Evaluating New Telecommunications Services

This book contains the proceedings of the first international symposium devoted to research on the evaluation and planning of new person-to-person telecommunication systems. It was sponsored by NATO's Special Programme Panel on Systems Science and took place, in September 1977, at the University of Bergamo in the north of Italy. Telecommunication systems which provide for communication be­ tween people, rather than computers or other instruments, are of two kinds. There are mass communication systems (broadcast radio and television) and interpersonal systems (for example, the telephone and Telex) which join together individuals or small groups. Here we have included in the interpersonal category certain systems for re­ trieving information from computers, essentially those systems in which the role of the computer 1s primarily to act as a store and to identify that information which best fits a user's request. (This excludes management information systems in which the computer performs important transformation functions. ) Distinctions between interpersonal and mass communication sys­ tems, and between these two and da ta communication systems, are increasingly breaking down for those who provide the services. (In the U. K. broadcasters are piloting information retrieval services and the British Post Office is competing with a more sophisticated sys­ tem which could also be used for the exchange of messages. Elsewhere computer da ta networks are increasingly employed for the exchange of personal messages.

Contenu

Section 1 Overview of Research Issues.- User Research and Demand Research: What's the Use?.- Technology and Structures - Man and Machine.- The Role of Telecommunications Policy Analysis in Service Planning.- Communications Policy - The Need for Research.- Discussion.- Section 2 Public Services: The Delivery of Health Care.- The "Patient Trajectory": A Modeling Tool for Planning and Evaluating Rural Telemedicine Systems.- Telehealth Care in Canada.- A Methodology for Design of Advanced Technology-based Health Care Systems in Developing Countries.- Discussion.- Section 3 Public Services: Education and Community.- Educational Experiments with the Communications Technology Satellite: A Memo from Evaluators to Planners.- Evaluations of Interactive Tele-education in the Public Service Commission.- Open Choice - New Communication Systems and Applications at the British Open University.- Serial Experimentation for the Management and Evaluation of Communications Systems.- The Development of Two-way Cable Television: Applications for the Community.- Beyond Statistics.- Discussion.- Section 4 Information Services.- The Impact of Telecommunications Technologies on Informal Communication in Science and Engineering - Research Needs and Opportunities.- Scientific Communication and Knowledge Representation.- Communications Aspects of Euronet.- Problems in Forecasting the Price and Demand for On-Line Information Services.- The Economics and Cost Benefit of Analysis Services - The Case of Information Analysis Centers.- Technology Assessment and Idealized Design.- Discussion.- Section 5 Teleconferencing and Computer Conferencing.- Use and Traffic Characteristics of Teleconferencing for Business.- Evaluation of the Potential Market for Various Future Communication Modes via an Analysis of Communication Flow Characteristics.- Learning the Limits of Teleconferencing: Design of a Teleconference Tutorial.- Interpersonal Teleconferencing in an Organizational Context.- Organizational Communication Behavior: Description and Prediction.- Measuring the Dimensions of Interpersonal Communication.- Computer Assisted Communication in a Directorate of the Canadian Federal Government - A Pilot Study.- Exploiting the Tele- in Teleconferencing.- Discussion.- Section 6 New Services.- Bell System Visual Communications Systems.- The Swedish Market for a Public Switched Multi-Purpose Broadband Network.- A Possible European System for Teleconferencing via Satellite.- Viewdata Networks.- Computerized Conferencing: A Review and Statement of Issues.- Discussion.- Section 7 The Information Society.- Information Technology and Society.- Information and Communication: Is There A System?.- Information, Energy and Labour Force.- Electronic Funds Transfer in Perspective.- Section 8 Design and Planning.- The Design of the Designing Community.- The Utility of Social Experimentation in Policy Research.- New Telecommunications Services and Regional Development: Approaches to Experimentation and Planning.- Planning Exploratory Trials of New Interpersonal Telecommunications.- Discussion.- Concluding Discussion.- Policy.- Methodology.