391 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
391 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
An Introduction to Computer Conferencing: a Look at Software
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Available in the Academic World
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------------------------------------------------------------
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Alex Cruz, M.S.
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Associate Consultant
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Center for Advanced Study American Airlines Decision Technologies
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in Telecommunications 4200 American Blvd.
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The Ohio State University Fort Worth, Texas 76155
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Columbus, Ohio 43210
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This paper is intended to be an introduction to some of the concepts of
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computer conferencing as well as a guide to some of the existing
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conferencing software today. Even though the number of commercial
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users is increasing, the software described is mainly used in academic
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environments. It should provide novice users with the necessary concepts
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and leads to visualize the applications of computer conferencing in their
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fields. An special emphasis is placed on interactive computer
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conferencing.
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What is Computer Conferencing?
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------------------------------
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The concept of computer conferencing is not new and lot of definitions
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have been given. It refers to the idea of establishing some type of
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communication with one or more people through a computer that is
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presumably connected to a network of other computers. The most basic
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way of computer conferencing can be two computers connected to each
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other through a wire.
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The sophistication of computer conferencing is directly related to the
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amount of 'wire' used, the friendliness of the software used, the
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geographic location of the parties involved, the requirements of the
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information to be transmitted (simple documents, graphic files, etc) and
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the nature of the conference:
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Types of Computer Conferencing
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------------------------------
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Computer conferencing can be classified in many different ways but
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mainly two different variables define the types of computer conferencing
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best: the size of the audience and the amount of time involved in the
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question-response interval.
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According to the first variable, there are three different types of computer
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conferencing:
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- one-to-one: one person interacts in a direct way with another.
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- one-to-many: one person establishes communications with more than
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one person at a time.
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- many-to-many: many people are able to interact with many others
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According the second variable, there are two types of conferencing:
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- non-interactive: the period of time between the initial contact and
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the response can vary from a few seconds to many weeks.
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- interactive: the conference occurs 'live'; participants are able to
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communicate to each other directly at a particular time resulting in no
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delay between the initial contact and the response.
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Most people involved in the academic and research fields have already
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experimented with some combinations of these different types of
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computer conferencing: the most basic and oldest way of computer
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conferencing is the one-to-one non-interactive kind: electronic mail.
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Using the concept of electronic mail, mailing lists were born: the same
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message body was to be sent to many people; this refers to the one-to-
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many non-interactive conferencing. Thousands of private and public
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mailing lists exist today over hundredths of computer networks; this is
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not surprising since most computer systems that have electonic mail
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software allow distribution lists that can have many electronic mail
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addresses.
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The last type of non-interactive conferencing refers to the many-to-many
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concept: any person belonging to a large group of users can 'post' a
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message or article and many people can reply to that message, each of
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the replies being able to be read by all the users. Thousands of electronic
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bulletin board systems utilize this idea for discussions of different topics.
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The massive use of interactive computer conferencing is more recent and
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its applications are starting to flourish as the academic community
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increases its involvement with such systems. One-to-one software is
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very common and included in most multi-user operating system packages
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such as Unix, VMS, CMS. Even one-to-one interactive computer
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conferencing can be broken down in two different types:
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+ line driven: in line driven environments, one user sends a
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single short message to another user's address in the system.
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+ screen driven: two users establish a communi cation session
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where typically, the screen is divided in two halves, and each other can
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'talk' by simply typing the desired text. The other party receives the
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text as it is being typed or after the return key has been pressed,
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depending on the hardware/software being used.
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One-to-many interactive computer conferencing attracts the idea of
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'public speech' or 'lecturing' in a computer environment. Even though
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this concept has yet not been fully explored, it would naturally be
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included as part of many-to-many interactive because of software
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limitations: most many-to-many conferencing software have or can
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implement the one-to-many feature (for example, as a listen-only user).
