------------------------------------------------------------------------ December, John. (1993). Directions for Computer-Mediated Scholarship. In Proceedings of the 1993 International Professional Communication Conference (pp. 134-139). New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c)1993 by John December. All rights reserved. You can print this for personal or academic use. Do not store this paper in any other information retrieval system. URL: http://johndecember.com/john/papers/ipcc93.txt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Directions for Computer-Mediated Scholarship John December Department of Language, Literature, and Communication Phone: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Internet: johndecember@gmail.com Troy, New York This paper analyzes current practices of Computer-Mediated Scholarship (CMS) and identifies directions for establishing CMS systems. Experiences with established, disciplinary-specific CMS systems like Comserve show that systems-oriented approaches to building systems for scholarship can be successful in providing a comprehensive set of features to meet the needs of scholars. The use and potential for tools-oriented approaches to CMS show that computer-mediated communication (CMC) forums and network information retrieval (NIR) tools can provide many needs of scholars, including searching for sources, communicating with colleagues, analyzing source materials, disseminating research, and preparing instruction. Ad-hoc approaches to network communication proceed in an unorganized, piece-meal fashion, partly addressing the needs of scholars for communication. The directions for CMS include: 1) recognizing CMC and NIR tools as a progression in media evolution; 2) identifying needs and level of commitment to CMS; 3) matching these needs and commitment to technology using a systems-oriented, tools-oriented, or ad-hoc approach; and 4) supporting research in CMC and related user-interface issues. There are many directions that can be taken to approach CMS; all have the potential to open new avenues for scholarly activity. Scholarship on computer networks has increased Scholars have developed many avenues for communication over computer to share, disseminate, and jointly work on research and discussion. The benefits of using Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) on networks are becoming greater (lower cost, faster communication, wide selection of resources available), and these benefits give those who use CMC a competitive edge in their work. Further evolution of the Internet into the National Research and Education Network (NREN) and its expanding size and widespread use among industry, schools, and the public will increase the importance of electronic networks as a forum for scholarly work. Organizations and institutions follow their own direction for electronic communication, information sharing, and publishing_either in a piece-meal approach or as part of an overall strategy for using CMC and Network Information Retrieval (NIR) tools to manage their organization. Therefore, a scholar faces a wide (and sometimes bewildering) range of information sources and forums for electronic idea-sharing (December 1993a). The wide range of CMC and NIR tools and technologies includes tools now extensively used (LISTSERV, ftp sites, gopher, USENET) as well as newer tools receiving wider use (veronica, WAIS, World Wide Web) (December 1993b). This paper establishes a framework for understanding and building Computer-Mediated Scholarship (CMS) systems. Media has evolved to create new forums Before the twentieth century, there were three revolutions in communication media: speech, writing, and print. The fourth revolution is electronic, based on telecommunications (Levinson 1990). This revolution demonstrates itself in the growth of computer networks. The Internet computer network has grown from approximately 200 hosts (computers connected to the Internet) in 1981 to 727,000 hosts by 1992 (Lottor 1992). Once the province of computer scientists working in computer networking, the Internet today is accessible to many people on college campuses, in corporations, small companies, private organizations, and to homes through many commercial and public access services. This fusing of communication with computer networks is creating "an infrastructure that will profoundly reshape our economy and society" (Dertouzos 1991, p. 62). Scholars who do not address CMC media will be left out of a growing world of information interchange. Without addressing the needs for information sharing over computer networks, scholarly endeavors will begin losing some value and prestige to on-line counterparts. The quality and academic value (in terms of tenure and recognition) for on-line scholarship is still in doubt. However, as scholars participate in and increase the value of CMS, the academic view of on-line scholarship will change. As professional, academic, and business organizations exploit the convenience and speed of computer networks, they will realize benefits that cannot be matched by any other media. Consider several approaches in building scholarly systems The direction an organization or a group of scholars should take in creating on-line opportunities for scholarship depends very much on preliminary considerations: 1. Disciplinary considerations What are the needs of a discipline that must be met in order for scholars to do their work? For example, there may be a special alphabet required for document display (for example, mathematicians). 2. Attitudes What are the attitudes of the scholars toward computers? Will these attitudes make training difficult? What level of skill will the scholars be willing to learn to operate a system? 3. Resources What is the level of money and time commitment? Who will undertake the many tasks involved in building and maintaining the system and training its users and maintainers? 