Two failures in computer-mediated textcommunication

Ins t ruc t iona l Science 2 1 : 2 9 - 4 3 (1992) 29 © K l u w e r Academic Publ ishers , Dordrecht - - Pr in ted in the Ne ther lands

Two Fa i lures in C o m p u t e r - m e d i a t e d T e x t c o m m u n i c a t i o n

J U L I A N N E W M A N AND RHONA N E W M A N

Glasgow Polytechnic, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G40BA, United Kingdom. Email: [email protected]

University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Newtonabbey BT37 OQB, United Kingdom.

Abstract. The low uptake of computer text conferencing, despite its unique functionality, suggests that developers of this technology have paid insufficient attention to human factors. In Ergonomics (Human Factors Engineering) the study of untoward events such as user errors, systems failures and disasters is a widely-used and fruitful research strategy. Anomalous and unexpected events and actions likewise constitute an important source of data and insights for sociological, ethnographic and linguistic studies of human communication. In the present paper we combine these traditions, applying qualitative failure analysis to computer-mediated text conferencing. The data is drawn from two episodes of communication failure involving geographically dispersed groups engaged in different types of task. In one episode a consultative discussion aimed at the development of professional expertise collapsed in rancour. In the other, a design error was propagated, through misunderstanding, into the implementation stage of a project. The analysis has substantive implications for user training in new types of writing and reading skill and for the functional and interface design of textcommunication systems. There are also methodological implications for studies of computer mediated communications. It is argued that a surface analysis of the episodes is insufficient for full understanding of the communication failures: the record must be interpreted in the context of the practices, institutions and structures that exist in the social world outside the computerised textcommunication system.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

C o m p u t e r - M e d i a t e d T e x t c o m m u n i c a t i o n

In fo rma t ion Technology now suppor t s i n t e rpe r sona l t e l ecommunica t ion th rough a va r i e t y of med ia ( including voice, video and text) a n d sys tems ( inc luding te lephone , fax, telex, e lectronic mai l [email] , voice-mai l and c o m p u t e r conferencing). Fax , te lex, emai l a n d c o m p u t e r conferencing a re a l t e r n a t i v e sys t ems employ ing the t ex t m e d i u m , a n d col lect ively known as ' t ex tcommunica t ion ' (Chi l ton & Bird, 1988). F a x and te lex a re e s sen t i a l l y po in t - to-poin t technologies , in which m e s s a g e s a re d i rec ted to a p a r t i c u l a r machine , whe rea s emai l and compute r conferencing can p rov ide a service which is more f lexible and a d a p t a b l e to t he use r ' s r e q u i r e m e n t s , b e c a u s e t h e t e x t c o m m u n i c a t i o n is m e d i a t e d b y spec ia l i sed compute r software. This al lows messages to be a d d r e s s e d to a n a m e d use r or meet ing, r a t h e r t h a n to a machine .

30 Julian Newman and Rhona Newman

Proponents of computer-mediated communication (e.g. Hiltz & Turoff, 1978) often present it as a solution to problems that arise from temporal or spatial constraints inherent in face-to-face meetings, letter-post or telephone conversations. For example, email is much faster than letter- post, yet is not subject to the ' telephone window' tha t restr icts opportunities for conversation between different timezones, or to the 'telephone tag ~ that results from the point-to-point nature of the phone system. Computer conferencing systems additionally overcome: (i) the problem of scheduling clashes inherent in polyadic face-to-face meetings; and (ii) the time, travel and accommodation costs of bringing together a widely-dispersed group of participants. Textcommunication sys tems can also be integrated with t ime management systems, information retrieval systems and other tools of the electronic office.

Despi te these advantages , the up take of computer -media ted textcommunication has been low compared with that of fax: in 1989 there were 100,000 U.K. users with public electronic mailboxes as against 400,000 installed fax machines, and the fax marke t was growing at 200% p.a. (Naughton, 1989; Vervest, 1989). Reardon (1990) estimates that 93% of business correspondence is still by letter, 4% by fax, 2% by telex and only 1% by email.

If email has underperformed expectations, it has at least become established as one of the recognised office technologies; computer conferencing, despite its unique functionality, has not gained even this small degree of recognition. Wherever users are reluctant to embrace a product or service of high inherent functionality, there is a strong presumption that its design or implementation has paid insufficient attention to human factors. Some of the human-factors problems of email have been elucidated in a qualitative study by Pliskin (1989), who argues tha t "email technology is unlikely to survive if human engineering and reliability are not uniformly satisfactory across all email systems". The present study, also using qualitative methods, is concerned to begin to identify remediable problems in computer conferencing.

