people involved, knowing that an exchange couldreappear unexpectedly in the future could leadpeople to be less casual, less informal. Improvedindexing and search tools will amplify this. Inaddition, if IM can easily be saved by users, it ismore likely to be used for formal matters where arecord is desired, thus developing the habit of recording and accessing past exchanges.The transition may not be as dramatic as at NewsInternational—and even there, employees may relaxif time goes by without evidence that logged IM isbeing examined. Our need for informal channels canlead us to ignore known risks, as in the case of thesenders of subpoenaed email.When voicemail or email is unexpectedlyforwarded, behaviour can change. Similarly, theunveiling of deja news, the searchable newsgrouparchive (now Google Groups), was a sensation.Although someone always could save or print aposting, newsgroups felt ephemeral, around forseveral days, an informal conversation among anumber of like-minded individuals. Suddenlycomments were immortal, easily retrieved by anyoneat any future time.As noted by Nardi et al., users often distinguishcasual IM from formal email. It is interesting thatemail began as the casual alternative to formal typedor written correspondence.
5 The Evolution of Email
In a plenary address at the first CHI conference in1983, John Seely Brown (Brown, 1983) said that aXerox executive had told him that embarrassmentabout spelling kept him from using email and askedwhether PARC could develop an automatic spellingcorrector for email. “We could,” Brown reportedtelling him, “but we won’t. Instead, we’ll build aspelling de-corrector!” He argued that email wasand should remain an informal communicationmedium. A tool that inserted random spelling errorswould help keep it informal.Some early email users treated it like writtencorrespondence, starting each message with“Dear…” and closing with “sincerely” or “yourstruly.” But “put it in writing” or making somethingpermanent is associated with formality, and no onewas recording email. Disk space was too limited, tooexpensive. So most early email use adopted aconversational model, with heavy use of exclamation points, repeated question marks, andcapitalized words.In the 1980s, email was regarded with suspicionby management, even in high tech firms (Perin,1991). Known to be used mainly by students, wouldit distract employees from productive work? Even inthe early 90s some researchers thought organizationswould abandon email once they measuredproductivity losses (Pickering & King, 1992).As disk sizes increased and email was saved,senders could be held accountable for what they hadwritten. As email became more integrated into work practices, there was greater likelihood of referringback to some of it.Attitudes and technology changed. Employeeswho may have initially used email for socialpurposes as students found ways to leverage it in theworkplace, where both informal social interactionand quick business exchanges are important. Stringsof exclamation points disappeared. Tools camealong to help people fix spelling and grammar.Email has become acceptable for more formalcorrespondence, such as letters of recommendation.But we still need casual channels for unpolishedideas, exaggeration, sloppiness, letting off steam,gossiping, flirting and so forth, without fear thatsuch remarks will return to haunt us.
6 The Evolution of IM?
We have been studying IM use in large enterprises.IM, and text messaging where it is used, fill theneed for informal asynchronous communication.Email was faster than formal memos and letters,messaging is faster than email. As with email,
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