taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (03/03/87)
Tony Voss writes: >Suppose USENET could actually mail voice or text with diagrams, and >that all could choose which medium to use. Leaving aside transmission >of scripts, code etc, which would you choose? I prefer the written medium. It allows me to stop and think about what I'm saying without going "ummmmmmm" and I can edit what I want to say in ways that I could never do with a tape recorder. If someone want to talk to me while I'm reading or writing a letter, there's no problem. I can play the stereo really loud while reading or writing. Also I can absorb a lot more information reading than I can listening. I can print it out for further reference, skim through it, or skip to a particular section. The written word has been supplanted by the telephone for person-to-person communication, and I think that has been a real loss. Electonic mail makes it as trouble free to write a letter as it is to pick up the phone and call. The phone is great for spontaneous chatter, or where it's necessary to have immediate feedback, but it is inadequate for complex, polished ideas which need the editing which is only possible with the written word. Email also gives you the ability to, in effect, scribble a note and tack it on somebody's door. Answering machines aren't the same, and I'm forced to listen to those boring messages most people have them answer with. David L. Smith
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (03/05/87)
I would like to put a plug in for an integrated mail system. Something like the MIT Media Lab video disk I recently saw. I think a lot of David's objections comes from existing implementations of voice mail and other mail systems. I know I would like to attach more than simple text to many mail message (in fact I have an elegant little proof, which would take a little too long to type in ;-), and it has figures....). I would like a mail system which could integrate sound, images and text. I don't think it's a matter of interference or interruption. It's not clear to me that most of us polish our words when we use Email. On the other hand it would be nice to send animation rather than static figures in documents. --eugene miya NASA Ames Research Center
mmc@well.UUCP (Matthew McClure) (03/10/87)
David L. Smith comments: > I prefer the written medium.... Also I can absorb a lot more information > reading than I can listening. I can print it out for further reference, > skim through it, or skip to a particular section. This was brought home to me fairly forcefully when I was talking with our moderator at a party. We were in a conversation about general software development strategy, and he started what was obviously a choice remark about "Your options are either to ... or to ...," but it was a long remark, and in the middle of the first half, someone came up and grabbed my elbow. *Blank* went my mind. I returned to the real world just in time to hear him say, "Do you know what I mean?" "I'm not sure," I replied, and I doubt if he could have repeated it. Much as I like conversation, I wish that one had been conducted electronically. Matthew McClure International Technology Development Corporation