The Uses o f Fa i lure

In Human Factors Engineering the study of untoward events is a widely-used strategy in which "failures [are seen as] potential learning experiences" (Woods & Roth, 1988). For example, statistics are collated on user errors; in 'critical incident' studies the investigator elicits accounts of situations in which accidents were narrowly avoided; and actual disasters are intensively analysed to identify causes of "person- machine mismatch" which should be "designed out" of future systems (Chapanis, 1965). One approach to assessing the quality of software is to deliberately introduce 'bugs' into the code, in order to find out experimental ly how easy it is to maintain (Gilb, 1976; Gould & Drongowski, 1974).

Jus t as the untoward and the unintended provide data for the ergonomist, so also in sociological, ethnographic and linguistic studies of human communication significant insights are derived from the study of

Two Failures in Computer-Mediated Textcommunication 31

events and actions tha t appear anomalous and unexpected. The existence of grammatical rules is established by producing examples of their infringement. Parapraxes give a clue to concealed motives. By deliberately flouting expectations in social interaction, investigators or the i r confederates expose the 'work' whereby social rea l i ty is constructed (Gariinkel, 1967).

In the present paper we combine these traditions of ergonomics and social science, to analyse two episodes of communication failure tha t occurred spontaneously in groups using a computer conferencing system.

RESEARCH CONTEXT

Technica l Context

The conferencing system used was based on DEC's VAXNotes software (VAXNotes, 1989). This application runs in the VMS environment on VAX and MicroVAX computers. It can be used to support distributed conferencing on a wide-area network in 'client-server' mode, and is so used internal ly by DEC itself on the company's worldwide corporate network. In the present case, however, VAXNotes was run as a centralised system on a single host computer. Users were able to access this machine in three ways: via dial-up lines, via the public packet switched network, or via the academic network JANET. The system was available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for short maintenance periods of about 2 hours in alternate weeks.

VAXNotes allows users to create 'conferences' and to main ta in a personal 'notebook' which is an index of conferences and conference entries. The user can add existing conferences to the notebook, or delete conferences from it. He can divide the notebook into classes, reflecting different categories of work. The system keeps each user's notebook up to date with an indication of the number of read and unread messages in each conference.

When accessed from a terminal or personal computer, VAXNotes is control led by a command interface. For example, to add the PLANNING_MEETING conference to his notebook and then join it, a user would type:

ADD ENTRY PLANNING MEETING

OPEN PLANNINGMEETING

The user could then participate in the meeting, by reading messages tha t had already been entered and by enter ing his own views or observations as new 'notes'. One can thus take par t in a meeting that may have commenced some time before one joined the system. Figure 1 shows a typical screen display during a (fictitious) meeting.

Notes within a conference are organised into two levels: 'Topics' and 'Replies'. When a user enters a reply, it becomes the last reply under the current topic; unlike some conferencing systems, VAXNotes does not

32 Ju l ian N e w m a n and Rhona N e w m a n

allow one reply to be nested under another. When entering a note, the user is put into an editor. If his local terminal or emulator is VT100- compatible, screen-editing facilities are provided. Otherwise he is limited to using a line editor. If his local environment supports it, he may edit a file locally using a word processing package, convert it, and send it to the VAX host. When a note is entered in a conference, the system inser ts the author 's username and personal name in the heading. A user can change his personal name.

Organizational Context

The conferencing system is operated by a univers i ty computing depar tment on behalf of a voluntary board comprising representatives of a professional community. The hardware and software are provided by DEC under a sponsorship agreement. Users of the system are drawn from industry, higher education and research establishments, and one of its perceived benefits is in fostering the exchange of ideas between industry and the publicly-funded research community. Each conference has a moderator, who has privileges to move or delete other members' notes if necessary. However, any member of a conference may normally star t a new topic.

Notes>

==========================================================================

N o t e 1 9 5 . 4 W a s h i n g m a c h i n e s 4 o f 4

G_SAPONE "Giuseppe Sapene, Rummidge University" 13-JAN-1990 14:38

47 lines -< It all depends what you count>-

==========================================================================

Is it true that front-loaders are more widely used than top-loaders?

