Communication richness cannot be wholly captured by the virtuality of the medium. There is a second spect of communication richness that has not received attention in the literature: medium for communication, or the incorporation of additional methods or mediums for us to transfer our thoughts to others.
- Mediums for communication explore how communication goes beyond words and gestures, which are what we use when we have no tools but our voices and bodies. Communication is the process of encoding our thoughts into a medium that others work to decode, ascertaining meaning in their own minds (CITE). This process can utilize other tools.
trying different things:Communication is not only about words and gestures...In an analogue format, these can include napkin diagrams during dinner meetings, whiteboard use in a classroom, or visual diagramming during a conference talk...- For example, in a classroom or over dinner, we might grab a whiteboard or napkin and sketch out a diagram; not as something to be given over separately from our words, but to be used as a complement to our words, punctuating points on a diagram with explanations. These...
- For example, in a classroom or over dinner, we might grab a whiteboard or napkin and sketch out a diagram. In a design meeting, we might utilize props or moldable mediums to construct physical aids to accompany our words. These tools are part of the communication process, used as complements to our words, where points of explanation are punctuated with visual or kinesthetic or other experiential elements to aid in encoding our thoughts more clearly.
- For example, in a classroom or over dinner, we might grab a whiteboard or napkin and sketch out a diagram. In a design meeting, we might utilize props or moldable mediums to construct physical aids to accompany our words. These tools are part of the communication process, used as complements to our words, where points of explanation are punctuated with visual or kinesthetic or other experiential elements to aid in encoding our thoughts more clearly.
- Mediums for communication can be analogue, or they can be part of the digital technologies we use to communicate. Including a diagram in an email is adding a visual element to our words; even more communicative is using mediums in a compilational manner, using verbal and non-verbal communication together with additional tools, whether by sending a video accompanying the building of a diagram with an explanation, interfacing with colleagues over a large interactive display [e.g., @Mateescu.Pimmer.ea2019], or participating in a live holographic conference call where digital three-dimensional diagrams or physical props can be conjured and manipulated at will.
think this is too long an explanation - especially if also want to include, as part of mediums of communication, the inclusion of the context behind our thoughts, and the possibility of _removing_ rather than adding to the encoding process, like sending the direct artifacts of our thinking. Can work to shorten from after "including a diagram in an email..."
- Mediums for communication are not limited to two and three dimensional diagrams. The ability to include the context that gave birth to our ideas, technological affordances that allow us to send simple messages that are accompanied by access to a knowledge graph of the sources that underly ones thinking, would allow others to explore more deeply any elements in our words that were unclear, or where subject matter familiarity was falsely assumed.
- Included, too, are methods where the encoding process is skipped entirely, where one does not consider how to put thoughts into words meant purely for communication, but shares the artifacts of their thinking directly. Live synchronous document editing is such a medium, where collaborators working together might not explain their thinking directly, but allow others to see the artifacts of their thinking directly - the writing, deleting, and restructuring that are all part of the process. Of course, skipping the encoding process does not mean that our thoughts are effectively visible, nor that the receiver does not still have to go through the decoding process. But this method of communication is one afforded by digital technologies, and not captured in examining the virtuality of communication alone.