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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: Computer Networks and Literacy
Message-ID: <908@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Dec-86 16:14:42 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.908
Posted: Mon Dec  1 16:14:42 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Dec-86 20:04:26 EST
Reply-To: hlr@well.UUCP (Howard Rheingold)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 24
Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <882@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from hplabs!well!hlr (Howard Rheingold)
 and was received on  Wed Nov 26 12:12:23 1986
 
Steve North comments;
>computer networks bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

>..a narrow-bandwidth, impoverished medium like glorified electronic mail
>when you can meet face to face?

There are instances in which one might choose to use a narrow-bandwidth
bandwidth medium like glorified electronic mail, for precisely the reasons
you cite as disadvantages: Sometimes it is valuable to allow the meek, mild,
generally quiet members of the group to speak up, flammage and all. And
sometimes it is valuable to keep the Chairman of the Department in his
place, without blasting his Presence all over everybody. An interesting
article by Sara Kiesler, sociologist at Carnegie-Mellon, appeared in
the January-February issue of _Harvard Business Review_ on the subject
of "The Hidden Messages of Computer Networks." Kiesler conducted some
experiments and noted the differences in decision-making styles between
face-to-face meetings and online meetings of the same groups of people.
The object is to use an appropriate communication medium for the task
at hand.  A key sentence from Kiesler's article: "The real payoffs, as
well as the social issues, will come from the way the technologies loosen
up communication."