STEINER@RUTGERS.ARPA (01/07/85)
From: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Thanks for the interesting report on social interaction via computers, reported in WORKS Digest V4 #43. Two notes: (a) Windowing is a useful technique for handling simultaneous interaction between people. We have a program which allows two or more people to communicate simultaneously. Each types in a kind of personal window. This allows all to type at the same time without problems. Every character typed by any of the participants immediately appears on the screen of all the others, so that you can see when other participants hesitate, erase etc. Running the program gives a rather funny, weird feeling. (The program runs under TOPS-10). (b) By rapidly dismissing asynchronous interaction as very much studied elsewhere, you skip discussing the merits of synchronous versus asynchronous interactions. This is an important topics. We have good systems for both, and the asynchronous system (COM) is much much more used than the synchronous system mentioned under (a) above. Why? We do not really know. Perhaps the main advantages of using computers for communication is that you do not have to find a time slot suitable to all at the same time? Also, synchronous computer-handled interactions seem to develop problems with either too much or too little typed at the same time, which does not seem to happen in asynchronous interactions.