Computer networking at the National Computing Centre

Computer networking at the National Computing

Centre Iohn Pritchard describes the implementation of a micro-based

office network

The National Computing Centre installed a microcomputer-based local area network in 1981. The paper reviews the operation of this network since its implementation. The configuration of the network and the facilities it provides are described. The justification for such a network is examined, and the objectives of the installation are listed. The criteria on which the network was chosen are discussed, and implementation, training and support are described. The applications of the network are examined, along with user reaction, the impact on work and the benefits achieved. Problems and limitations of the network are also discussed.

Keywords: computer networks, office automation, local area networks, case study

A Nestar/Cluster One local area network (I_AN) was purchased from Zynar and installed at the National Computing Centre (NCC) in September 1981 for the use of the manager, secretary and ten professional staff of the Office and Communicat ions Systems Division. The LAN was expected to give NCC consultants hands- on experience of using new office technology (and so make them better able to advise others), raise their personal product ivi ty and make them work more effectively, and provide a pilot office automation (OA) system, which could help the NCC determine what its next OA steps ought to be. Each user has an Apple microcomputer on his desk; this is the network workstation.

The National Computing Centre Ltd., Oxford Road, Manchester M1 7ED, UK

The article briefly comments on how the system was justified, implementation, user training and user support. It discusses the applications that the LAN is used for, and reports on user reactions, impact upon work, benefits, problems and limitations, based on two years' user experience.

CONFIGURATION AND FACILITIES

The configuration of the network is shown in Figure 1. Apple II microcomputers are located in offices on the second and third floors of the NCC Headquarters. They are attached to 16-wire ribbon cable. A restriction is that the length of this cable must not exceed 300 m. The fileserver (33 Mbyte Winchester disc) and the printserver (draft-quality matrix printer) are located in the computer department's computer room on the first floor. The letter quali ty printer is located in the secretaries' office.

When a user logs on in the Apple Pascal Operating System environment, he selects an option from the command level menu (Figure 2). If he selects X (= execute), he can then choose several programs: e.g. Print or Type (for the draft and letter quality printers, respectively), Calc (for mathematical calculations), and Mail (for the Messenger electronic mail facility; see Figure 3). He could also select the Pascal Editor (see Figure 4) or the Pascal Filer (see Figure 5). Messenger, Editor and Filer are used extensively. The Editor allows a user to create and alter text in electronic documents. He can insert, delete and overwrite characters, find and (if necessary) replace character

0140-3664/84/030127-09503.00 © 1984 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd.

vol 7 no 3 june 1984 127

Third floor

Sec b f l o ¢

-( ;'its Floc

Dial-out server

~ P r i n t s r switcboble tO slcrltoriel workstotlons for direct prlntlllq I ypeserver ~ f Cp/II documents

??

Printserver F'ileserver

16 wire ribbon c~ble

• Apple X microcQmputl ( 'server ')

O Apple 'IN" microc(xnl~ter ( user workstotion)

Apple 11" microc~l~uter with floppy disc drivels used by tecretQries

Figure 1. Configuration of NCC's local area network

strings, reformat text, copy information from one document into another etc. The Filer allows the user to do things with electronic documents, whereas the Editor allows him to do things with the contents of electronic documents. The terms document and file can cause confusion. They mean whatever they are defined to mean in any particular context. The Apple documenta- tion refers to files and virtual diskettes, whereas the author of this article prefers to use the terms electronic documents (for files) and electronic files (for the contents of a virtual diskette) instead.

When a user logs on in the CP/M environment, he can use the Wordstar word processing software. This software has facilities for the right adjustment of text and the emboldening of printed text by overstriking, but it is well known and not described further here. The two secretaries and two or three of the professionals use Wordstar extensively.

J U S T I F I C A T I O N

The process of justifying the purchase of the I_AN, and justifyingthe impact of its availability and usage upon a user community had four aspects.

• the identification of objectives that might be pursued,

• the evaluation of alternative LANs and the selection of a particular one, whose cost could be afforded,

• the selection of a user community appropriate to the objectives,

• the identification of applications that the LAN could be used for.

