3.480 re: collaboration by network? (135)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Mon, 18 Sep 89 19:23:27 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 480. Monday, 18 Sep 1989.


(1) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 09:21:00 EDT (27 lines)
From: "Tom Benson 814-238-5277" <T3B@PSUVM>
Subject: Re: 3.472 re:collaboration by network? (52)

(2) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 09:41:27 EDT (46 lines)
From: Paul Oppenheimer <peo@Think.COM>
Subject: 3.463 collaboration by network? (33)

(3) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 11:14:56 EDT (14 lines)
From: cbf@faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 3.472 re:collaboration by network? (52)

(4) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 12:30:16 EDT (19 lines)
From: unhd!psc90!jdg@uunet.UU.NET (Dr. Joel Goldfield)
Subject: "Electronic communication"

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 09:21:00 EDT
From: "Tom Benson 814-238-5277" <T3B@PSUVM>
Subject: Re: 3.472 re:collaboration by network? (52)

For more than 5 years I've had all my classes working collaboratively
through e-mail connections. Major papers are prepared with mainframe
or micro word processors and handed in on paper; shorter (usually twice
a week) discussion questions are answered to the class in general on
e-mail. This means that (1) students show up for class prepared, because
they have already discussed the readings in a preliminary fashion on
e-mail, (2) everyone gets to contribute, because if they don't get into
the class discussion they can contribute later, on e-mail, (3) "homework"
is not just an ordeal handed in to the teacher, but part of an actual,
ongoing discussion.

For my own scholarly work, BITNET has been essential; a recent book
on Fred Wiseman's films (REALITY FICTIONS: THE FILMS OF FREDERICK
WISEMAN [Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989]) was
written collaboratively with Prof. Carolyn Anderson at UMass by
exchanging drafts on bitnet.

The existence of the networks (including local networks) has made
an important difference to my teaching and scholarship. I am sure
the same is true for many othrs on HUMANIST.

Tom Benson
Penn State University
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------63----
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 09:41:27 EDT
From: Paul Oppenheimer <peo@Think.COM>
Subject: 3.463 collaboration by network? (33)

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 89 20:09:47 EDT
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY%VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA@pucc.princeton.edu>


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 463. Wednesday, 13 Sep 1989.

Date: 13 September 1989
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: collaboration by network

Dan Updegrove (EDUCOM, in the U.S.) has written a quite useful paper on
the application of electronic communications to academic work. I have
suggested to him that with a few alterations it would be a good thing
for us humanists to circulate among our colleagues, especially those who
might be tempted into the fold of networked academics. He needs,
however, some concrete examples of how e-mail has been applied with
particular success to humanistic research and teaching. Would any
Humanist who can tell such tales please send them to him -- and to me
for my files, or better yet, to Humanist? I know I have asked a similar
question before, but it was asked in a somewhat different context and so
may not have elicited all the responses that would apply to Updegrove's
paper.

Dan Updegrove is updegrov@educom (on Bitnet).

Once the paper is revised it will be made available on Humanist.

Thanks very much.


Willard McCarty

This is not my personal experience. One of the most famous examples of a
successful collaboration carried out entirely by email is the book {\sl
Common Lisp: The Language\/}, by Guy Lewis Steele, Jr. et al. Another is
the Meade and Conway VLSI course in which chips designed in Cambridge by
students were fabricated in California.

I am doing joint work in philosophy with Ed Zalta of Stanford using a
mixture of email and "talk" (realtime screen linking).

Paul Oppenheimer
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------25----
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 11:14:56 EDT
From: cbf@faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 3.472 re:collaboration by network? (52)

The Rutgers-Princeton group, led by Marianne Gaunt,
has an NEH grant for planning a machine-readable text
repository.

Charles B. Faulhaber
Department of Spanish
UC Berkeley CA 94720
bitnet: ked@ucbgarne
internet: cbf@faulhaber.berkeley.edu
telephone: (415) 642-2107
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 89 12:30:16 EDT
From: unhd!psc90!jdg@uunet.UU.NET (Dr. Joel Goldfield)
Subject: "Electronic communication"

On the subject of recent comments concerning collaborative efforts &
electronic communication, there's an interesting product we've been
testing here that creates an electronic conference. There's a menu-driven
as well as a command driven option (both are included). We've found
it very useful for student-to-student and student-to-instructor commu-
nication. It runs in both UNIX and MS-DOS environments. I'm not sure
yet what the possibilities of diacritical uses are beyond overstrikes
on hardcopy (possible). The contact person here is:

pearson@psc90.dartmouth.edu

The name of the product is: Telectr (pronounced: "Telecenter").

--Joel D. Goldfield
Plymouth State College (NH)