Jacob Palme

Discussion: Issues when designing filters in messaging systems

The increasing size of messaging communities increases the risk of information overload, especially when group communication tools like mailing lists or asynchronous conferencing systems (like Usenet News) are used. Future messaging systems will require more capable filters to aid users in the selection of what to read. The increasing use of networks by non-computer professionals requires filters that are easier to use and manage than most filtering software today. Filters might use evaluations of messages made by certain users as an aid to filtering these messages for other users.

Personality characteristics of females seeking treatment for obesity, bulimia nervosa and alcoholic disorders

Abstract The personality traits of 134 female patients, seeking treatment for obesity, bulimia nervosa and alcoholism in Stockholm were assessed with the KSP personality inventory. The results indicate that the personality traits of women seeking treatment for obese, bulimic and alcoholic problems are very similar. Compared to the population average, they were more anti-social, more psychastenic and were also more anxiety prone. The obese subjects showed a similar personality profile as the bulimic and alcoholic women, but differed less drastically from the population average. This supports the conclusion that different types of eating and drinking disorders are associated with similar personality traits.

Computer-mediated communication in collaborative educational settings (report of the ITiCSE '97 working group on CMC in collaborative educational settings)

In educational environments that stress collaboration, the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can be a source of support as well as a challenge. This paper begins by considering general educational and economic goals and how CMC can be helpful in attaining these goals. A taxonomy of tools for communication and collaboration in education is described. Many sides of the issue are considered, including the roles of teachers and students, problems that can arise and potential solutions, goals and issues of assessment, and software design issues.

A human‐computer interface for non‐computer specialists

The COM teleconferencing system was designed to be easy to use for both beginners and people with much computer experience. A number of design choices in organizing the human‐computer interface were considered very carefully. These design problems are not unique for teleconferencing applications, but will appear in many other developments of human‐computer interfaces for non‐computer specialists.

A standard for OSI group communication

Abstract Group Communication was adopted as a new work item for Messaging standardization (within ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG4 Messaging) in 1989. This paper provides an overview of the current working documents in order to promote discussion of this work. The requirements for OSI based Group Communication are presented and the overall scope of standardization is discussed. The paper then describes emerging dtandards for a generic OSI Group Communication Service as well as a specific Asynchronous Computer Conferencing application which uses this service. Key concepts for distributed operation are also intriduced. It should be stressed that much of this work is at a formative stage. However, the authors believe that it is important to publicise the standard as it develops and so provide the maximum apportunity for early feedback and input to the work.

How i fought with hardware and software and succeeded

This is the story of the development of a utility program to simplify the writing of programs using alphanumeric display terminals.

SuperKOM: design considerations for a distributed, highly structured computer conferencing system

Abstract The SuperKOM computer conferencing system was designed to incorporate many ideas from older messaging and conference systems in a simple and general-purpose internal structure. This paper describes the design goals, and how the internal structure of SuperKOM was designed to meet these goals. In particular, SuperKOM provides a distributed, highly structured conference system and integrates electronic mail, computer conferencing and text databases in one system.

Distributed computer conferencing

Abstract By computer conferencing is meant a kind of computer-mediated message system with special kinds of advanced support for group communication. By the word “bulletin board system” is known systems with similar capabilities. Computer conference systems usually also provide more advanced database support for messaging than other message systems. This paper first defines the basic functionality in a single-host stand-alone computer conference system, summarizing the functions of several well-known systems. The paper then discusses how the same functionality can be made available in a distributed OSI environment, in particular based on current CCITT/ISO thinking in the X.400/MOTIS standards. The paper has been developed within the COST-11-ter AMIGO (Advanced Messaging in Groups) project.

Computer Conferencing Functions and Standards

This paper makes a comprehensive inventory of functionalities often available in computer conferencing systems. Each function is described, and the terminology used to refer to this function in well-known systems is included. The paper further discusses why standardization of computer conferencing is of value, and which different interfaces can be covered by such a standard. A short introduction to current models for standards in this area is included. Finally, the design and user interface of one particular conference system, SuperKOM, is shown.

An ISO standard to support asynchronous group communication

Abstract Standardization is a potentially controversial issue for CSCW. This paper describes the current state of on-going standardization work within the joint ISO/CCITT Messaging group (X.400). This work aims to provide standardized support for ‘Asynchronous Group Communication’ over OSI networks. We describe the scope of the work, including some reflections on the relationship between CSCW and standards and then the use of a standard Information Model in modeling a variety of applications. We hope that by publicising this work within the CSCW community at an early stage, we can encourage plenty of input in order to further develop the emerging standard.