---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ####### ######## ######## ########### ### ### ## ### ## # ### # Interpersonal Computing and ### ### ## ### ## ### Technology: ### ### ## ### ### An Electronic Journal for ### ######## ### ### the 21st Century ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ## ### ISSN: 1064-4326 ### ### ### ## ### April, 1993 ####### ### ######## ### Volume 1, Number 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Center for Teaching and Technology, Academic Computer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC Additional support provided by the Center for Academic Computing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 This article is archived as GRELLER IPCTV1N2 on LISTSERV@GUVM (LISTSERV@GUVM.GEORGETOWN.EDU) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GROUPWARE AND INTERPERSONAL TEXT: THE COMPUTER AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION Leonore M. Greller, City College of New York, New York, NY and Sue Barnes, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY ABSTRACT It is axiomatic that in order for interpersonal communication to take place, verbal messages and their feedback must occur in real time and space. The computer, through a software process known as "groupware", enables "several users to work on the same document at the same time" (MacUser, June 1991, p. 207), while transferring and manipulating "interpersonal text" in real time and space. Thus, with groupware, verbal communication is not required for interpersonal communication to occur, and the computer can be used as a medium of communication. Groupware and its symbolic code of interpersonal text is extending our traditional definitions of interpersonal and small group communication while it challenges our definition of mediated communication. INTRODUCTION Computer technology, with its ability to transmit, store and retrieve individual data and messages "has now emerged as one of the major communication technologies in the world" (Chesebro & Bonsall, 1989, p. 30). However, a distinction must be made between the use of the computer as a technology or as a tool with which to perform tasks such as wordprocessing or database retrieval, and its use as a medium of communication. According to Neil Postman (1986), while "a technology. . . is merely a machine," it "becomes a medium as it employs a symbolic code, as it finds its place in a particular social setting" (p. 86). Thus, "a medium is the social and intellectual environment a machine creates" (p. 86). When people use their personal computers or workstations as a medium of communication, they use them to connect to a network of other users in order to exchange information and ideas within the medium's social and intellectual environment. The Internet is one example of how the computer can be used as a medium of communication. The Internet is "a collection of networks around the world that links military, university, and research sites. . . millions of computer [users] . . . participate in a kind of electronic village" (Ward, 1992, p. 99). The growth of the Internet has increased so rapidly that estimates of how many people are using the Internet for military, university, and research projects ranges from two million (Hafner & Markoff, 1991) to three million users daily (Schoffstall, 1991). Recognizing both the rapid growth of networking systems and the increased volume of messages sent and received over the networks, computer manufacturers and software developers are continuing to enhance the networking capabilities of their products. These enhancements include enabling computer users who are connected to local and wide area networks to have the ability to share and receive documents and messages (Apple Computer, Inc., 1991; Norton & Schafer, 1992; Scherer, 1992) There is no question that "the personal computer is gradually becoming the interpersonal computer" (Johansen, 1988, p. 1) and that with this shift, computerized communication is becoming "computer-user communication," transforming the manner and methods through which we communicate with one another. The relation of the personal computer "to the user will change from that of an isolated productivity tool to that of an active collaborator in the acquisition, use and creation of information, as well as a facilitator of human interaction" (Tesler, 1991, p. 86). Clearly, it is time to examine how the use of the computer as a medium of communication affects the process of human communication. This paper will specifically examine how the introduction and use of "groupware" not only extends our traditional definitions of human communication systems (interpersonal and small group), but it also challenges our definition of mediated communication. Further, this paper examines how groupware users create a new social and intellectual symbolic environment which the authors herein refer to as "interpersonal text." Using the systems or transactional perspectives, human communication occurs within an environment "in which two [interpersonal/dyadic] or more persons [small group] attempt to consciously or unconsciously influence each other through the use of symbol systems. . . All communicators within the system are interrelated and interdependent" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 47). The process of human communication is inevitable, irreversible, continuous, circular, unrepeatable, and has both context and relationship dimensions (DeVito, 1988; Barnlund, 1970). Further, human communication systems experience at least three stages of evolution: "(1) initiation, in which the