Let's compare several ways of looking at this. We have washing-machine

sales, either by value or by number of units shipped. Then we have the

installed base. Then we have washes per week actually performed.

Sales (value):

Twin-tub 3%

Top-load automatic 30%

Front-load automatic 66%

so front-loaders are way ahead in current sales. But if you look at the

installed base, you get a different picture:

Twin tub

31 more lines...

Figure 1. Screen display when reading in VAXNotes


Within the conferencing environment there are varying clues to social status. Members commonly include the name of their company, university, polytechnic or research unit in their 'personal name' banner, but this is not universal. At the time of the study, addit ional information about members could be obtained from the system, but only by first leaving the conference. Thus members would be implicitly aware of the existence of status distinctions, but might be unclear about the current status and role of another member within the context of the interaction. Textcommunication is of course devoid of many of the cues whereby status is judged in everyday interaction, and which people learn in the course of general and occupational socialisation (Turner, 1967, 1990).

Members of the conferences studied held a variety of occupational positions. There were managers, consultants, research engineers, lecturers, research fellows, research assistants and research students. Their experience in the profession ranged from over 20 years to a few months. Some had published extensively and were in secure posts; some were well established as practi t ioners; some were engaged in prestigious research projects; some were relatively marginal. Several members underwent a change of occupational status during the period of the study. For example one research s tudent might become a research assistant while another might move out of academic life to t emporary employment; a research ass i s t an t might become a postdoctoral fellow; an academic might move out into industry. Research students would also pass from the status of novices eagerly lapping up all they could find about a subject, and often keen to take on voluntary commitments on behalf of the system, to the 'writing up' phase when involvement in the conferencing system would be sporadic. Lecturers might experience a change of occupational pressures, for good or ill, resul t ing from a change of post or from a depar tmenta l reorganisation. Consultants might find themselves under varying degrees of pressure to meet project deadlines. Thus the active membership and structure of the conferencing community undergoes considerable turnover, driven to a large extent by changing external concerns.

Different styles in the introduction of new conference topics might reflect differences in organisational roles and responsibilities: for example, one member was noted for making very specific, directed requests for information, apparently tied to current projects with short timescales; others initiated broader, more discursive topics, apparently viewing the system more as an electronic campus than as an information service.

The Episodes Studied

Both episodes involved failure of communication in geographically dispersed groups using the conferencing system. One episode ('discussion group') involved the acrimonious breakdown of a technical discussion group which had formed within a wider conference. We viewed this as 'a failure' not so much because the discussion ceased, as


because of the signs of annoyance in the concluding exchanges and because there was no response at all to the final words of the last participant: "Anyone want to discuss what [<technology-name>] should be?"

The other episode involved a group who were engaged in developing the user interface for a larger system within which the existing conferencing system was to be embedded. Members contributed to this project on a voluntary basis, and had different and complementary skills to offer. While the group as a whole had a specific task remit from the board, the roles and responsibilities of individual group members were emergent from the group process.

In term of person-hours, the major contributions were made by people in academic posts, but the amount of time they could devote to the team task varied ra ther unpredictably with other demands on their time. Unlike the production of research papers, or course development or even teaching, there was no clear link between these tasks and the career reward-structure. During the course of the project the conference moderator left her academic post to work in an industrial research establishment abroad. After an interregnum during which there was little progress she was replaced by a relatively new member of the team. Only when the interface was released for 'beta-testing' did it become apparent that the design that had been implemented, and for which user documentation had been written, contained faults which had already been identified at an early stage of the discussion.

Thus the two episodes are of contrasting types: one was a failure of group maintenance, the other a failure of group performance.

M e t h o d

Our approach to these episodes is fundamental ly qualitative and ethnographic, seeking an interpretive understanding of the processes that led to these particular failures, rather than seeking to test general hypotheses. The conference entries themselves provide our basic data, but knowledge of related communication tha t took place outside the conference is also drawn upon where appropriate.

M A I N T E N A N C E FAILURE: THE D I S C U S S I O N G R O U P

The discussion took place under two VAXNotes 'topics' within a more general conference in which it was open for any member to raise any subject. The first topic was started by a research student; the second topic, which grew out of the first, was started by a researcher in an industrial organisation. Taking the two topics together, 11 members participated in the group discussion, which was spread over a period of 5 months. (Note however tha t the effect of computer conferencing technology is tha t for a member who joined towards the end of the period, the whole discussion might be experienced within a few days). In the description below information tha t might identify members has been edited out.