4. Tasks What are the tasks that the scholars need to accomplish? Scholars need to: search for sources, communicate with colleagues, interpret and analyze source materials, disseminate research findings, and prepare curriculum and instructional applications (Michelson and Rothenberg 1992). All CMS systems are specialized, and their specialization requires an evolutionary approach in which the end user is continuously consulted for feedback. The following sections outline three approaches to building CMS systems. A systems approach fits tools to the discipline Direction: Develop a system to meet a comprehensive set of scholarly needs under the sponsorship of a professional organization or institution. Customize this system to discipline-specific culture, practices, and requirements. Expand and change the system based on members' needs and resources available. Pro's: A systems approach is more amenable to customizing technology to disciplinary practices. The developer gains more control over tool design, maintenance, and use. Scholars benefit from the customization_the system works according to the needs of the scholars. Con's: A comprehensive system can be complicated to design, expensive to build, and costly to operate and maintain. The resulting system may lose its edge in CMC and NIR technology, as new network tools will be developed. Specialized training is required for users. Users' skills developed for specialized system do not necessarily translate to other network tools. Example: Comserve is a an online service for scholarship in human communication research. Begun from an idea by Timothy Stephen and Teresa Harrison for scholarly electronic communication in 1985, Comserve today serves a stable community of over 6,500 users and has responded to more than 27,000 email addresses in 50 countries. (Comserve, "Help Topics Affiliates")1 Comserve _________________________________________ 1 This citation indicates that the source of this information is from Comserve, obtained by sending an electronic mail message containing "Help Topics Affiliates" to comserve@vm.its.rpi.edu. functions as a file server, a news service, an electronic "white pages", a computer conferencing system, a database of journal indexes, and a distributor of electronic announcements or surveys (Comserve, "Send Comserve HelpFile"). The philosophy guiding Comserve is to provide high-quality, scholarly services with as much distributed responsibility as possible (Stephen 1993). The emphasis is on continuing to improve the quality of the scholarly discussion taking place and the value of the materials stored in Comserve's databases (Harrison 1993). Example: The History Network is "devoted to dissemination of the resources and education required to bring historians into the world of electronic communications" (Zielke 1993). The divisions of The History Network include those for resources (developing and disseminating information through FTP, gopher, WAIS, veronica and other means), technical development (software, list operation, journal and conference presentation), and professional standing (recognition of electronic efforts of historians, organizational support and publicity). A tools approach fits disciplinary practices to tools Direction: Use existing CMC and NIR tools to create a mix of selected practices that meet some scholarly needs. Pro's: The off-the-shelf CMC or NIR tools don't require scholars to develop new systems. Commonly available documents provide training for these tools (Krol 1992). Training in these tools is becoming more widespread. Con's: Precise customization is not possible; there is little control over tool development (changes, support, maintenance), except the support tool developers offer. Options: Scholars could select from a list of practices: 1. Develop and run a mailing list for discussion and information-sharing. 2. Establish an electronic mail address to the scholarly organization and have a systematic way to answer this mail and a process for sending announcements from this email address. 3. Create an ftp site where documents, software, images, and multi-media files can be stored and retrieved. 4. Use an NIR tool (gopher, WAIS, WWW) to create a information service related to the discipline to which scholars can contribute. 5. Use one of the NIR tools or CMC forums currently used on the Internet, summarized in the table below (December 1993b). _____________________________________________________________________ NIR Tool Summary _____________________________________________________________________ Alex provides transparent read of remote files at FTP sites Archie locates files at anonymous FTP sites by filename search Gopher locates and retrieves resources using a graph of menus Hytelnet gives telnet access information using hypertext browser Netfind finds information about people by name and org/loc ation Prospero provides user-centered view of remote files Veronica locates titles of gopher items by keyword search WAIS retrieves resources by searching indexes of databases WHOIS provides information on registered network names WWW retrieves resources by hyptertext browser of databases X.500 provides globally distributed directory service _____________________________________________________________________ CMC ForumSummary _____________________________________________________________________ IRC real-time discussion divided into channels LISTSERV retrieve messages from server via electronic mail Mail send message from one user to another (or many (mailing list)) MUD real-time interaction usually for social role-playing Talk real-time interactive talk with another user USENET discussion on many topics separated into newsgroups Finger retrieve information about user registered on a host computer Ftp retrieve copies of files at remote FTP sites Telnet login to a remote computer to use applications _____________________________________________________________________ Example: STS Forum The Virtual STS Centre is a MUD (Multiple User Dialogue)2 . The STS Centre is part of MediaMOO, a larger MUD at MIT's Media _________________________________________ 2 MUD also means "Multiple User Dungeon," a name reminiscent of the MUD's original and primary use: social role playing. Lab. The purpose of the STS Centre is to create a virtual space "dedicated to real-time interaction among scholars investigating science