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 transcontinental telegraph link:
“CAN YOU RECEIVE ME?”
“PLEASE SAYIF YOU CAN READ
THIS.”
 Telephone, 1876
Alexander Graham Bell’s fabled first
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.
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 to
the 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.
Leonard Kleinrock and the first IMP.
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
August 1972
29 IMPS
September 1973
40 IMPS
June 1974
46 IMPS
July 1975
57 IMPS
1981
23 hosts
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)
Four-way distinction of message form
Saville-Troike 2003
The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link‘, 1985
Email
Usenet
Zephyr
ICQ
Talk
MSN, AIM
IRC
MUD’s
• Public + Private messaging
• Reputation management
Ebay
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