The objectives were:

• to give NCC consultants working in the office technology and communications systems areas hands-on experience of using current I_AN technology,

Command level - - Edit - - File

Halt - - Initialize - - eXecute

- - Mail - - Print - - Type - - Calc

- - etc.

Figure 2. Command level menu

MESSENGER - - Incoming mail menu

--Answer; Display; File; Forward; Keep; Next; Print; Quit; Write

- - Outgoing mail menu - - D i s p l a y ; File; Print; Quit; Receipt; Send;

Write - - Command level menu

- - Answer filed mail - - Check continually for new incoming mail - - Classify filed mail - - Clear the screen - - Declassify filed mail - - Delete filed mail - - Display filed mail - - Forward filed mail to others - - Headers

- - list headers (only) of filed mail - - News

- - show current mail system news -- NFS

- - enters submode to send file server commands

- - Print filed mail - - Quit the mail system and return to main

C O M M A N D LEVEL - - Read new mail (i.e. go to incoming mail

menu) - - Rename a class - - Show Classes, Show Free, Show Space,

Show Version - - show miscellaneous information

- - Send mail to others - - Undelete

- - recover previously deleted messages - - Write mail to a Pascal text file

Figure 3. Messenger electronic mail facility • to discover from experience, opportunities for the

application of new office technology and any problems that need to be overcome in new office systems developments,

• to increase personal productivity, • to provide, from desk-top workstations, shared

access to centrally stored (on the fileserver) electronic files, electronic documents and electronic indexes,

128 comDuter communications

• to improve divisional administration, e.g. by reducing the amount of photocopying, reducing paper flow, reducing the amount of filed paper, making it easier to arrange meetings etc.

A few LANs that were currently available in the Spring of 1982, and which were in the right price range, were evaluated. The Zynar system was selected because:

• several systems had been installed, so any design problems and software bugs should have been overcome,

• application software was available, • it would be feasible to acquire and use other Apple

II software, • the system could be delivered and installed within

one month of the order being placed.

The principles for choosing the user community were that:

• there should be horizontal communication between users of the same grade (e.g. consultancy staff, who were expected to be the most active users of the network's facilities), as well as vertical communication between users of different grades(e.g. m a n a g e r - divisional secretary, m a n a g e r - consultants, consultants - - divisional secretary),

• the community should be a well defined group of people who need to have a large amount of intracommunity communication and information exchange,

• each member of the community should have his/ her own workstation, so that there would be no sharing and a user would never be put off using the system on account of being afraid that subsequently

PASCAL Editor - - Adjust - -Copy

- - Delete - - Find - - Insert - - Jump -- Page - - Quit

- - Replace

Left; Right; Centre Buffer; From file ~ From what file]marker, marker]

Literal; Token; Same

Beginning; End; Marker

Update workfi le and leave Exit wi thout updating Return to the editor without

updating Write to a file name and

return Save with same name and

return Literal; Token; Verify; Same

- - searches for and replaces text - - Set ~ Environment, Marker - - eXchange

- - overwrites characters - - Zap

- - deletes text

Figure 4. Pascal Editor

PASCAL Filer - - Bad block scan - - Change filename or volume name - - Date set - - Extended directory listing - - Get new workfile - - Krunch

- - collects unused diskette space - - Listing of directory - - Make a directory entry - - New

clears workfi le - - Prefix

- - changes current default prefix volume name - - Quit

- - returns to Command level - - Remove directory entry

Save workfile under specified filename -- Transfer information between volumes or

files - - Volumes

- - shows volumes currently on-line - - What

- - tells name and status of workfi le - - eXamine

- - allows bad blocks to be taken out of service

- - Zero - - erases directory

Figure 5. Pascal Filer

he would be unable to access information when he needed to,

• the users should be interested in LAN technology and LAN office applications.

For these reasons, the Office and Communications Systems Division, from whom the pressure for a LAN had originated, was selected as the user community. After a few weeks, some other NCC staff wanted to join the network for one reason or another, but a policy decision was made not to allow this on the grounds that it would detract from the attainment of the objectives for which the LAN had been installed.

This policy has not been breached over the last two years. Some workstations were installed in the Com- puter Department, for monitoring and user support. One person in the Planning Department now has an Apple II; it is independent of the network, but he can (as necessary) give a f loppy disc to our divisional secretary for a hard-copy printout when his printer is unavailable, and vice versa.

