In spite of a growing interest in electronic message systems (EMS), there has, until now, been little effort to present a formal description or a consistent set of definitions of the functions and interactions of such systems. The elements of a theory of EMS are identified here, in a project...

Between August 1975 and March 1976, two NASA projects with geographically separated participants used a computer-conferencing system developed by the Institute for the Future for portions of their work. Monthly usage statistics for the system were collected in order to examine the group and...