Three members each made 7 contributions, one made 5 contributions and the remainder made one contribution each. Activity was unevenly spread over the period. The first 19 contributions were concentrated into six weeks, then there was a six-week gap, then a single entry (by the originator of the discussion), then a two-month gap, then the remaining 13 entries were concentrated into two weeks.

The research student who started the discussion, contributed a total of 800 words over the 5 months. The industrial researcher who initiated the second topic, contributed 1310 words. The manager of an industrial research group, contributed 560 words. A university lecturer made his first input 4 months after the start of the discussion, and his initial contribution of 600 words is longer than the sum of the research student's contributions to tha t date, and longer than the total of the research manager's contributions for the whole 5-month discussion. The lecturer's eventual total contribution was 2150 words.

In a computer conferencing environment, topics may be introduced in different manners and styles. For example, the convenor of a special interest group working on a document created a number of topics as a kind of agenda, immediately after creating the conference. Each topic outlined the business which should be transacted in the replies to it. This is an example of a rather formal way of using the VAXNotes 'topic- reply' structure. In a discussion group, on the other hand, topics may be introduced fairly informally, though it is of course also possible to adopt a more formal 'academic' style. The research student began his topic:

"I've jus t been reading about [<a particular technology>] and I must admit to being well confused about the whole business ..."

He then quoted a statement from a book or article, questioned its logic and coherence with his existing frame of reference:

"... what does this mean? I was under the impression tha t ..." "From what I've read ... seems to me ..." "How is it possible ... given that . . ."

Three members each replied 3 days later. The first, lengthy reply conveyed to the research student that there were indeed real conceptual confusions in the subject-area, took a position regarding good and bad practice, and opened up some underlying philosophical issues. Another reply took the opportunity to state succinctly a very firm position regarding good professional practice. Another also supported the research student's questioning att i tude to the subject. At this stage, therefore, the research student had begun a process of consultation in a manner that risked exposing the limitations of his knowledge, and had been rewarded by reactions that tended to confirm that there were good reasons for his puzzlement. The discussion in this topic then settled down into a series of quite friendly exchanges about the contribution of the technology to professional practice. But "nothing withers conversation like agreement", even in the electronic environment, and it was not until the lecturer began to participate, months later, that it


sprang to life again. Meanwhile the industrial researcher decided that the question might benefit from being approached from a different angle, and started a new topic, with an explicit reference to the original one:

"I've been thinking (No - - honest!) Maybe some of the worries voiced in topic ... about ... stem from a common root. Perhaps its the difference between.., and ..."

The lecturer is an enthusiast for the potential of the technology, but not for the way it has often been implemented. Indeed some of the concerns voiced by the research student and by others in the discussion are also to be found, s tated in a more formal and academic style, in this lecturer 's published papers. He began his first reply, in the original topic, with:

"There are two questions being answered here 1) what SHOULD [technology] be? 2) what does EXISTING [technology] do?"

He went on to state his own position:

"I am more interested in (1). The mistake of many critics of [technology] is to th ink tha t what existing [technology] does implies that most of what [technology] should do is impossible."

Then he discussed the nature of the practice of the profession, and the appropriate language in which the practice should be discussed, made reference to a publication of his own, tried to set out a revised agenda for discussion. Here is some of the flavour of his remarks:

"So forget [technology-name], its a dead term now that... The kosher term is [technology-name-2] or [technology-name-3]. They will embody [list of 9 different desired features]. These are long- t e rm research goals. None of the problems with exist ing [technology] (some very badly designed by incompetents ) automatically apply to [technology-name-3]..."

Having input this 600-word reply to the first topic, the lecturer immediately entered a 300-word reply to the second topic, and followed it up with a further 400 words the following day. Discussion continued in the second topic for two weeks. Then the research student entered a reply under the original topic:

"The originator replies: "I started the discussion because I was under the obviously naive impression that the purpose of [this conferencing system] was for the discussion of topics that members were interested in. I was in the process of applying for a job where a... working knowledge of [technology] was important ... "I wanted to clarify several matters because ...


