mcgregor@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (Scott McGregor) (01/06/90)
A CSCW model for discussion:
From Nicholas Negraponte's proposal for the MIT Media Lab:
____________ __________
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
/ \/ \
/ / \ \
+ Broadcasting + + Publishing + ---------
\ ----\-/---- / / \
\ | + | / ---> / MEDIA LAB \
\ | / \ | / \ /
\------------ / \---------- -----------
| |
| Computers |
| |
|___________|
1978 2000
Now, reusing the same diagram and look at Joel Birnbaum's vision
for "Domesticating the Computer"
____________ __________
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
/ \/ \
/ Enhancing / \ Augmenting \
+ Human + + Human + -----------
\Communication ----\-/---- Memory / / \
\ | + | / ---> / Domesticated \
\ | / \ | / \ Computing /
\------------ / \---------- --------------
| Improving |
| Human |
| Reasoning |
|___________|
1984 2000
and now recasting again from my own work:
____________ __________
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
/ \/ \
/ Electronic / \ Shared \
+ Communications + + Object + --------------
\ -----\-/---- Storage / / \
\ | + | / ---> / "Prescient" \
\ | / \ | / \ (CSCW) Computing/
\------------ / \---------- ----------------
| User |
| Agents |
| |
|___________|
1989 2000
By merging technologies from networking, databases and user interface
computers can support cooperative work between multiple people. As
Joel points out people can be supported through augmenting their
memory by capturing more transient information and storing and sharing
it permanently. Traditionally this has been the publishing industries
domain, and in its electronic form is the database or share object
store. Communications, once dominated by the broadcast and telephone
industries, can be enhanced through electronic multimedia synchronous
and asynchronous communications. Computers can also improve our focus
on tasks and thereby improve our reasoning ability just as administrative
assistants can assist us to manage complexity. User agents, systems
that marry rule based systems and self-aware user interfaces can also
help us organize our work, leading ultimately to "Prescient" computing
where our systems seemingly know what we will want to do in our collaboration
with others, and help us do it, just as company clerk Radar O'Reilley of
M*A*S*H always seemed to have the right files in hand before his commander
asked for it. Radar was able to do this because he managed the shared
files, he watched his commanding officer at work, and he was in touch with
all the other people in Korea who werelikely to affect his commanding
officer. As user agents gain these underlying capabilities, they will
be able to further augment CSCW and provider greater prescience.
Scott McGregor