylor, and I found some parts quite interesting. The objective is still down the road, though. The main concern, as far as I can tell, is addressing. And here is the good old argument about easy-to-use vs. hard-to-use ssystems. I don't mind an address such as ihnp4!-ut-sally!usl!usl-pa!jihres10 for me. The address can be kept in a way similar to phone numbers, i.e. in a rolodex or something. By attempting to make the system use USnail addressing we only complicate it further without much gain. If a person can't type all this string, then!. And, for a large number of people, the rolodex is still good. Using a paper mail-based addressing scheme does not do much good. See, in the first place you have to remember the full address and the way the guy spells the name (is it McDonnald or MacDonald or Mc. Donnald, :-)). Having a unique code (i.e mcdonnald) helps much more. Of course you need the rolodex, like: +------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Mac Donald, Mike | ihnp4!here!there!and-finally!mcdonnald | | : : : | | At the worst case, a local front-end, specific to each user can be maintained. Dave's proposed system is superior to the one i suggested above (and which i use for the last N years in USENET, CSNET, etc) in terms of not having to know the address. That is, if you have never mailed anything to the guy before or do not know his address. To save your day, this can also be implemented as the 1-XXX-555-1212 type of thing, like directory assistance where you can dial in and search in the hub site. (kinda like a net name server). Then, you can keep the complexity only to the hubs and let the end computers (i.e. PC's, MAC's and the such) only dial in to the name server, find the address and proceed. I think we should assimilate the hoped-for electronic mail system more to a telephone system and less to a paper-based system. After all, paper systems ARE ineffective and inflexible (i.e no re-routing, redundancy, etc). Cheers -- Spiros Triantafyllopoulos GM Research Labs, Warren, MI CSNet: Spiros@GMR UUCP : ihnp4!sally!usl!sigma ------------------------------ Date: 26 Sep 1985 0911-PDT From: Rob-Kling <Kling%UCI-20B@UCI-ICSA> Subject: Social Impacts of Computing: Graduate Study at UC-Irvine To: telecom@MIT-MC CORPS ------- Graduate Education in Computing, Organizations, Policy, and Society at the University of California, Irvine This graduate concentration at the University of California, Irvine provides an opportunity for scholars and students to investigate the social dimensions of computerization in a setting which supports reflective and sustained inquiry. The primary educational opportunities are PhD concentrations in the Department of Information and Computer Science (ICS) and MS and PhD concentrations in the Graduate School of Management (GSM). Students in each concentration can specialize in studying the social dimensions of computing. The faculty at Irvine have been active in this area, with many interdisciplinary projects, since the early 1970's. The faculty and students in the CORPS have approached them with methods drawn from the social sciences. The CORPS concentration focuses upon four related areas of inquiry: 1. Examining the social consequences of different kinds of computerization on social life in organizations and in the larger society. 2. Examining the social dimensions of the work and organizational worlds in which computer technologies are developed, marketed, disseminated, deployed, and sustained. 3. Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies for managing the deployment and use of computer-based technologies. 4. Evaluating and proposing public policies which facilitate the development and use of computing in pro-social ways. Studies of these questions have focussed on complex information systems, computer-based modelling, decision-support systems, the myriad forms of office automation, electronic funds transfer systems, expert systems, instructional computing, personal computers, automated command and control systems, and computing at home. The questions vary from study to study. They have included questions about the effectiveness of these technologies, effective ways to manage them, the social choices that they open or close off, the kind of social and cultural life that develops around them, their political consequences, and their social carrying costs. CORPS studies at Irvine have a distinctive orientation - (i) in focussing on both public and private sectors, (ii) in examining computerization in public life as well as within organizations, (iii) by examining advanced and common computer-based technologies "in vivo" in ordinary settings, and (iv) by employing analytical methods drawn from the social sciences. Organizational Arrangements and Admissions for CORPS The CORPS concentration is a special track within the normal graduate degree programs of ICS and GSM. Admission requirements for this concentration are the same as for students who apply for a PhD in ICS or an MS or PhD in GSM. Students with varying backgrounds are encouraged to apply for the PhD programs if they show strong research promise. The seven primary faculty in the CORPS concentration hold appointments in the Department of Information and Computer Science and the Graduate School of Management. Additional faculty in the School of Social Sciences, and the program on Social Ecology, have collaborated in research or have taught key courses for CORPS students. Our research is administered through an interdisciplinary research institute at UCI which is part of the Graduate Division, the Public Policy Research Organization. Students who wish additional information about the CORPS concentration should write to: Professor Rob Kling (Kling@uci-icsa) Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine Irvine, Ca. 92717 714-856-5955 or 856-7548 or to: Professor Kenneth Kraemer (Kraemer@uci-icsa) Graduate School of Management University of California, Irvine Irvine, Ca. 92717 714-856-5246 ------------------------------ End of HUMAN-NETS Digest ************************