"I apologise if my knowledge of [professional specialism] is not as comprehensive.., as that of other people or as detailed, but ... I'm here to learn AND to contribute. "I want a discussion: I don't want to listen to dogma (regardless of how erudite it may seem to be)"

The lecturer replied later the same day:

"You got a problem with some of my words? this sounds like you're miffed about something. Wasn't what I wrote useful? Where's the dogma?... "Do you still need to know about [technology]? If so, there's a major review project at [institution]. "Anyone want to discuss what [technology] should be?"

but this was the last reply to the topic. Now the lecturer's style was certainly didactic: but does this explain why the discussion collapsed? We would argue tha t i t is necessary to relate the events in the conferencing system to the structures, institutions and practices tha t exist in the non-computerised social world. Structures define basic pat terns and regularities whereby action is oriented to roles and contexts. For example,

• how you talk to <role> (e.g. colleague vs. student) • how you talk in <place> (e.g. common room vs. seminar room) • how you manage your ident i ty - - what risks will you take in

exposure to other <of status> (e.g. friend vs. stranger).

Insti tutions which may have parallels in the computer conferencing environment include: the seminar, the bar-room discussion, the chance encounter, the advice session, the briefing, the professional meeting, the professional journal, the planning meeting, the progress meeting.

Practices include the practices that sustain conversation in general, (cf Cicourel, 1972), and practices that arise from the institutions and structures. These practices often involve appropriate selection of both content and register. Thus there are the practices associated with the chance encounter - - which may be used to acquire information, but where instrumental concerns must generally take second place to the formation and maintenance of solidarity, so tha t the amount of time permitted for 'shop talk' is rationed, and work-related topics should not be introduced before expressions of personal concern; or the practices associated with the seminar, where ideas should be presented and challenged, but where group solidarity is sufficiently important that a certain informality of language should be maintained; or the practices of the professional journal, where typically communication strives to minimise redundancy so that a very formal style is required.

Some institutions (e.g. the scientific meeting) are characterised by uncertainty regarding appropriate linguistic style or register. Often this is resolved by using different media, with different language in each medium: e.g. colloquial language used for a spoken presentation which is backed up by documentation in a formal style. Thus there may be a


difference between 'the way one writes' about professional matters and 'the way we talk' about them. But in computer text conferencing writing has to perform both the role of speech and the role of writing. Indeed it may have to perform the role of several different types of wri t ten communication. In the face-to face seminar one might write on the whiteboard while talking about what one is writing - - in Robinson's terms, one has "double-level language" (Robinson, 1989).

While VAXNotes allows one to display the text to which one is replying, it does not allow one to read two texts simultaneously, nor to make arrangements for others to do so. Thus certain moves that would be appropriate in a seminar context are excluded. For example, it was not really open to the lecturer to put up his list of 9 desired features as a 'visual aid" and say "how about this as a basis for discussion?".

Indeed, the lecturer cannot even be sure tha t all the items on the list will be displayed at once on the screen In Figure I it can be seen how a table may become split between screens when a note is displayed, so tha t the comparison one would normally make in a paper document cannot be made. This could only be avoided by ensuring any list or table that has to be displayed together is in a separate note less than 16 lines long. So one lesson from this episode is tha t the existing design of VAXNotes forces users into a trade-off between the coherence of their contribution as a document, and ease of decomposition for the reader: there is no way of presenting a note as a structure of parts.

At another level, we can understand this communication breakdown in terms of the practices of professionals when "formulating a question" (Christie, 1985; Holland, 1972; Wolek, 1972). A common practice is to minimise self-exposure by making prel iminary enquiries amongst friends r a the r than experts, even when an expert is available. A s t ra tegy of 'friendly consultation' reduces the probabil i ty of being embarrassed by asking an uninformed question of an expert, and allows more precise questions to be asked if and when an expert is approached. In the current episode, it appears tha t the research student began a process of friendly consultation, with initially encouraging and non- th rea ten ing results. But the na tu re of the conferencing medium permitted an expert, the lecturer, to "participate retrospectively". Thus the context of the friendly consultation was suddenly moved from backstage to frontstage, and the lecturer's injunctions, such as to "forget X, Y is now the kosher term", and his obvious famil iar i ty and involvement in an extensive l i terature and discussions tha t may not have been available to the other participants, represent a sudden threat.

