Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!shemesh!ittai
From: ittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Using news for internal communications
Message-ID: <8599@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU>
Date: 12 Jan 91 16:50:45 GMT
References: <20665@crg5.UUCP> <102350001@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com>
Organization: NYU Stern School of Business
Lines: 29


    The down side is that the discussions tend to get convoluted as people
    take things out of context or zoom in on the trivialities while
    ignoring the heart of the matter.  I think this problem could be
    mitigated with some sort of moderator.

The same thing can occur in traditional meetings.  It is usually kept
in check by either a manager or an unofficial leader without resorting
to heavy-handed techniques such as "moderation".  One of the problems
with the e-mail/news medium is that this function must be more
explicit than in traditional meetings where there are many
out-of-bandwidth cues from leaders.  This is covered in some of the
published CSCW literature.

    Overall, my experience with using notes for technical discussions is
    that it is almost as good as (sometimes better than) talking face to
    face.  The medium allows complex issues to be discussed in detail
    without loss of information since each participant must be able to
    write down their thoughts.  It also serves as an "electronic trail"
    which enables one to decipher the reasoning behind the conclusions.

I would add that (IMO) the biggest advantage of using e-mail/news is
its asynchronous nature.  While all the colab type CSCW tools which
augment synchronous meetings are all very interesting, I think they
miss out on the greatest by-products of information technology: the
ability to have relatively rich asynchronous communications while not
losing time sensitivity.

-Ittai