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Perhaps one of the most exciting types of conferencing nowadays is
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many-to-many interactive communications via a computer. Thanks to
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the already existing commercial and academic computer networks, many
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people have been introduced to the concept of across-the-world
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interactive communications. Some examples will be provided later in
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this paper.
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This type of software allows a user to interact with many users at the
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same time and discuss different types of issues and exchange research
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and academic problems and solutions. Due to the cultural and
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geographical diversity of the users of some of these systems, many
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different types of useful feedback is provided when asked for.
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How is computer conferencing used at the university level today?
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----------------------------------------------------------------
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Non-interactive computer conferencing has been used extensively at just
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about every college and university. Most higher education institutions
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have a connection to BITNET and/or the Internet. The main applications
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of these connections are electronic mail, file transferring and remote
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login. Both BITNET and Internet connected computers have bulletin
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board style software available: BITNET list servers and USENET
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newsgroups are the main ones; USENET is indeed a network of its own
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that sitson top of many other Internet based networks.
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Academically, teachers are using electronic mail and mailing lists to get
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in touch with their students on class matters and university administrators
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to provide faculty and students with information related to university life
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and courses. Intelligent 'fuzzy' electronic mailers [IRCCAPRIL90]
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combined with other conferencing services such as interest groups lists or
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newsgroups help both teachers and students get answers and suggestions to
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their subjects of research as well as find answers to questions that have
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already been asked. Today, it is common for a well 'networked' researcher
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to search for the answer of a problem first, by asking others in a specific
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topic discussion group and then apply the results to the problem if a
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feasible answer is found. These and other applications reveal an extense
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use of non-interactive computer conferencing in academics.
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On the other hand, interactive computer conferencing is starting to
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become more and more popular at the university level: BITNET users
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are able to contact any user in the BITNET network by using a simple
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command to issue line messages. The power of Unix software/hardware
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along with the already existing Internet based networks allow academic
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users to establish one-to-one screen based communication sessions by
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also issuing a simple command. At the moment, limited academic
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research is being conducted on the applications of interactive computer
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conferencing to teaching and researching, though it is being widely used
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for electronic meetings among researchers to discuss aspects of the
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research as well as to collaborate in projects remotely.
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Software Examples for Each Category
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-----------------------------------
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(The following is a small guide providing some examples of software and
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hardware that is able to execute the different types of computer
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conferencing as described above)
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Non-interactive computer conferencing is already widely in use but the
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outreach of a single computer connection (BITNET or Internet based) is
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not well known yet:
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+ one-to-one: electronic mail. The number of companies,
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institutions and foreign countries that now are reachable through already
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existing computer networks has increased enourmously in the last few
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years. Companies and computer services such as Compuserve, MCI
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(MCIMail), AT&T (AT&T Mail), GEnie, the National Public Telecomputing
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Network, Applelink, Byte Information eXchange, Connect Professional
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Information Network, Fidonet, GeoNet Mailbox Systems, NASAMail, PeaceNet,
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the Space Physics Analysis Network, Telenet's commercial electronic mail
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service and many regional networks are all already onnected to the
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Internet or other networks reachable from the Internet and therefore
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can reached by BITNET [INMG90]. For a guide on how to reach each
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network from your system, get the Inter-Network Mail Guide by John Chew,
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by anonymously FTPing into ra.msstate.edu (see Appendix A) and obtaining
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the file: /pub/docs/internetwork.
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For a more complete description of all the possible networks that can be
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reach, refer to "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and
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Networks" by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
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+ one-to-many: this type of computer conferencing normally
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comes as mailing lists or moderated newsgroups. If you wish to get
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introduced to the concepts of list servers, send a one line message to
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LISTSERV @BITNIC.BITNET with the content: 'HELP'. Only an e-mail
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connection is needed to subscribe to most discussion lists.
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+ many-to-many: USENET moderated and unmoderated
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newsgroups are more common on Unix and Internet connected machines.