system is first formed and comes into being; (2) operation, in which the system performs its behaviors and functions; and (3) termination, in which the system ceases to function" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 233). Small groups undergo four stages of evolution: Orientation, conflict, emergence, and reinforcement (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981). Small groups are further classified according to their function: They are classified as consummatory when organized for social purposes, but they are classified as instrumental or problem-solving when organized to accomplish a task. (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981). Thus, the participants of the instrumental small group "engage in the interaction to accomplish a goal above and beyond the pleasure derived from communication itself. . . . [They] communicate with each other in order to achieve a goal that can be reached only through instrumental. . . communication" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 232). Designed specifically for use by instrumental small groups, "Groupware is a generic term for specialized computer aids designed . . . for project-oriented teams that have important tasks and tight deadlines" (Johansen, 1988, p. 1). Groupware enables "several users to work on the same document at the same time," (MacUser, June 1991, p. 207) thereby creating a "process in which two or more persons. . . influence each other through the use of symbol systems " (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 47) and "engage in the interaction to accomplish a goal" (1981, p. 232). Today, groupware is not only being used by medical researchers (Schrage, 1991), military personnel (Olsen, 1992), attorneys (Andrews, 1991) and other knowledge workers (Hwang, 1991), but it is also being used in the classroom to develop writing skills and enhance the process of small group communication (Porter, 1992). Prior to the introduction of groupware, human communication systems were often referred to as either face-to-face or as mediated, that is, "mediated by some mechanical or electronic device(s)" (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981, p. 226). Mediated communication was first distinguished from face-to-face communication because, although a person communicating with another person by telephone or telegraph could respond immediately to the messages each person sent and received, there was no visual channel of information. With the introduction of movies and television, there was a visual channel of information, but the absence of face-to-face interaction made it impossible for each communicator to respond immediately (Emmert & Donaghy, 1981). This response, often referred to as "feedback" in the communications discipline, is, as Emmert and Donaghy (1981) explain, "not simply a nice thing to include in a discussion of communication. It may well be the essence of a communication system" (p. 38). According to Emmert and Donaghy (1981), "the mediating characteristic of [television and film] and print media makes it impossible for feedback to be immediate" (p. 226). In fact, although these media receive delayed feedback through isolated personal responses from their viewers through telephone calls and letters to their personnel, immediate feedback does not occur. Rather, audience reaction is inferred from ratings and market share. Thus, "In real human communication, the sender has to be not only in the sender position but also in the receiver position before he or she can send anything. . . . Human communication is never one-way. Always, it not only calls for response but is shaped in its very form and content by anticipated response" (Ong, 1982, p. 176). Using groupware, the response to a person's communication is not only immediate, but the visual channel is present as well. Each communicator not only uses the visual channel (the computer monitor) to relate the communication through text, but each communication that is being related becomes the message. Thus, verbal messages and their feedback, or the symbol system of speech, are no longer required for human communication to take place. With the introduction and use of groupware, the computer is no longer a medium of mediated communication, but rather it is a medium of human communication. Groupware users engage in human communication in a new symbolic environment called "interpersonal text." Interpersonal text is the method of communication which groupware-users employ to edit or create documents or to engage in an "electronic conversation." For example, a medical researcher in Colorado and his colleague in Maryland are writing a research paper. As each colleague re-writes or edits the document, both colleagues are simultaneously viewing their computer screens and seeing the changes as they are being made (Schrage, 1991; Electronic brainstorming, 1991). This enables the researchers to "simulate the experience of collaborating in the same room, tearing down the barriers of geography" (Electronic brainstorming, 1991, p. 11). "This new environment has transformed both the speed and quality of their relationship; the editing process is now more like a dialogue than a set of soliloquies." (Schrage, 1991, p. 505). While the researchers are writing or editing their document, they can communicate additional information "through a separate 'chat' window. . . by typing messages to each other, outside of the documents being created, edited or reviewed" (Electronic brainstorming, 1991, p. 11). Using the "Chat Box" window, the researchers engage in electronic conversation. Electronic