perm filename NSFX.3[ESS,JMC]1 blob
sn#024463 filedate 1973-02-13 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
00100 AN INITIAL SET OF HOME TERMINAL APPLICATIONS
00200
00300 We won't get all books and newspapers published as computer
00400 files or get all car dealers to advertise their chariots through the
00500 public information utility until there are enough home terminals to
00600 make a market, and the home terminal won't reach its full usefulness
00700 until these facilities are available. In fact, it is non-trivial to
00800 devise a set of applications that can be done now useful enough to
00900 justify anyone but a programmer tolerating a terminal in his house
01000 let alone paying for it. Nevertheless, we think we have a set of
01100 home terminal applications large enough to make a viable system and
01200 we hope to think of more. It wasn't easy, but here they are:
01300
01400 1. First of all, Martin Frost, one of our graduate students,
01500 has already programmed a news service based on the Associated Press
01600 national and international news wire and put it into our time-sharing
01700 system. The AP wire is connected to the computer, and the stories
01800 are classified and filed on the disk as they come in. The present
01900 classification is according to the presence of several hundred key
02000 words in the stories - e.g. the names of countries, states, cities,
02100 prominent people, and various topics. A user of the system gives a
02200 Boolean combination of key words (e.g. Nixon - Vietnam) and is told
02300 how many stories there are corresponding to this expression (e.g. he
02400 may be told there are 11 stories containing the word Nixon and not
02500 the word Vietnam). He can then see the first few lines of these
02600 stories and select which ones he wishes to read in full. The program
02700 has been available since August and is used about 1000 times per
02800 month, about half of the use is from our laboratory and about half
02900 over the ARPA network. With publicity, it would be more used which
03000 would not be to our advantage.
03100
03200 This preliminary experiment is the only one we have already
03300 done. We propose to improve it in various ways, and here are some of
03400 the possibilities: add more news, keep more than one day's worth,
03500 allow a keyword like "animal" to get all stories mentioning dogs,
03600 cats, etc., give the system some sophisticated question answering and
03700 information retrieval capability, and see what can be done by a human
03800 editor aided by the computer in producing a more useful computerized
03900 "newspaper". To tell the truth, the program has been so well
04000 accepted in its initial crude form that making it sophisticated may
04100 merely gild the lily, but we shall see.
04200
04300
04400 2. The second application is simply reading. Initially,
04500 there won't be much entertaining or educational reading in the
04600 system, but we can put some in for the purpose. It is necessary to
04700 determine what aids such as "subroutine jumps" to cross references
04800 will be helpful and how the advantages of such computer aids compare
04900 with the advantages of hard copy. We do not forsee a good individual
05000 hard copy device during the research period proposed here.
05100
05200 3. A local information system updated by a clerk. In this,
05300 it is not obvious how to compete with the local newspaper, but very
05400 likely there is enough information not kept in newspapers to be worth
05500 having one full time clerk putting it in. If there is, we'll employ
05600 the clerk.
05700
05800 4. Connection to institutional computer systems.
05900 Possibilities are airline reservation systems, ticket booking
06000 systems, and the University's administrative computer system. The
06100 idea is to make interfaces that are uniform to the home terminal user
06200 and give him the facilities that the proprietor of the computer
06300 system is willing for individuals to have. A way of having the user
06400 identify himself may be necessary. It may be possible to get at one
06500 blow access to systems residing in a local time-sharing service
06600 bureau. In general, we will explore the possibilities of
06700 co-operating with them and perhaps having them take over the services
06800 when this is reasonable.
06900
07000 Another possibility in this direction arises in connection
07100 with the fact that financial institutions are studying electronic
07200 transfer of funds. We would like to consider this question in
07300 connection with the home terminal and see how this facility might be
07400 integrated into the larger set of services that a home terminal might
07500 provide. We suspect that the financial institutions might have too
07600 specialized interests to do this right and might welcome some
07700 interaction.
07800
07900 5. CAI. We propose to make this an exercise in
08000 transplantation. The idea is not to make our own
08100 computer-aided-instruction system but rather solve the problem of
08200 transplanting an already developed system to our machine.
08300
08400 6. Desk calculation with extensions. This is straightforward
08500 and of limited usefulness to most people, but we'll do it.
08600
08700 7. A discussion system based on the articles in a magazine.
08800 This would require having a number of users interested in reacting in
08900 writing to discussion on a topic. It may or may not be feasible.
09000
09100 8. Other applications that have been suggested include
09200 finding the best route for driving to an address, some amusements and
09300 games, and some kind of clothing design system. We don't promise to
09400 do all those mentioned and will undoubtedly do some not mentioned.
09500
09600 It is not clear how difficult it is to do these applications
09700 or how long it will take to get people to take a professional
09800 interest in them.