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Subjects of the newsgroups range in both intellectual as well as
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recreational value. There is a very strong molecular biology community
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that uses the USENET software and network to exchange ideas and
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discuss research. Just about any type of computer software and hardware
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has its own newsgroup as well as some other science topics. On the
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recreational side, sport event schedules from soccer to biking are
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regularly posted; also TV, music, humor, religion and foreign cultures
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have their newsgroups. If you do not have access to a USENET news
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feed, please contact your system administrator.
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Interactive conferencing is easily reachable at the one-to-one level
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because the simplicity of the software is not comparable to that of many-
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to-many conferencing software. Also, it must be noticed that the type
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of software described here can only be found in large multi-user systems:
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local area networked personal computers normally already have software
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that enables some computer conferencing.
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+ one-to-one:
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o Unix (Hewlett Packard, MIPS, DEC, AT&T, Sun, Next manufacture
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hardware for the Unix Operating System):
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Most versions of the Unix operating system support the 'talk'
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command which enables the user to establish an initial user to user
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session where everything that one user types appears in the screen of the
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other user and viceversa until an escape key sequence is pressed. A
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typical command line could look like:
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talk amiller
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to talk to user amiller in the presently used system, or
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talk amiller@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
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if the Unix system being used is other than magnus.acs.etc. Adding other
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users to the initial one-to-one conversation is not possible.
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In addition to the 'talk' command, most Unix systems also support the
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'finger' command which allows a user to get a list of users at a remote
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machine:
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finger @mercurio.dm.unirm1.it
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will return a list of current users in a Sun workstation used in the
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department of Mathematics at the University of Rome, Italy. These two
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commands compliment each other when a user is trying to find a particular
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remote user and talk to him/her.
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o VMS (Digital Equipment Corporation Vax machines...):
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The PHONE command behaves in a very similar way to the 'talk'
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command in UNIX. The PHONE command does allow for more than one user
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at a time.
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o CMS (BITNET based machines, IBM mainframes..):
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The TELL command in this operating system allows the user to
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send a single short message to another user currently logged on to any
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BITNET computer:
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tell CRUZ at OHSTVMB Hello, Alex how are you?
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would send a short message to user CRUZ in BITNET node OHSTMVB.
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All three commands in all three operating systems are standard. Contact
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your local system administrator if not present in your machine.
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+ many-to-many:
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(Due to the diversity of interactive computer conferencing, only
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three systems will be touched and given sources to)
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o Bitnet Relay Chat: this software is available mainly for
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BITNET based machines. It provides the use with a friendly interface to
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communicate with other BITNET users. Some of the features of this
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software include: switching between users/screens via PF-keys, disk
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message logging, disconnected answering machine services; it is suitable
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for any type of terminal from 1200 Baud PC to local 3270 terminals. It is
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maintained by Eric Thomas (ERIC@SEARN.BITNET) [CHAT90].
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o Internet Relay Chat: It is mainly a Unix based program that
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enables machines from all over the world connected to both Internet and
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BITNET based computers to establish a 'chat' connection and set one-to-
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one, one-to-many and many-to-many sessions. It provides many different
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features such as private, moderated, invite-only, secret channels, group
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and private messaging, multiple nicknames, notification of user presence,
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user list by server, channel and other properties, etc. To access IRC on a
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trial basis from an Internet connected computer, type 'telnet
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bradenville.andrew.cmu.edu' and provide the necessary nickname and
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screen emulation information. Issue the command '/HELP' to get started,
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'/WHO *' to see the current users (as an average 200+ from over 18
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countries around the world) or '/LIST' to see a list of current users.
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The software to run IRC is free of charge but copyright guidelines are to
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be met. This is where it can obtained:
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OS Site Directory/File
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---- ----------------------- --------------------
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Unix freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/UNIX
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VMS freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/VMS
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VM freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/VM
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OS - Operating System
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Site - Site to FTP to (see appendix A)
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Directory/File - Filename and directory
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o International Citizen's Band: this is a similar program to IRC.
