(Another lurker joins in - Craig Silva from VicHealth - a non-Luddite) This particular subject is very close to my heart or should I say job specification (my job title is Electronic Outreach Program Officer). Here at VicHealth we are starting the journey into an electronic workplace as internet e-mail has only just been extended right across our LAN (Local Area Network), we have also been busy developing our web site. Therefore we can expect that there will be similar responses to that of Nora's - a response that asks us to evaluate what in the hell it is that we are doing. I could lead off with a listing of the various objectives that we have established but we've heard them all before. I could also suggest that the reason for most of the discussions of Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) is because we are all faced with the same dilemna - we've just spent all this money playing technology catch-up with each other and now we have to justify it :-> (I should acknowledge that I am benefiting personally from this expenditure). In response to Nora's comments however, I would like to offer the experience of someone who has watched the growth of the electronic workplace over a period of time and suggest that once we have overcome the novelty (and the expense of implementing it), the strength of our responses dissipates markedly (as does our participation in these discussions :->). I was a LAN administrator at a Student organisation that was dispersed over 3 campuses and was responsible for implementing e-mail and the Internet for the organisation. People's responses ranged from extreme enthusiasm, to wariness, to outright rejection. At the end of the day (say a period of three years), different people had integrated e-mail (and the Internet) into their work practices in many different ways and with different levels of use. With the creativity one associates with human organisms, the organisation accomodated the technology and adapted it in the ways that it found useful (and of course reverted back to fax, telephone and written and spoken forms of communication as was most convenient, non-threatening and efficient i.e when the LAN was down). What eventuated was that e-mail was used for those things it was most suited for, when it was most suitable. E-mail DID impact on travel between campuses. It meant that we used it to avoid the boring and meaningless trip, but when there was a free lunch involved it didn't stop us from travelling. There were times when we couldn't avoid travelling as well, we actually did have to meet face to face occasionally. It was however only towards the end of that period that requests started to be made as to whether we could do this or whether we could do that with the technology. In other words, it took quite a bit of time for it to be accepted into the organisation and for non-tech people to start to come to grips with its uses and its potential. But when that time comes, people will look for creative, useful and human ways to use it. My prognosis is that those of us who need to communicate in specialised areas will spend the time needed to keep up and participate. We will take the time to overcome the barriers to participation because it is worth our while. There will also be those who resist the introduction of this technology and they cannot be forced to use it (neither should they be). HOWEVER, people ARE using it in ever increasing numbers because it IS human communication. ( Some people even go so far as to suggest that it has peculiar advantages - such as avoiding issues of beauty and/or physical ability that can impact adversely on human communication. ) (Putting devil's advocate hat on) I suppose my bottom line is that its here and its use is expanding and that the economic system has annointed it as good (i.e cost-efficient). Therefore what we really need to be doing is to focus on better ways of using it and and better ways of transferring the experience gained by early-adopters to ease the way for newcomers. Regards Craig PS: you might like to check out the following to get a better idea of my face: http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/craig.htm --------------------------------------------------------- Craig Silva, Electronic Outreach Program Officer Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne Australia e-mail: [log in to unmask], Tel: 61 3 9345 3211 ---------------------------------------------------------