human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (04/11/85)
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator) <Human-Nets-Request@Rutgers>
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 10 Apr 1985 Volume 8 : Issue 14
Today's Topics:
Queries - Knowledge Exploration &
Information on FILENET,
Response to Query - Information on FILENET,
Computers and People - Digital Utility Centers &
The Home Computer
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Date: 4 Apr 1985 1030-EST
From: Amsel-Sdsc@CECOM-1.ARPA
Subject: Knowledge Exploration
KNOWLEDGE EXPLORATION
DOD Computer Scientist conducting a study of information flow
which will culminate in an analysis of the Knowledge - Information
processing involved in a large hi-tech research and development
environment. Request assistance and dicussion on any of the
following topics:
1. Definition of knowledge.
2. What constitutes knowledge? (How to identify it)
3. Relationship of data, information and knowledge.
4. How does one collect or engineer knowledge? (Collection
mechanism)
5. Mathematical representation of knowledge. (Formula with
rationale)
6. Software and Hardware relationships to knowledge.
7. How to represent knowledge? (ex: What form or which
computer language)
8. Difference between knowledge engineer and knowledge
scientist.
9. Methods of controlling knowledge.
10. Who should have access to knowledge within an
organization?
11. Relationship of networking to knowledge.
12. Fifth generation concept of knowledge.
13. General comments on knowledge.
Charles E. Woodall
(SNAIL MAIL)
BOQ Box 122
Ft. Monmouth, NJ 07703
Office: (201)544-3294
Home: (201)389-3598
(ARPA/MILNet)
[woodall]:AMSEL-SDSC at CECOM-1.ARP
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Date: 8-Apr-85 14:21 PST
From: William Daul - Augmentation Systems - McDnD
From: <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA>
Subject: Request for information on FILENET
To: info-nets%mit-oz@mit-mc.arpa
Has anyone heard of this? Can you send me either information or an
address/phone number? What is FILENET? Thanks, --Bi//
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From: DonWinter.pasa@Xerox.ARPA
Date: 9 Apr 85 15:57:09 PST
Subject: Re: Request for information on FILENET
To: William Daul - Augmentation Systems - McDnD<WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA>
Cc: info-nets%mit-oz@mit-mc.ARPA
FILENET is a microfilm replacement system based on scanners and
optical disks. They are based in Orange County, CA (Costa Mesa?), and
include Jack Shemer and Doug Stewart, former Xerox employees, as
principals.
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Date: Wed, 3 Apr 85 8:06:00 EST
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@BRL-TGR.ARPA>
Subject: Digital Utility Centers (HND:8#13)
The credibility of the quoted "Compute!" article, already
severely strained by the stench of its Sunday-supplement,
gee-whiz style, its "Experts predict..." cop-out as well
as copious other journalistic ugliness, finally snaps with
"..very-high-speed satellite channels that support
two-way instantaneous transmission of voices,...."
No prophet. No visionary. Just another hack, paid by the
word, with a deadline to meet. Technical nincompoopery.
I suppose I'm happy with the notion that the folk who
believe trash like this are the natural and legitimate
prey of those who peddle it. While I might argue about
the regulation of physically addictive drugs, there's
no question that anyone who wants this kind of mind-
numbing intellectual dope should be allowed to buy it.
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Date: Wed 3 Apr 85 17:14:08-PST
From: WYLAND@SRI-KL.ARPA
Subject: The Home Computer
This was generated in response to Wayne McGuire's comments on
Digital Utility Centers. (HUMAN-NETS V8 #13, Wed 20 Mar 85)
The home computer market may, indeed, go the way of the video
game market bust. The primary problem is that nobody needs one:
There is no pressing problem in the home for which a home
computer is - at present - the solution. There may be a market
for (computer based) device which can automatically scan and
analyze news and magazine copy to reduce the amount of time the
average person spends trying to keep up with and understand
events. The counter argument is that the home computer may
become the new typewriter: a business machine that is cheap
enough (assumed) and useful enough to be a common home item.
THE PERSONAL BUSINESS COMPUTER VERSUS THE HOME COMPUTER
The personal computer is great for work, not home. At work, the
personal computer fills real, commonly encountered business
needs. Word processing allows you to write and easily revise
lengthy reports and specifications - without having to retype it
every time. Spreadsheet processing allows you to easily handle
most commonly encountered numerical problems such as cost
estimates, financial analyses, and financial projections -
without having to resort to the calculator and the columnar
accounting pad.
