Monday, August 23, 1999, 7:51:20 AM, Diane Cabell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The Net is in awfully early days of its use outside of academic and largely
> US/English language settings. You seem to be saying that what was good enough
> for the Wright Brothers is good enough for today's air traveller. I don't buy
> it, and I find e-mail far less efficient a means of communication than
> face-to-face meetings.
I won't deny that email has its disadvantages, but so do face-to-face
meetings.
However, there are other mediums. For the last 4 years I have had to
conduct a significant portion of the collaborative work I do over IRC,
in other to coordinate with whomever else was working with me on
whatever project. This included working with people from both near
and far time zones, such as Australia, Hong Kong, and even 10 miles
away.
At first, I will give you, it was quite awkward, but if people are
going to be getting any work done at all over a medium like that, they
learn how to work together with it. For a meeting you have the
ability to moderate discussions, permitting one speaker at a time to
be able to "talk," and there are various other means that can be used.
The IRC Chat channel can even be password protected to prohibit
unauthorized people from entering the meeting. Not to mention that IRC
software is available on almost every single OS/hardware combination
imaginable, and the server software is available on most of the
popular OSs in use in both personal and business circles, and is
available for free (source code also) for most of these platforms.
I say that online options have not been properly considered or
addressed, and that there is a good amount of room in which online
participation could be made to work.
--
William X. Walsh - DSo Internet Services
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