Computer networks are best used for keeping in touch with people. Far away colleagues coordinate long-range projects, people with similar interests substitute networks for newsletters or telephone trees (and end up keeping in touch more personally as a result), and soul-searching friendships develop between those who have never met in person. (Kleiner, 1980)
This paper examines the impact of technology in respect of its affect on human communications. Specifically, the concept of the electronic global village is examined via a case study on the VMSHARE conference based at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
The paper will examine the technology that is required to provide such a service. In particular it will examine why the VMSHARE conference was started and how the needs of users caused the technology to be taken up. It will be seen that this technology had existed from the late 1960s but had never been fully exploited. The 1970s saw this technology being taken up owing to the need of the social institutions. This will be highlighted in the history of VMSHARE that is provided.
I will contend in this paper that the reason why the technology had not been taken up prior to VMSHARE was that the social institutions had no need of it. However, once a group found itself threatened with virtual extinction innovation took place and the previously unused or under utilized technology was taken up.
In order to give a feel of an electronic global village I will be providing a general overview of the system and its users. An examination of the sociological impacts is also provided in order to provide an example of the direction an electronic global village may take. The concept of an electronic global corporation is hinted at in this paper but in the main it will concentrate on the affects upon the individual.
So as to describe the history and function of the VMSHARE system it is important to provide some background information. This will contain much of the jargon that are referred to throughout this paper.
SHARE is a US-based organization of computer installations that have IBM mainframe equipment installed. Its purpose is to act as a medium through which experiences are shared, information disseminated, and IBM lobbied. Within the organization there are several interest groups that specialize in one area (for example those interested in communication systems or specific operating systems).
Every six months there is a major conference at a selected site within North America at which 5000+ delegates attend. During the five day conference there are various workshops, seminars, discussion groups and requirement development sessions each relating to a special area of interest. Between each of these major conferences there are interim meetings at which 800+ delegates attend.
The work performed at these conferences may be formally submitted to IBM in the form of white papers or requirements and will influence the type and quality of the software products IBM delivers.
There are similar groups throughout the world including SEAS (Europe), ASG (Australasian SHARE/GUIDE), and GUIDE (another US based user group).
One of IBM's major operating systems is known as the Virtual Machine System Product (VM/SP). This can be loosely described as a time sharing system for use on IBM mainframe equipment.
The story of the development of VM is an interesting piece of history in itself (Varian, 1989). The development of the product also parallels the development of VMSHARE and most other innovations. There was a need to be satisfied:
CP-40 (the predecessor of the VM operating system) was written because the folks in Cambridge wanted a way to make their one small computer do all the things they needed to do. (Varian, 1989)
Similarly, the frame of mind of the people behind the development also adds in interesting insight into the process of innovation:
I launched the effort between Christmas 1964 and year end after making the decision while on an MTA bus from Arlington to Cambridge. It was a Tuesday I believe. (Robert Creasy, 1989, quoted in Varian, 1989)
The history of VM is complex and beyond the scope of this paper, suffice it to say that due to a lot of early user involvement this product had won a special niche in the operation of many installations. However, there was some doubt over the commitment of IBM to support and develop this product:
Most IBM branches were openly hostile to VM, and many used extreme measures to discourage customers installing VM. I can remember a system engineer friend of mine telling me that the way he found out that his branch manager hated him was being told that he was going to become the VM expert for the branch. (Varian, 1989)
This was a cause of great concern to those who had found that VM provided their installation with the facilities their business required. These concerns were aired at the SHARE conferences throughout the 1970s and much lobbying was done for the group. However, major meetings were held only twice a year and not all who were interested in keeping VM alive were able to get to these meetings. Something was needed to be done in order to maintain the rage.
At this time a request was made of one of the SHARE members Dave Smith (then of TYMSHARE now with IBM Research) to see if he could do something with his organization's public networks (TYMNET) in order to allow people to keep in touch with each other. The result was VMSHARE:
I asked Dave where he got the idea for VMSHARE. He said that it started out with Ed Haskell razzing him: "Why can't you do something with that network of yours <TYMNET> to allow us to communicate between SHAREs?". One Friday afternoon, when he felt like it, Dave wrote the EXECs to implement the conference and then asked a few people to try it. The first was Charlie Brown. He thinks the second was Pat Ryall. (Varian, 1989)
What is important about this development is that Dave Smith used tools that had been available for sometime (e.g. the network) and called on the facilities existing within the VM product. This theme of technology being available but only being called upon when a social institution calls upon it is reflected throughout history. I will contend in this paper that VMSHARE is a micro-cosm of the real world in this respect.
He (Dave Smith) said that part of the padded cell had been done for some other project that got dropped, which got him thinking about how to do it. Most of that work was actually done for VMSHARE. It wasn't very many lines of code, but it was in lots of places. (Varian, 1989)