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It contains most of the same features but its architecture and logic for
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server-client connections differs from that of IRC's. The software can be
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obtained through anonymous FTP at athos.rutgers.edu, file /pub/icb-
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client.tar.z; this software will only execute in Unix based machines.
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Conclusion
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----------
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Computer Conferencing is another necessary tool for today's computer
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aided research and instruction. It has all the embedded advantages that
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other already used electronic media enjoy: easiness of processing, easy
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data storage, quick detailed responses, easier to find the desired recipient,
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speed and reliability of document/message transmission, document safety
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and security, etc [CRUZ90].
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There are also other advantages that are due to the character of this type
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of communications: the store-and-forward nature of computer conferencing
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gives the participants a response time period that is not possible in more
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traditional ways of face-to-face or telephone communications [STEVENS86].
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Flexibility so that any researcher with a workstation and a network
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connectionmust is ableto join a discussion session; facility to search the
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network for existing conferences;multiple communication channels; these
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and other features are needed for collaboration during the process of
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refining a theory or analysis of experimental data [SMARR90]. Interactive
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computer conferencing already offers these features.
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Computer conferencing is a growing field and many applications are
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already surfacing in the areas of project coordination, sales management,
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customer service, online marketplaces, interactive journalism, distributed
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education and organization & community building.
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The academic world is just a step away from fully taking advantage of
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all the capabilities of Computer Conferencing.
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Appendix A
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----------
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The TCP/IP file transfer protocol is called File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
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FTP enables a user of a given network to remote access and then locally
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transfer files existing in another computer host of that same network.
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Many computer hosts allow for anonymous FTP, whereby a user can
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obtain files form a remote host [QUARTERMAN88].
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The FTP software is available in most Unix and VMS based systems.
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Some IBM mainframes support FTP file transferring but with a lot of
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limitations. In order to access the software, just type 'ftp host.name'
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where host name is the archive you want to access: 'ftp ra.msstate.edu'
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will access the machine 'ra' at the Mississippi State University archives.
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When prompted for a USERNAME: respond with the word 'anonymous' and when
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prompted for a password respond with your electronic mail address. Once
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the connection is successfully established, the user may retrieve any of
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the files available in the authorized directories. To retrieve the
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Inter-Network Mail Guide, the user would type :
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cd pub (to change to 'public' directory)
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cd docs (to change to 'documents' directory)
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get internetwork
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(to get file transmitted from the remote computer to the current
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directory of the user that is doing the FTP connection)
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Exiting the program can be resolved by typing 'exit' or 'quit' at the FTP
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prompt.
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References
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----------
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[CHAT90] Program Filelist for Net Server at the BITNET Network
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Information Center. Direct electronic retrieval, July 1991, page 3.
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[CRUZ90] Alex Cruz, "An Evaluation of a State Wide Computer
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Network for Small and Medium Size Industries in the State of Ohio",
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June 1990, Master's Thesis, The Ohio State University, pages 30-41.
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[INMG90] John J. Chew, "Inter-Network Mail Guide", June 1990, Page 2-3.
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[IRCCAPRIL90] "Fuzzy Mail", "WHO-IS" Instructional Research Computer
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Center Newsletter, The Ohio State University, April 1990, page 7.
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[QUARTERMAN88] John S. Quarterman, "The Matrix: Computer Networks and
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Conferencing Systems Worldwide", 1990, Digital Press, pages 11-13, 125-126.
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[SMARR90] Larry Smarr, Charles Catlett, "Life After Internet: Making
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Room for New Applications",November 1990, Symposium of the Programs on
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Science, Technology, and Public Policy and Strategic Computing and
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Telecommunications in the Public Sector, John F. Kennedy School of
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Government, Harvard University.
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[STEVENS86] Chandler H. Stevens, "Electronic Organization & Expert
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Networks: Beyond Electronic Mail and Computer Conferencing", May
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1986, Sloan WP#1794-86, Sloan School of Management, Massachusets
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Institute of Technology, pages 1-9.
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