Word processing and spreadsheets are probably the real business
applications that justify purchasing the personal computer as a
productivity improvement tool: Word processing and spreadsheet
processing probably account for 80-90% of actual personal
computer use. (My opinion, based on observation of actual
personal computer use by technical and non-technical types, as a
percentage of hours of time the user spends at the keyboard while
these programs run.) The remaining applications tend to be
"gravy" or special cases.
Unless you have your business at home - including being a writer,
an accountant, a full time/heavy duty investor, or a programmer,
etc. - there is no home application to justify a $1000-3000
personal computer. For example:
* Video games are available much cheaper and better from Atari.
* Recipes are better filed on index cards.
* A calculator is probably better for your once-a-year tax return.
* Your Christmas card list is not THAT big.
* A note pad works just fine for a shopping list
* A calculator is better for balancing your checkbook
In general, you can't use the capabilities of the computer - word
processing, spreadsheets, database management, etc. - heavily
enough to justify laying out an amount of money equivalent to a
used car or two weeks in Tahiti.
There are two exceptions: students and fun. College students and
high school students intending on college have to crank out a lot
of reports and papers. The word processing capability of the
personal computer can usually justify its purchase for this use:
the price of the personal computer system is a small percentage
of the cost of four years of college, and if it improves the
student's performance, it is potentially a good investiment.
The other reason for buying a personal computer is fun (and
image). This is the fad market. Spending thousands of dollars
on a stereo system, a car, a boat, etc., is common. These items
are bought because they are enjoyed: the payback in enjoyment
justifies the investiment. In this case, a personal computer is
a much less expensive hobby than a ski boat or a sports car, for
example. If you enjoy playing with a computer, you don't need
any other reason for purchasing one.
However, the fad market is volatile: we have seen a boom-and-bust
cycle in video games. Unless there is a real application in the
home to provide a stable market base, the home portion of the
personal computer market can go through the same cycle. The
business portion of the market does not have this problem:
business word processing and spreadsheets are real applications.
We, the net users and believers in computers, have a solution,
the personal computer, looking for a problem - in the home.
Making the system more elegant, user friendly, having more and
better I/O devices (VCR's, modems to bulletin boards, etc.) gives
you a better solution, but not the definition of the problem that
needs the solution. Adding features to a product will not help
you if you do not have a customer with a problem to solve.
THE HOME COMPUTER: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
All right, IS there a home computer application? Well, maybe.
The question to be answered is of the form, "is there any task in
the home which can benefit from information processing and which
is currently significant in time and effort, measured in hours
per week?" Only one opportunity comes to mind: the news.
We spend a significant amount of time on the news: watching it on
TV, reading the paper, and reading magazines, both general and
special interest. It would be nice to have a programmable news
analyzer: a machine that would read the UPI, etc. reports on the
news and select those of interest based on an algorithm *I*
define - and change. It would also go back into background files
and put together a report to back up the story if the defined
interest level were high enough, etc.
I would pay some money for such a box which to allows me to gain
an active control over the flood of data that bombards me daily.
Part of the reason I subscribe to magazines is because they
provide these data preselection and background fill functions.
How much better it would be if I could interactively tailor these
functions rather than settle for what the magazine gives me this
month.
This is a real problem in the home which can be solved by
something that looks a lot like a personal computer. Not that
there aren't problems yet to be solved: the box requires the
solution of an artificial intellegence type of problem of the
same class as literature searches, a tough problem with no
simple, universal solution as yet. Wait until next year.
THE COUNTER ARGUMENT
Predictions of the demise of the home computer market may be
premature. It is clear that the business market is not going to
go away; likewise, the student market will remain also. Perhaps
the personal computer is the new typewriter: essentially a
business tool that is common in the home because of its accepted
utility. It, like the typewriter, is accepted as the obvious
tool if you have any reasonably serious writing to do. When the
price of a PC with disks and printer is approximately the same as
a conventional electric typewriter (Two years? Three?) the home
market may be defined by default.
The final home computer may be your friendly portable TV, the
prototype "electronic utility center." You can already buy a
portable typewriter with the RS-232 port built-in for $229
(Brother AS-44 at Montgomery Ward). All that is needed is for
JVC or Panasonic, etc. to come out with a portable TV/AM-FM/tape
deck/CD player/VCR/PC compatible computer with a built-in floppy
pair, a detachable keyboard, a printer/modem jack, and WordStar
and Lotus in ROM - and available at your local K-Mart for $399!
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End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
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