conversations can be printed and saved for future reference. Saving electronic conversations eliminates the problems many people encounter during face-to-face or telephone communications which include communicating a good idea but then losing one's train of thought, and the inability to logically and sequentially repeat the argument after communicating it to one's colleague. Interpersonal text, from which electronic conversation is derived, is a symbol system which can be understood and responded to in real time and space as well as stored and retrieved for use at a later time. "The sequential processing and spatializing of the word, initiated by writing and . . . intensified by the computer. . . maximizes the word to space and to (electronic) local motion and optimizes analytic sequentiality by making it virtually instantaneous" (Ong, 1982, p. 136). In essence, just as voice is the channel for the symbolic environment of speech which is used to create spoken language, the computer is the channel for the symbolic environment of interpersonal text which is used not only to simultaneously write and edit documents, but also to engage in electronic conversation concerning the documents or other matters. It should be noted that interpersonal text does not record speech nor does it replace printed text. Just as "writing, for example, didn't record oral language; it was a new language, which the spoken word came to imitate" (Carpenter, 1960, p. 162), interpersonal text is a new symbolic environment or language, and it is and will, as all new languages do, codify reality differently (Carpenter, 1960; Eisenstein, 1983). Interpersonal text codifies the users' reality differently because it incorporates the printed word or language of the book (text) with the verbal patterns of speech. It transforms the static page into an active conversation. Thus, interpersonal text is a language of conversation for action rather than a channel of words with which to convey information (Winograd, 1988). The transformation from static text to active text enables a person to communicate visual textual information simultaneously to one or more participants and to engage in an active conversation. Interpersonal text is action-oriented in that it enables a minimum of a two-way conversation through the visual channel of the computer screen, without the necessity of the communicators being present in the same room. Although the participants are not in the same room, they still experience the three stages of evolution of human communication systems, that is, initiation, operation and termination. At the initiation stage, the system is formed and comes into being at the point that two or more groupware users agree to engage in creating interpersonal text or electronic conversation. The operation stage occurs when the participants are interacting by creating interpersonal text or electronic conversation. Termination, the third and final stage of human communication systems, occurs when the communicators agree to cease the communication. Hence, by using the computer as a medium of communication, groupware users experience the evolution of human communication systems and engage in interpersonal and small group communication through a new social and intellectual environment. The advent of groupware and its symbolic code of interpersonal text extends our current definitions of interpersonal and small group communication and challenges our definition of mediated communication because feedback is no longer delayed. Thus, the distinction which communications theory has made between face-to-face communication (interpersonal and small group) and mediated communication is not applicable to the computer when it is used as a medium of communication. As Innis stated, "A medium of communication has an important influence on the dissemination of knowledge over space and time and it becomes necessary to study its characteristics in order to appraise its influence in its cultural setting" (Innis, 1951, p. 33). 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She received her Master of Arts Degree in Communications from New York University, the Department of Media Ecology, and her Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Leonore M. Greller City College of New York 7 Great Jones Street New York, New York 10012-1100 212-254-1865 FAX: 212-254-2175 LMGCC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Sue Barnes, M.F.A., is an adjunct assistant professor in the Advertising & Communications Department, and a member of Academic Computing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Recently, she won a national contest for developing computer-aided instructional materials for courses at F.I.T. She is currently writing her dissertation in the Media Ecology Department at N.Y.U. on the history and development of the graphical user interface and its social consequences. Professionally, she is an authorized Apple Consultant and multimedia designer. Sue Barnes Fashion Institute of Technology 1200 Broadway New York, New York 10001 212-679-0086 FAX: 212-576-1180 BARNESSU@SNYFITVA.BITNET --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century Copyright 1993 Georgetown University. Copyright of individual articles in this publication is retained by the individual authors. Copyright of the compilation as a whole is held by Georgetown University. It is asked that any republication of this article state that the article was first published in IPCT-J. Contributions to IPCT-J can be submitted by electronic mail in APA style to: Gerald Phillips, Editor IPCT-J GMP3@PSUVM.PSU.EDU