CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Our main purpose in this chapter has been to point out that computer networking and
associated developments have profound implications for human communication and
represent some significant challenges and opportunities for human factors research. We
have considered only a few of the research questions that arise and these only in a cursory
way. The need to focus more attention on computer-based networking will increase as the
technology for it continues to develop and its applications continue to expand.

In keeping with the overall theme of this book, we have focused primarily on the future
of networking and the prospects of extensive connectivity of people to information
resources of many types and of people to people independently of geographical location.
It should also be noted, however, that there are many opportunities for human factors
work on the networking systems that currently exist. The evidence suggests that the
currently operating electronic information resources are not utilized as effectively as they
could be even by people who have easy access to them and could presumably benefit
from making greater use of them (General Accounting Office, 1989). In this regard, see
also Chapters 4 and 7.

There can be little doubt that the increasingly widespread use of communications
technology in the workplace is changing the nature of many jobs and the knowledge and
skill requirements for performing them. This

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technology is affecting jobs throughout industry and at all levels of responsibility—from

clerical workers who have to master a variety of computer-based document preparation
and information management tools to high-level managers who have to learn to deal with
new patterns of intra-and intercompany communication, more fluid organizational
structures, and challenges stemming from the innovative exploitation of communication
technology by competitors. Studies are needed both to help us understand the changes
that are taking place and to anticipate the likely job-skill requirements of the future.

But the effects of computer networking will be felt far beyond the workplace. We need to
better understand its implications for education; for civic, political, and personal decision
making; for leisure and daily life outside the workplace. What might it mean for people
who are confined to their homes, to hospitals, to nursing homes, to prisons? How can it
be exploited to give shut-ins greater access to other people, to information resources, and
to the world in general?

What must be done to ensure the usefulness and usability of this technology? Special and
general-purpose databanks will be increasingly accessible through computer networks;
information services will proliferate, as will network-accessible expert systems,
electronic consultants, and electronic advice givers. How can such resources be made
approachable for people who are intimidated by computer technology, for people who
cannot type, for people who are disadvantaged in one way or another? How can we
minimize the chances that these resources will widen the gap between haves and have
nots? Between better-educated and less well-educated people? Between people who are
well connected to computer resources and people who are not?

What are some of the major risks inherent in this technology? What are the computer
network analogues to nuisance telephone calls? To mail and telemarketing fraud? What
safeguards can be built against them? How should people be encouraged to think about
networks, data structures, and information spaces? What sorts of metaphors or mental
models will be useful and not misleading and detrimental?

Communication is a fundamental human activity. Technology has affected it in numerous

ways in the past. The proliferation of computer networks has the potential to affect it
greatly in the future. Already it is possible to identify many human factors questions that
are raised by telenetworking and associated developments; many more are likely to arise
as the impact of the continuing development of these technologies on our daily lives
becomes increasingly evident.

Page 196
Suggested Citation:"6 Communication Technology and Telenetworking." National Research
Council. 1995. Emerging Needs and Opportunities for Human Factors Research. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4940.
×