Intro to Communication

cs414

Karrie Karahalios

What is Social Computer Mediated Communication?

Signals – brief history

Smoke signals, water flows, light Aeneas, 350 BC (first telegraph)

First lighthouse, Alexandria 299 BC

Sign language, flag signals

Chappe audio clock, visual clock

Morse Code, 1832

Samuel Morse’s message during the first major exhibition of the telegraph:

“What hath God wrought”

Transcripts from the first transconti-nental telegraph link:

“CAN YOU RECEIVE ME?”

“PLEASE SAY IF YOU CAN READ THIS.”

Telephone, 1876

Alexander Graham Bell’s fabled f irst words over the telephone:

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”

Arpanet, 1969

The ARPANET Completion Report, as published jointly by BBN of Cambridge, Mass., and ARPA concludes by stating:

"...it is somewhat fitting to end on the note that the ARPANET program has had a strong and direct feedback into the support and strength of computer science, from which the network itself sprung." (Chapter III, pg.132, Section 2.3.4)

Others have understood the communications promise of computers. For example, in RFC 1336, David Clark is quoted,

"It is not proper to think of networks as connecting computers. Rather, they connect people using computers to mediate. The great success of the internet is not technical, but in human impact. Electronic mail may not be a wonderful advance in Computer Science, but it is a whole new way for people to communicate. The continued growth of the Internet is a technical challenge to all of us, but we must never loose sight of where we came from, the great change we have worked on the larger computer community, and the great potential we have for future change."

In order to develop this network of varied computers, two main problems had to be solved:

" 1. To construct a 'subnetwork' consisting of telephone circuits and switching nodes whose reliability, delay characteristics, capacity, and cost would facilitate resource sharing among computers on the network.

2. To understand , design, and implement the protocols and procedures within the operating systems of each connected computer, in order to allow the use of the new subnetwork by the computers in sharing resources." (ARPA not draft, II-8)

From http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/~acc/docs/arpa--1.html

Arpanet contract was awarded to BBN on 7 April 1969.

BBN's proposal called for the network to be composed of small computers known as Interface Message Processors (more commonly known as IMPs). The IMPs at each site performed store-and-forward packet switching functions, and were connected to each other using modems connected to leased lines (initially running at 50 kbit/second). Host computers connected to the IMPs via custom bit-serial interfaces to connect to ARPANET.

Leonard Kleinrock and the first IMP.

A ruggedized version of Honeywell's DDP-516 computer was used to build the first-generation IMP. The 516 was originally configured with 24 kbytes of core memory (expandable) and a 16 channel Direct Multiplex Control (DMC) direct memory access control unit. Custom interfaces were used to connect, via the DMC, to each of the hosts and modems. In addition tothe lamps on the front panel of the 516 there was also a special set of 24 indicator lights to show the status of the IMP communication channels. Each IMP could support up to four local hosts and could communicate with up to six remote IMPs over leased lines.

Initial Arpanet consisted of 4 links:

• UCLA

• SRI

• UCSB

• University of Utah (Graphics Dept.)

The first ARPANET link was established on October 29, 1969, between the IMP at UCLA and the IMP at SRI. By December 5, 1969, the entire 4-node network was connected. (from wikipedia)

This first set of host protocols included a remote login for interactive use (telnet), and a way to copy files between remote hosts (FTP). Crocker writes:

"In particular, only asymmetric, user-server relationships were supported. In December 1969, we met with Larry Roberts in Utah, [and he] made it abundantly clear that our first step was not big enough, and we went back to the drawing board. Over the next few months we designed a symmetric host-host protocol, and we defined an abstract implementation of the protocol known as the Network Control Program. ("NCP" later came to be used as the name for the protocol, but it originally meant the program within the operating system that managed connections. The protocol itself was known blandly only as the host-host protocol.) Along with the basic host-host protocol, we also envisioned a hierarchy of protocols, with Telnet, FTP and some splinter protocols as the first examples. If we had only consulted the ancient mystics, we would have seen immediately that seven layers were required." (RFC 1000, pg 4)

Network Applications

• E-mail: In 1971, Ray Tomlinson of BBN sent the first network email [3]. By 1973, 75% of the ARPANET traffic was email.

• File transfer: By 1973, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) specification had been defined and implemented, enabling file transfers over the ARPANET.

• Voice traffic: A Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specifications was also defined (RFC 741) and then implemented, but conference calls over the ARPANET never worked well, for technical reasons; packet voice would not become a workable reality for several decades.

1970 Arpanet reached east coast (BBN)

June 1970 9 IMPS

December 1970 12 IMPS

September 1971 18 IMPS 23 hosts

August 1972 29 IMPS

September 1973 40 IMPS

June 1974 46 IMPS

July 1975 57 IMPS

1981 213 hosts

In July 1975, the network turned over to Defense Communications Agency

Plato

• PLATO pioneered key concepts such as online forums and message boards, online testing, email, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer online games.

•The name PLATO was chosen for its connection to teaching and only later on did it become a backronym. It was said that PLATO stood for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations but this was later disavowed and PLATO, despite usually being spelled in all caps, officially stood for nothing.

Communication Applications

Components of Communication

1. The genre or type of event (e.g. joke, story)

2. The topic, or referential focus

3. The purpose or function

4. The setting, including location, time of day, physical attributes of space, etc.

5. The key, or emotional tone of the event

6. The participants, including their age, sex, ethnicity, social status, etc.

7. The message form, including both vocal and nonvocal channels, and the nature of the code (which language, which variety)

8. The message content, or what is communicated about

9. The act sequence, or ordering of communicative/speech acts, including turn-taking and overlap phenomena

10. The rules for interaction, or what properties should be observed.

11. The norms of interpretation, including the common knowledge, the relevant cultural presuppositions, or shared understandings, which allow particular inferences to be drawn about what is to be taken literally, what discounted etc.

(Saville-Troike 2003)

Saville-Troike 2003

Four-way distinction of message form

The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link‘, 1985

Email

Usenet

Zephyr

ICQ

Talk

MSN, AIM

IRC

MUD’s

Ebay

• Public + Private messaging

• Reputation management

Weblogs

Wiki’s

Chat Circles - 1999

Viégas, F., & Donath, J. (1999) Chat Circles. SigCHI 1999.

Donath, J., & Viégas, F. (2002) The chat circles series: explorations in designing abstract graphical communication interfaces. Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) London, England.

Chat Circles - now

Chat Circles

Chat Circles - grafitti

Chat Circles - grafitti

Chat Circles - grafitti

Chat Circles - grafitti

Chat Circles - grafitti