ABSTRACT
In the late fall and early spring of 1977-78, four "small research communities" began using EIES, a computer-mediated communications system. The purpose of the operational trials was to see if the use of a system of this type to tie together geographically-dispersed scientists working in the same research specialty area would increase the communication and productivity within the groups. All four groups were charged with assessing the impact of the system upon their members. In addition, the Division of Mathematical and Computer Science, NSF, funded an overall study which provides comparable data across groups. This paper summarizes the data collected in the "pre-use" and "three-month follow up" stages of the project. The distribution of usage, reasons for low use, and subjective evaluations of the system by its users are presented.