The six user applications for which the LAN was intended to be used are listed in Table 1. More will be said about these below.

I M P L E M E N T A T I O N , U S E R T R A I N I N G A N D

S U P P O R T

The implementation of the system in September 1981

vol 7 no 3 june 1984 129

Table 1. Applications of LAN

Document creation Document edit ing Electronic mail Electronic filing: personal and divisional Electronic indexing of hard copy Document retrieval: electronic and hard copy

took two days. It was facilitated by the false ceiling at NCC's headquarters, which was purpose buil t in the early 1970s as a computer centre with f lexibi l i ty to deal with changing office wiring requirements in mind.

Before and after implementation, there were several meetings of the Office and Communications Systems Zynar Working Party (OXZWP), an in-house group comprising the divisional manager, the divisional secretary, an office systems expert, a LAN expert and a member of the Computer Department who was responsible for user support.

User training was planned by OXZWP. Suppliers' manuals were obtained for each user and distributed. A summary was created as an electronic document (Userman) on the network, and has been particularly useful for persons who have subsequently joined the user community, through staff turnover and expansion of the number of consultancy staff in the Office and Communications Systems area. Training was mostly of a self-teach nature, including reading manuals, consult- ing with other users and reading news broadcasts sent by user support personnel in the Computer Depart- ment via Messenger. Users set up small dummy files to try out the options in the various menus. Some issues were discussed, using Messenger, over a period of several days. Software, called Typing Tutor, was purchased to provide users with interactive typing tui- tion on the QWERTY keyboard. Performance was monitored, and one could progress gradually through a series of tests of increasing dexterity. Most users gained some benefit. The cost of sending the users for professional training in typing could not be justified. A one day training session by Zynar was organized to be held at NCC two weeks after the LAN was implemen- ted. This training covered all the facilities which users needed for the selected applications.

User support is very important for office systems for two reasons. Users must be able to get advice quickly if they encounter a difficulty, such as not understanding how to copy part of a document into another document. Also, malfunctions and breakdowns must be reported, investigated and dealt with, so that users have confidence that the LAN is available whenever they wish to use it, and that there is no loss of integrity. Advice has been no problem at all; the manuals have been easy to understand and two personnel from the Computer Department have been able to deal with all queries referred to them.

During the first year of operation, there was a one year maintenance contract. This was followed by a

time-and-costs agreement. Throughout the two years, there have been periods of several weeks when there have been no malfunctions or breakdowns. There have also been periods when there have been intermittent malfunctions, with the system or a particular workstation behaving as though there were gremlins at work! It has sometimes been diff icult to reproduce the condi- tions under which the particular malfunction occurs. When there is this uncertainty about, users are wise to save new text or amended documents much more frequently than they would wish to do. All faults were reported by users, using Messenger, to the divisional secretary and a log was kept by the Computer Depart- ment. The most unreliable component of the I_AN has been the letter-quality printer. Twice a week, the Com- puter Department, who are responsible for the operation and availability of the network, carry out security dumping.

To avoid running out of space on the Winchester disc, excessive users are asked to reduce their disc uti l ization when this becomes necessary by deleting documents or archiving them to f loppy disc. (The tape cartridge referred to in Figure I is used for security dumping but not for archiving.) Table 2 illustrates the uti l ization of the 33 Mbyte Winchester disc on a typi- cal day.

APPLICATIONS AND TYPES OF ELECTRONIC D O C U M E N T

Applications of the network are listed in Table I .

Document creation

Documents can be created by Messenger, the Pascal Editor or Wordstar, There are no document creation facilities in Messenger other than the very basic one of being able to key in text, one line at a time. Within the line of text which is currently being created, it is possible to backspace the cursor from left to right any number of columns, deleting intervening text. Con- sequently, only short messages are created within Messenger.

It is possible to include at any position within a document being created in Messenger a copy of a complete Pascal document; it is not possible to include a marked portion of a Pascal document, although it is possible to include a marked portion of one Pascal document within another Pascal document which is being created or amended. Consequently, users tend to create lengthy messages or documents for distribu- t ion with the Pascal Editor. The message or document is then included within a Messenger message by keying in %, fol lowed by the name of the Pascal document. Of couse, a Messenger message may consist solely of such a Pascal document.

