180 Notes

Day 7

9/14/98

Some observations on the letters

  1. One-minute paper Summary

Big Points

Limitations of technical communications via talk

Computer debate gives opportunity for those who do not like to talk publicly

There is extra organization necessary when communicating in groups

Q:s

How is efficient communication defined?

What is the ideal mode of group comm?

Can we be trained to do better parallel communication?

Are there 1-1 full duplex examples (David & Matty for effect, simultaneous translation)?

In a conversation, does anticipation of what other party might say constitute noise?

Doesn’t talk lead to more exchange than f-t-f because participants not afraid to say things?

Were we frustrated due to the medium or the communicators (or messages)?

Can comm without the nonverbals be effective without knowing the person?

Can we (people) be tuned to communicate more effectively with technology? (augmentation)

Will we adapt to technology or vice versa?

How would the discussion have differed if it were on the list over a week?

Why hasn’t the web adopted formal debate (or other) structures?

Anything to read on Internet license?

Could group comm ever be as efficient as 1-1? (effectiveness is different)

Speech: when? How? Final exam?

2. Discuss Conger paper [team 2, Hope McCullough, James Kelly]

  1. Pose discussion question for next time (also posted to class list)

Assume 1,000,000 messages/day (email, news postings, new web sites, traditional publications, etc.) are marginally relevant to your interests.

Assume a filtering system that allows 100 messages through (10000:1)

Assume 5 seconds to scan header and decide whether to examine message; 90 seconds to examine a message; 120 seconds to respond to a message. Assume scan all messages; examine 75%, and respond to 10%. 100*5+90*75+120*10=500+6750+1200=8450 seconds (141 minutes or 2.3 hrs/ day). In this model, 6% of electronic communication is scanning, 80% is examining, and 14% is replying. Is this a reasonable model? Which parameters are tunable/optimizable so that we can better manage our 86400 seconds/day?

4. Next time: Read Trigg & Bodker

  1. One-minute paper

What was the big point you learned in class today?

What is the main, unanswered question you leave class with today?