We may contrast the effects of the lecturer's intervention with the industrial researcher 's intervention at an earlier stage. Both decided tha t the initial question should be reformulated. But whereas the lecturer tried to redefine the agenda of an existing 'topic', the industrial researcher s tar ted a new 'topic' for the redefined discussion. He also adopted a self-deprecating tone when introducing this topic: "I've been thinking (No, honest!)". Thus he achieved some reorientat ion of the discussion without threatening the research student's 'ownership' of the original topic.


PERFORMANCE FAILURE: THE DESIGN TEAM

Over the period of the study, ten individuals participated in the design team conference. Several were not active members of the team, but participated occasionally to provide feedback or advice, or out of interest or curiosity. Within the conference a large number of 'topics' were spawned by members and the initial moderator of the conference did not attempt to impose a definite structure upon it. Members of the team also communicated outside the conference to a limited extent. For example, they might encounter one another at professional meetings, and take the opportunity to exchange views on the design project.

One member contributed expertise concerning relevant international s tandards and the underlying scientific rationale. Several members contributed suggestions regarding desirable extensions. One undertook the task of coding the implementation. Ear ly in the project the moderator produced an initial version of the specification. This was a paper document which the coder used as the basis for implementing a prototype. Other members were asked to evaluate the prototype. Few responded in terms of evaluating the overall design, but a number made requests for addit ional functionality, which the coder general ly implemented as and when he could.

One member made suggestions as to how the design could be modified from the prototype, to conform to the international standards on which he was an expert. Ini t ial ly this caused some annoyance to the moderator, because some characteristics of the proposed modifications were technically impossible to implement with available resources. Much of the discussion in the conference consisted of reports of "bugs' in the code of the prototype, and the coder was kept busy fixing these. The standards expert modified his proposals and the moderator stated she was now happy with the general principle he was proposing. However, nobody undertook or was allocated the task of producing a new specification document incorporating the additional functionality and the standards expert's proposals for menu codes and dialogue structure. The coder periodically attempted to draw attention to this, but got no response.

The moderator then left to take up a post abroad, and several weeks later a new member took over the moderatorship, with the brief from the system manager to "get things moving". The new moderator held a face-to-face meeting with the coder, at which it was ascertained that the original specification was lost, and was in any event superseded, and it was agreed which tasks needed to be completed urgently in order to make the much-revised prototype ready for beta-testing. The two moderators had also long previously had a chance meeting during the coffee break of a professional meeting, and this had given the new moderator the impression that the standards expert's proposals had been rejected by the team. This impression was in fact quite mistaken: the standards expert's proposals had not been adopted, but neither had they been rejected. There was in fact no mechanism for making clear team decisions, it being apparently assumed tha t decisions would emerge from discussions.


The new moderator thus took over under the impression that the prototype implemented by the coder was a design which had been validated by the team, and that the essential task was to encourage the coder to complete the implementation, and to ensure tha t revised user documentation was produced. He drafted this documentation himself, and the interface was released for beta-testing. At this stage, the standards expert complained bitterly tha t his proposals had not been taken into account, and demanded that extensive revisions be made. The new moderator responded that it was impossible to tell from the discussion in the conference what had been proposed and what had been agreed to, by whom. The coder indicated that he did not have time to implement the extensive revisions. Nobody else had the necessary time and expertise. As a result the completion of the new interface was put back a full year, during which the additional functionality it would have provided was not available to members.

While accidental factors such as the change of moderator may have played a par t in this communication failure, it appears to us tha t the major shortcoming was that the members did not distinguish between formal documenta t ion and informal discussions, nor be tween expressions of opinion and actual decisions; nor did the system help to distinguish between archival material and current discussions.

After the problem had come to light, the new moderator adopted a changed method of working, which involved extensive active moderation to impose explicit s tructure upon the conference. All past discussion tha t pertained to a decision tha t had now been made was extracted from its original notes and filed in an archive note. Once the archive note had been created, the original notes were deleted from the conference. The decision was stated in a 'topic', and the archive note was entered as a 'reply' to the topic, so that anyone now entering the conference or browsing through it would be aware of it as principally a structure of decisions.

Active moderation was also applied to unresolved issues. A new topic was opened for each, in which the issue was stated, together with a mini-agenda and t imetable for discussion and decision. Thus the intention was that the conference should be perceived as a structure of issues and decisions, r a t h e r t han (as had emerged) a largely chronological record of group activities and anxieties over time.