and technology as social and historical phenomena" (Roush 1993). An ad-hoc approach acknowledges tool use Direction: Acknowledge CMC as a part of scholarly activity, provide means for some communication; but sponsor no major tool use. Address scholars' desires to use network communication on a case-by-case basis. Pro's: No investment in resources or risks involved in creating systems for CMS. No need to train scholars. Con's: The organization would not gain the benefits of network communication. In the eyes of other organizations, the non-networked organization could be perceived as backward and "behind the times." The organization could become isolated by network communication_an unofficial group of scholars on the networks, apart from the recognized scholarly organization, may achieve increasing visibility for scholarship in the field. Options: Recognize network communication in some minimal ways: 1. Recognize electronic mail as information that members may voluntarily include in member directories, conference programs, or scholarly papers. 2. Encourage members' articulation of needs for network communication. 3. Establish a temporary computer mailing list as part of a conference. Example: The Narrative Conference which took place in April 1993 in Albany, New York included the regular sessions and panels that one would expect at any academic conference. However, the conference included an electronic discussion list. This electronic discussion list allowed participants to discuss the conference and share abstracts (Jackson 1993). Unlike a ongoing LISTSERV conference, this came into being because of the conference, lasted for the duration of the conference, and was only a complement to other interaction. Research must be done in tools and interfaces According to Rice, the directions for research in CMC involve integrating research around four broad themes: stakeholders, goals, domains, and tools (Rice 1989). Using this framework, there is a need to understand CMC and NIR tools, including their commonalities and effectiveness for various tasks. New methodologies must be developed to integrate tools into scholarly practices, and the effectiveness and satisfaction with scholarly systems must be measured. Because the Internet's growth will create problems for tools that cannot scale up for large data volume, data diversity, and user base (Bowman, Danzig, and Schwartz 1993), new distribution mechanisms must be developed. Formats for citations of electronic resources must become standardized so scholars can accumulate a record of their participation. Tools are needed for idea linking and structuring: "... so that users learn to be critical thinkers by considering issues and ideas from many perspectives" (Harasim 1990, p. 59). The goal should be to eliminate self-consciousness in using the medium_ideally, the medium of computer-mediated communication should be transparent, freeing scholars to create ideas. Computer-mediated scholarship opens up new possibilities There are many directions for scholarly communication. A group of scholars must first recognize the new media of networked computer communication is here and growing. Second, scholars must identify their level of commitment to CMS and the requirements to be met by it. In building a CMS system, scholars must match their requirements to technology through an approach oriented to systems, to tools, or ad-hoc approach. In a systems-oriented approach scholars develop a CMS system around a field or discipline or discipline, with discipline as the focal point. In a tools-oriented approach, groups of scholars adopt a set existing tools to create their own traditions and practices for sharing scholarly information, adapting their practices to the tools. In an ad-hoc approach to CMS, scholars use some CMC forums and NIR tools, but these tools are not the permanent or central means for sharing information. Research into CMC and NIR tools must be supported, and scholars in all disciplines need to articulate their needs for CMS. References Bowman, C. M., P. B. Danzig, and M. F. Schwartz. Research problems for scalable internet resource discovery. Technical Report CU-CS-643-93, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, March 1993. December, J. Information sources: The internet and computer-mediated communication. Anonymous ftp from ftp.rpi.edu, file pub/communications/internet-cmc, May 10, 1993. December, J. Internet tools summary. Anonymous ftp from ftp.rpi.edu, file pub/communications/internet-tools, April 4, 1993. Dertouzos, M. L. Communications, computers and networks. Scientific American 265 (3), 62-69, September 1991. Harasim, L. M. Online education: An environment for collaboration and amplification. In L. M. Harasim (Ed.), Online Education: Perspectives on a New Environment, pp. 39-64. New York: Praeger, 1990. Harrison, T. Personal interview. Troy, New York, March 17, 1993. Jackson, P. J. Narrative conference electronic forum. Electronic posting to Newsgroup rpi.lang-lit-comm, March 18, 1993. Krol, E. The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog. Sebastapol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1992. Levinson, P. Computer conferencing in the context of the evolution of media. In L. M. Harasim (Ed.), Online Education: Perspectives on a New Environment, pp. 3-14. New York: Praeger, 1990. Lottor, M. K. Internet growth (1981-1991). Anonymous ftp from nic.merit.edu, file documents/rfc/rfc1296.txt, 1992. Michelson, A. and J. Rothenberg. Scholarly communication and information technology: Exploring the impact of changes in the research process on archives. American Archivist 55 (2), 236-315, 1992. Rice, R. E. Issues and concepts in research on computer-mediated communication systems. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 12, pp. 436-476. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989. Roush, W. Announcing the opening of the virtual sts centre. Electronic Mail Message, April 1993. Stephen, T. Personal interview. Troy, New York, February 9, 1993. Zielke, T. The history network - official announcement. Electronic Message Posted to list ARACHNET@uottawa.bitnet, February 24, 1993.