Alternatively, a short message is sent to draw to the attention of others the existence of a Pascal document

130 computer communications

Table 2. Utilization of 33 Mbyte Winchester disc (on a particular day), sectors

Users 86 693 System 4 158 Pascal 4 003 DOS 1 473 CP/M 2 244 OLOPS 24 261 Other (approx.) 4 000

Free 4 225

1 sector = 256 byte; 1 by te = 8 bi t

and its reference information (i.e. pathname and filename). The document can then be read in its entirety at a time of a person's choosing and not when he may be in a hurry and wanting to read his electronic mail quickly. Subsequently, the reader can transfer the Pascal document into his own Pascal filing system or enter its reference information into an electronic index in his Pascal filing system. The advantage of the former action is that he may be able to arrange his electronic filing so that he incurs less overhead (of keying and elapsed time) whenever he wants to read the document, because it is now stored on one of his own virtual floppy discs. The disadvantage is that a duplicate copy of the document is stored on the Winchester disc, and he has to incur the administrative housekeeping overhead of yet another document. The advantage of the latter course of action is that no duplicate copy is stored, and so its housekeeping overhead is avoided, but the overhead of mounting the colleague's virtual floppy disc on which the document resides is incurred each time he wishes to read it.

It is possible to file any Messenger message as a Pas- cal document. It can then be edited, or searched through using the FIND command.

The third document creation environment is Word- star. This has more facilities than the Pascal Editor and is preferred by secretaries who may be (and may have to be) more concerned with the appearance, than with the content, of a document. It is possible to convert a Wordstar document into a Pascal document, by executing a program in the Apple Pascal Operating Sys- tem environment, but not vice versa. Most professional users of the LAN at NCC do not use Wordstar frequently for document creation, although a few use it extensively because they have taken the trouble to master it and find it subsequently saves them time. The reasons why most users do not use Wordstar often are that:

• they learn how to use the Pascal Editor before they learn Wordstar, because it is easier to learn and because it is integrated so well with Messenger,

• having learned the Pascal Editor, they find it adequate,

• having learned the Pascal Editor, they become confused when they try to learn Wordstar as well.

Document editing

The two document editing facilities are the Pascal Editor (see Figure 4) and Wordstar. The Pascal Editor facilities apply, of course, to the particular document which is currently being created or amended. It is not possible for a search for a character string or the replacement of a character strin~ for instance, to be applied across several documents or a file of documents. It is useful to be able to mark a document. Upto I0 markers may be used per document. The markers do not appear in the document, when the document is displayed. One can jump immediately to any marker in the text, which saves time and frustration, Marked por- tions of a document can be included in another document using the COPY command. This, too, is obviously very useful when one thinks what would be entailed if the facility were not available, and what is entailed before a newcomer realises that the facility exists!

Electronic mail

The electronic mail facility is Messenger (see Figure 3). It is easy to use, and is well integrated with the Pascal Editor. The managers and professionals who use the I_AN spend much of their time away from their place of work, travelling, attending meetings and exhibitions, visiting users and suppliers, working in libraries or at home etc. When they are nominally working in the office, they spend much time in other rooms, browsing through journals in the NCC library, liaising with colleagues, attending meetings, using the photocopying machine etc. Consequently, they cannot be found in their office and do not answer their telephone. When they are working at their desk, they are often attempt- ing to do creative work and do not welcome being continually interrupted. The Messenger is a good aid to productivity and a means for reducing frustration in such an environment.

Messages are sent which otherwise would not be sent. Questions which otherwise would not be asked are asked and answered. It is easier to arrange, or rearrange, meetings. Paper flow is reduced. Items of news and information can be quickly and easily disseminated.

