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The Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES, pronounced ''
eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
s'') was an early
online conferencing Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conference, conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of ...
bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...
that allowed
real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
and
asynchronous communication In telecommunications, asynchronous communication is transmission of data, generally without the use of an external clock signal, where data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. Any timing required to recover data f ...
. The system was used to deliver courses, conduct conferencing sessions, and facilitate research. Funded by the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
and developed from 1974-1978 at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology {{Infobox university , name = {{nowrap, New Jersey Institute of Technology , image = New Jersey IT seal.svg , image_upright = 0.9 , former_names = Newark College of Engineering (1930–1975)Ne ...
(NJIT) by
Murray Turoff Murray Turoff (February 13, 1936 – October 28, 2022 ) was a Distinguished Professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) who was a key founding father of computer-mediated communication. Career Turoff received his B.A. degree in Math ...
based on his earlier EMISARI done at the now-defunct
Office of Emergency Preparedness The Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, created in 1958 originally as Office of Defense and Civilian Mobilization, was an office of the Executive Office of the President of the United States which consolidated the functions of the existing ...
, EIES was intended to facilitate group communications that would allow groups to make decisions based on their
collective intelligence Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence (GI) that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology, politic ...
rather than the
lowest common denominator In mathematics, the lowest common denominator or least common denominator (abbreviated LCD) is the lowest common multiple of the denominators of a set of fractions. It simplifies adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions. Description The low ...
. Initially conceived as an experiment in
computer mediated communication Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated format ...
. EIES remained in use for decades because its users "just wouldn't let go" of it, eventually adapting it for legislative, medical and even spiritual uses.


Technology

In the mid-1980s, a new version called ''EIES-2'' was developed to research the implementation of group communications in distributed environments, versus the centralized
time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users at the same time by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking.DEC Timesharing (1965), by Peter Clark, The DEC Professional, Volume 1, Number 1 Its emergence a ...
environment used for the first version. EIES-2 had an
object database An object database or object-oriented database is a database management system in which information is represented in the form of objects as used in object-oriented programming. Object databases are different from relational databases which ar ...
architecture using over 2 dozen classes and implementing a notion of ''activities'', which was a standardized interface for implementing nonstandard functions such as polls or list-gathering. The activities concept was similar to what would be done in today's
message board An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
applications using plug-ins. The standard message-based functions were also implemented as activities. EIES-2 ran on
Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
and was written in the programming languages C and
Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by Alan Ka ...
. EIES-2 used the X.400 database standards. Accounts were available to the public for a monthly fee of USD $75 plus connect-time charges.


Influence

In his book
The Virtual Community ''The Virtual Community'' is a 1993 book about virtual communities by Howard Rheingold, a member of the early network system The WELL. A second edition, with a new concluding chapter, was published in 2000 by MIT Press. The book's discussion ...
,
Howard Rheingold Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities (a t ...
called EIES "the lively great-great-grandmother of all virtual communities". EIES was one of the earliest instances of groupware, if not the earliest, and some users contend it is where the term was coined. The editors of the
Whole Earth Software Catalog ''The Whole Earth Software Catalog'' and ''The Whole Earth Software Review'' (1984–1985) were two publications produced by Stewart Brand's '' Point Foundation'' as an extension of '' The Whole Earth Catalog''. Overview Fred Turner discusses th ...
set up a private conference on EIES where they could collaborate on software reviews from around the US. Along with serious research, there were diversions like the "EIES Soap Opera", which was a series of stories written collaboratively by the service's users. The first soap opera was initiated in 1980 by
Martin Nisenholtz Martin A. Nisenholtz (born April 1, 1955) is an American businessman and educator who has been active in the advancement of digital media and marketing. Background, education and career origins Nisenholtz was born in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a su ...
. Working groups from different corporations used EIES to collaborate, some working exclusively from home. EIES gave an early glimpse of the challenges of
work–life balance Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an animal tr ...
and pointed the way toward
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
and
gamification Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished thro ...
. Notable users included
Alvin Toffler Alvin Eugene Toffler (October 4, 1928 – June 27, 2016) was an American writer, futurist, and businessman known for his works discussing modern technologies, including the digital revolution and the communication revolution, with emphasis on th ...
, Peter & Trudy Johnson-Lenz,
Barry Wellman Barry Wellman (born 1942) is a Canadian-American sociologist and is the co-director of the Toronto-based international NetLab Network. His areas of research are community sociology, the Internet, human-computer interaction and social structur ...
, and Whole Earth editor-in-chief
Stewart Brand Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American writer, best known as editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He founded a number of organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the auth ...
, who was influenced by EIES to develop
The WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...
. At its peak EIES had more than 2000 subscribers from various government agencies, large corporations and educational institutions. The
Western Behavioral Sciences Institute The Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI) was founded in 1958, in La Jolla, California, as an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to research, education and advanced study in human affairs. Its early studies included research on th ...
ran a private conference called the ''School of Management and Strategic Studies'', of which
Harlan Cleveland Harlan Cleveland (January 19, 1918 – May 30, 2008) was an American diplomat, educator, and author. He served as Lyndon B. Johnson's United States Permanent Representative to NATO, U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1965 to 1969, and earlier as U.S. A ...
was a member, and starting in 1985,
Connected Education Connected Education - also known as Connect Ed - was a pioneering online education organization founded and administered by Paul Levinson and Tina Vozick. Operating from 1985 to 1997, Connect Ed offered the M.A. degrees in Media Studies (through The ...
offered the first completely online masters degree on the "Connect Ed campus" that they created on EIES, including a cafe, bookstore, and library with the MA in Media Studies granted by
The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
in New York City. As a
legacy system In computing, a legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program, "of, relating to, or being a previous or outdated computer system", yet still in use. Often referencing a system as "legacy" means that it paved ...
lacking support for
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...
or file attachments, EIES was shut down in 2000, despite NJIT's inability to locate a replacement with equivalent performance. At the time of its shutdown, EIES-2 held 6 GB of stored data, and could serve 1,000 concurrent users with an average response time of under 15 seconds.


References


External links


IRC History -- Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES)EIES History
{{New Jersey Institute of Technology Pre–World Wide Web online services New Jersey Institute of Technology Educational software Virtual learning environments Distance education in the United States E-learning Bulletin board systems Computer-mediated communication