IMPLICATIONS

From the foregoing we can draw some hints for computer-mediated textcommunicat ion concerning necessary user skills and training, functional and interface design, and methodology for investigation and evaluation.

Users typically bring to the conferencing situation a repertoire of skills from analogous situations: they know how to pass the time of day, how to address a lecture room, how to write a letter, how to sum up in a meeting, how to propose a motion, etc. But they are generally guided towards exercising the appropriate selection of skills from this extensive


repertoire, by contextual cues which are conspicuously absent in the text conferencing environment. Users therefore need to develop a surrogate for these cues, just as speakers and listeners have learned to talk effectively on the telephone in the absence of the visual channel through which they normally regulate tu rn- tak ing in face-to-face interaction.

The VAXNotes manua l contains a section "Represent ing body language", which recommends users to adopt certain conventions, such as using 'smileys' to represent facial expressions:

:-) Smiling face ;-) Winking :-( Sad face, etc.

The authors also advise users to "signal the boundaries of a tirade with some symbol, word, or expression before and after the text in question. For example ... <FLAME ON> and <FLAME OFF>."

These conventions seem to us to rest on an e lementary confusion between referring to one's emotions and expressing them. Far from being a sign of effective textcommunication, the use of smileys is analogous to the kind of incompetence in verbal communication which kills a joke by announcing it as a joke beforehand. Of course, one can sometimes express anger by saying "I am cross with you", but this achieves its effect by being said within a context in which one has many al ternative resources for emotional expression. The hearer at t r ibutes meaning to the fact tha t this way of expressing anger was chosen, ra ther than any other. This meaning might be, for example:

• restraint (implying an ulterior motive?), • over-control (implying anger so extreme the speaker dare not vent it), • playfulness (subtext: "I ought to be angry, but I like you.. . ' ) , • exercise of authority,

etc etc.

In all these cases, the meaning is at t r ibuted not merely to the words, but to the words in a context of non-verbal communication. The situation in computer conferencing is quite different in tha t the media of non-verbal communication are irretrievably absent.

What users need to learn, then, is not an added vocabulary of (rather impoverished) special symbols for describing emotion, but a modified repertoire of interaction skills appropriate to the disparity between the resources of computer textcommunication and the resources of the conventional situations on which it is metaphorically based. These are dramaturgical skills tha t must be exercised in a dramaturgically weak medium. One must therefore learn the self-critical skills of consciously adapting one's performance, based on the structures of the metaphorical i n s t i t u t i on , to the l imi ted d r a m a t u r g i c a l r e sou rces of the textcommunicat ion context. It may (for example) be necessary to unmask one's knowledge a little at a time, ra ther than to lay it out in one well-argued note; and it may be necessary to adopt a conversational


writing-style even when discussing technical matters, not because of task requirements but for the sake of group maintenance. Equally, one needs to learn to combine the kind of reading skills one might use in approaching fiction, with those one typically uses in approaching textual or factual material: to read for motive and plot at the same time as for technical content.

Participants in the design team made the converse type of error: they allowed conversation to substitute for formal task control, part ly because the system did not offer any ready way of distinguishing the different types of activity and text involved. Bearing in mind that a face-to-face planning meeting would typically begin and end with informal exchanges amongst members, but would centre on a formal agenda and explicit decision-taking processes, i t is clear tha t a conferencing system needs to cater for both types of interaction within a distributed task group. Thus the structure

Note within Topic within Conference

appears too simple and provides too few clues as to appropriate behaviour. The new moderator in the design team made some attempt to emulate an issues-based information system; but the software does not in any way encourage that mode of working.

Functionally, VAXNotes gives only limited assistance to a moderator who needs to restructure a conference. To individual members who need to express some relationship between different texts it gives no help at all. They are reduced to making explicit reference to other notes by number as in "To take up [so-and-so]'s point in 16.32 ..." Moreover, the Topic-Reply structure cannot accommodate the complexity of the topic- comment structure that actually arises in discussion, so tha t within discussion chains of reasoning can often become difficult to follow.

Conclusions from the study of two contrasting episodes may be suggestive but cannot be conclusive. What this investigation does establish, however, is the methodological importance of taking into account the interaction between the text conferencing environment and the structures, practices and institutions of the external social world.

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Two failures in computer-mediated textcommunication

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