Electronic filing, indexing and retrieval

Important though document creation and editing and electronic mail facilities are, it is electronic filing facilities which have the greatest potential for in- creased productivity and effectiveness of integrated office systems. Electronic filing is concerned with the management of information resources. It is concep- tually more difficult than document creation and editing or electronic mail. It requires planning for the uncertain document retrieval requirements of many users in the future. The creation or editing of an electronic document, or the use of an electronic mail facility, are almost entirely one-off activities; one is not

vol 7 no 3 june 1984 131

concerned very much, if at all, with the future use of the document or message. The filing of an electronic document requires consideration to be given to such questions as:

• how should it be filed? • how should it be indexed? • who will need to retrieve it? • how often will it need to be retrieved? • should it be filed at all?

The filing facilities are the Pascal Editor, the Pascal Filer and Wordstar (Messenger can file messages as Pascal documents and can include short Pascal documents within messages). The Pascal Editor (see Figure 4) has facilities for filing away a new or amended document using QUIT, for retrieving a named document and displaying it, and for searching for the occurrence of a word or character string using FIND. Among the several options of FIND, one can be specific about whether particular characters are upper or lower case. Using another option, case is ignored; this option could be selected if one was uncertain whether a word or character string in the document has upper or lower case characters, or if one wanted to retrieve all occurrences irrespective of case. The Pascal Filer (see Figure 5) includes facilities for renaming a document, transferring a document to another file (i.e. virtual floppy disc), deleting the reference to a document in a file's directory, displaying the contents of a document etc. Wordstar also has a wide range of facilities.

Successful filing, hard copy or electronic, requires planning. Electronic filing -- writing documents into files, retrieval of documents and file maintenance -- requires the availability and utilization of many facilities. It also requires that the user community of a LAN, or other shared-access electronic filing system, discuss and agree what their needs are, and how the electronic filing facilities can best be used to meet these needs. Different user communities may have differing needs from and approaches to electronic filin~

Each NCC user of the LAN has his own personal electronic filing system. Each user is free to decide for himself what information he keeps, and how he organizes the structure and indexing of his personal electronic documents that can be held in divisional and personal filing systems.

Divisional documents and the divisional filing system are created, kept up-to-date by and maintained by the two secretaries.

It should be mentioned in passing that Messenger has facilities for filing messages in its mail filing system. Up to 24 different classes, or files, can be specified.

Electronic indexing should, the author feels, be standardized to make it easy for anyone to search electronic indexes prepared by others. It should be agreed by the user community:

• what indexes are required,

• what information each type of index should contai n,

• how the index should be structured, • how index entries should be formatted.

For example, a user may be creating, unnecessarily, a very unfriendly retrieval environment if he does not use a consistent format for referring to a date or author; for example, an index containing the follow- ing variations in different index entries:

09 SEP 83 John Pritchard 09 SEPT 83 John PRITCHARD 09 Sep 1983 JATPRITCHARD

9 Sept 1983 JAT PRITCHARD 090983 PRITCHARD, J. etc. etc.

Much time and frustration can be saved if an index can be used by searching it automatically, rather than browsing through it visually from beginning to end, and automated searching is facilitated by using standards as suggested above. The author has recently completed a study and written a report (see Bibliography), which draws upon NCC experience of electronic indexing using the I_AN. Table 4 gives the conclusions reached during the study and the recommendations made.

The author himself keeps an index of all his electronic documents and files. This index is simply another Pascal document, called INDEX.

The I_AN, unfortunately, has no facilities for automating the maintenance of indexes. Each time the author creates a new document, renames or deletes an existing document, or transfers an existing document into a different file, he has to remem- ber to retrieve INDEX and update it. Otherwise, ~ithin a week or two, he becomes confused about where (i.e. on which virtual floppy disc) particular electronic documents are filed or about the name of a particular document or what a particular document contains. He would then have to waste time by displaying and reading the contents of many documents before being able to update INDEX. There is a directory (or index), which is automatically updated, of each file. Each directory contains an entry for each document in the file, showing its name, size, location and date of last alteration (or date of creation). There is no way of editing a directory (or even a copy of one) and so it cannot serve as a user index.

The author also keeps an electronic index (JATPFILE) of some hard-copy documents, stored in a conventional filing cabinet. He is very selective about which hard-copy documents are so indexed, and only about 120 have been included in two years, i .e. about one document per week on average.

Documents stored in the LAN fileserver may be retrieved because one wants to read, add to or amend the contents, because one wants to set or


Table 3. Types of electronic document

• Indexes Main index to all electronic documents(INDEX) Index to hard-copy fil ing system

(INDEXHC) Index to file of important hard-copy

documents (JATPFI LE) Index to pathnames and filenames (PATHS) Index to electronic documents held in WP

centre (WORPRO) Index to hard-copy current awareness file

( NEWS) Index to divisional hard-copy visuals Index to entries in personal pocket notebook Index to card indexes Index to (electronic and hard-copy)

administrative notices Index to video cassettes Index to visit reports

• Lists of information Leave record (LEAVE) Tickler file of things to arrange or deal with

(TICKLER) Diary of scheduled events (DIARY) Names, addresses, telephone numbers and

telex numbers (TEL/AL, TEL/MZ) Glossary of technical terms (GLOSSARY) Suppliers of products, equipments, systems

and services (SUPPLIERS) Contacts (CONTACTS) Output (e.g. articles, reports, books, lectures,

workshops) (OUTPUTS) Project control (JPPLAN, JPOBJ) Project files (SOAREPORT, ARCHIVlNG,

ELECIND) Timesheets (TIMESHEETS) Electronic mail group address abbreviations

(e.g. % # 5 : COM = OXPRDS, OXKCEG, OXGBB, OXJEL, OXPH, OXRB = members of Communications Division (MAIILISTS)

Etc.

• Text Articles (V/DATA, RIBA) Reports Bibliographies Visit reports Autobiography (ORSBIOG) Technology briefings (IBM, TELETEX,

CAB LE, DATAPO I NT) Conference programme (CO N F) Administrative notices (ZYNAR) Visual aids Etc.

The names INDEX, INDEXHC, JATPFILE, PATHS etc. above are the names of particular documents in the author's electronic document filing system

Table 4. Electronic indexing

CONCLUSIONS 1 Organizations should have a corporate office

automation strategy based upon an awareness that information is a resource

2 Electronic indexing can and should be perceived as a key factor in information management

3 There should be a corporate approach to electronic indexing addressing:

• development of standards for the structure and maintenance of electronic indexes

• development of guidelines for the terminology to be used for indexing

• integration of the indexing of electronic and hard-copy files, documents and document contents

• delegation of indexing and hard-copy management to secretaries, and retraining

• how much of the information pyramid should be indexed

4 Electronic indexing software should be developed

5 The fol lowing areas of electronic indexing user experience should be promulgated:

• how it may best be applied • its impact upon hard-copy filing • its interaction with an organization's

corporate culture • dual indexing systems during migration • which types of information management

system should be electronically indexed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I. Organizations should prepare a corporate office automation strategy

2 Organizations should perform an information audit

3 Organizations should set up a small team to develop a corporate approach to electronic indexing

4 A specification for electronic indexing should be drawn up

reset markers, or because one wants to reformat the layout of text.

Three types of electronic document have been identified: indexes, lists and text. Several examples of each are shown in Table 3. Electronic indexes of personal and divisional information - - electronic information and hard-copy information - - can be maintained.

The author predicts that electronic indexing will receive much greater attention over the next five years in almost all organizations, for very few have really come to grips with information resource management so far. Suppliers of office systems will likewise offer better facilities for the creation and

vol 7 no 3 june 1984 133

maintenance of electronic indexes. Users will electronically index much, but not all, of their hard-copy information. There will be a significant growth in shared access to electronic indexes, and sharing of electronic and hard-copy information. LANs will be a major vehicle for this growth.

Almost all lists of information wil l be held as electronic documents, because it is just as easy to create a list as an electronic document as it is to create it as a nonelectronic document, and it is very much easier to keep it up to date if it is stored electronically and thus able to be manipulated. However users' attitudes change slowly!

Some articles and reports and other text documents are created on the LAN. Some users prefer Wordstar, but others prefer to use the Pascal Editor. Almost all users, though, can retrieve and display on their Apple II workstation a Wordstar document created by a colleague. Most of the text documents, and there are very many, including the drafts of books, are written and sent to the typing pool for keying on one of the Wordplex word processors. Some authors develop material on their Apple II and send a pr intout to the typing pool for rekeyin~ This is appreciated by the typists if the author's handwrit ing is diff icult to read.

Readers are invited to study Table 3 and think how many types of electronic documents you would have if your department or division had a LAN. At the NCC, most indexes and lists are held as Pascal documents, while text may be held as Wordstar or Pascal documents depending on the individual.

USER REACTIONS, IMPACT UPON WORK, BENEFITS, PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS

User reactions to the LAN have been varied. Most users say that it is user unfriendly, but that they prefer to have it than to be wi thout it. The LAN is based on the Apple II microcomputer as the workstation, and may be seen as an attempt to provide a LAN capabil ity for organizations who had bought several Apple II micros. Four years ago, the Apple II was a very popular micro. Today, Apple itself and other suppliers offer workstations Which are much more sophisticated. Other reactions include:

• occasionally system and/or workstation availability is unacceptably low,

• electronic mail (Messenger) facilities are easy to use and very helpful,

• the Pascal Editor and Filer are very useful, once one has attained a certain threshold of knowledge, awareness and experience,

• Wordstar is better for creating and edit ing long and formatted documents, but has a higher threshold than the Pascal Editor/Filer.

The fol lowing impacts upon work have been observed:

• less interruptions, • less telephone ta& • less paper and no intradivision paper memoranda, • less photocopying, • less use of the typing pool for short jobs, • there is a need to ensure that formal and informal

face-to-face meetings continue to occur, • formal meetings are easier to arrange and

rearrange.

The fol lowing benefits have been mentioned:

• better access to people, • better access to information, • easier and faster updating of lists of information

(most users), • better document creation (some users), • easier preparation of lecture structures and

visuals, • more effective use of t ime (some users).

Two problems with this LAN are often mentioned, (i.e. the LAN does not perform as it should):

• occasional periods of intermittent unavailability, • frequent malfunctions and unavailabil i ty of the

letter-quality printer.

Limitations of this LAN have been mentioned (i.e. the LAN is not capable of doing as much as users want):

• there is a user-unfriendly user/workstation interface,

• there is a user-unfriendly user/system interface, • the LAN is not (yet) integrated with the Wordplex

word processing machines in the typing pool.

To be fair to the supplier, it should be pointed out that Zynar now supply a newer LAN called the Per- sonal Local Area Network (PLAN), costing between £20 000 and £40000 for up to 20 interconnected workstations. Apple II, Apple III and IBM PC workstations can be supported on the same network.

WORKSTATION DEVELOPMENTS

Many important developments have been taking place recently in office workstation technology. The fol lowing features are now beginning to appear in advanced workstations and may be fairly common in two or three more years:

• mult i functional with integrated functions, • high-resolution, mult icolour graphics display, • voice annotation, • functional keyboard, • split-screen operation, • mouse technology,


• portability, • interconnection and interoperabil ity, • image processing.

The availabil ity of such features and others in workstations which can be used in local area networks wil l be very attractive to users, and designers of local networks wil l be under pressure to allow such workstations and features to be efficiently used within their networks.

CONCLUSIONS

The main conclusions from two years' experience in the NCC are:

• organizations should have a corporate OA strategy to achieve integration of document preparation systems, electronic message systems and information management systems, and to avoid dual systems, manual transcription of information and manual l inking of office processes,

• electronic indexing (of electronic and hard-copy files, documents and document contents) is a key factor in the successful and effective management of corporate, departmental and personal information resources,

each user should have his own workstation, and the system should be available at all times, a major advantage is the facility for shared access to electronic indexes, lists and text (i.e. to electronic information), there should be coordination of the development of new uses to which the I_AN can be put, users' ideas should be pooled and discussed; agreed standards for naming documents and files, for indexing etc., should be developed; the secretary should be brought into these discussions and developments, just as she would for conventional hard-copy fil ing systems and office procedures and practices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Price, S G Experience with a local area network Manage. Serv. (December 1982) pp 6-9 'Micro network automates office' Mind Your Own Business (May 1983) pp 57-58 Townsend, K 'Software for 16 bits' Mind Your Own Business (May 1983) pp 94-95 Prilchard, J AT Electronic indexing and hard-copy management NCC, UK (1983)

vol 7 no 3 june 1984 135

Computer networking at the National Computing Centre

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