WORKING ON MOON MOUNTAIN

Note - This is a faithful copy of my article in The Reader's Forum, Datamation Magazine of 1984 Sep 15. Some things have changed very much in the 16 years since this was first published. Some remain much the same. Certainly this vignette could be a basis for an analysis of the effect of PCs on the workplace. Students!

I had considered the matter before that, however. At the first Software Engineering Conference in Garmisch, Germany, in October 1968, I had met Dr. Edward David, then in charge of the Picturephone project at Bell Laboratories. I was planning to build a house atop an old volcano in Phoenix, and wanted to plan it as much as possible for future computer work. Even then we sensed the tremendous potential of integrating computers and communications. The house would be sited clear of interference for microwave, if that option should open. A wall would be reserved for a holographic screen, if that science fiction should come true.

Ed said he would try to get me the first Picturephone in Arizona as a test bed, and recommended bringing in 25 telephone lines to the house as a precaution for high bandwidth requirements. I had to go quite high in the hierarchy of Mountain Bell to get that done. Everyone thought I was out of my mind to want 25 telephones! Finally they agreed, and put in quite a fancy switchbox, at no particular cost to me at that time, with AT&T still integral.

The Picturephone project did not fare well in the original two cities chosen for test marketing. In addition, Dr. David left the project to become President Nixon's Science Advisor. I did have a need for the lines, however. In 1972, I became editor of the Honeywell Computer Journal, a now-defunct magazine that we nevertheless published well enough at that time to win over Scientific American in a contest sponsored by the Printing Industries of America.

Writing and creative work is not called up by opening the tap between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Inspirations really do come at odd hours. I convinced Honeywell to tie one of my lines to its telephone switching network, and brought home one of their Terminet 300s -- a hardcopy terminal, since there were few video screen terminals in existence at that time, and they were not fitted out for word processing. That term, you may recall, was unknown then. I was setting out to do it, however, because we were going to put on magnetic tape the files we created on a Honeywell computer, to take to Datagraphics, a Phoenix firm, for photocomposition directly from our own copy. But that is a different story, and has nothing to do with working at home.

Although the journal ceased publication in 1974, whereupon I returned to more of a programmer status, I discovered (rediscovered?) that programming, too, is creative work. From then until this day, I apparently program during my sleep, and cannot wait to get it into a permfile on the computer. What with showering, dressing, breakfasting, and driving to work -- I could possibly lose the most important parts of my new code.

So I have worked at home for over a decade. This qualifies me, I believe, to assert some of the advantages and disadvantages of this mode of operation, perhaps in a manner that will amuse as well as instruct.

First, are you married? If so, your spouse is obviously the key element in the way you work, Mine, a woman, knew little of the technical details of the computer profession despite having been the receptionist for IBM World Headquarters. Her most pressing concern was why didn't I go to the office more? Wouldn't Honeywell fire me for not being there so someone could check on whether I was actually producing something useful? Eventually she began to see articles in periodicals and newspapers about this mode of working and became more comfortable with it. I got no pioneering credits, however.

Here are some of the advantages of this mode of work:

• You're on hand for emergencies like a broken water line. A call to the office and a (perhaps long) trip home are saved.
• You have more flexibility in planning the work of the day, to interleave it with other activities such as shopping. Or if a movie is less crowded in the afternoon, why not see it then and do your computer work in the evening?
• If your spouse also works with computers, then you need not worry about the distance between your two offices.

• You're on hand for more than emergencies, like walking the dog if it whines. There may well come a time when you will have to bang the door shut and yell "@!*$% - I am at the office!"
• Speaking of those dogs, when you get up at 3 a.m. so as to not lose your latest gem, they are likely to wake up with you, concurrently (a nice computer word) waking the spouse, who may not wish to be awakened.
• If you and your spouse disagree on other matters, and if he is male, then he may have a job away from home, which avoids friction. If a female, then long absences from home may be indicated, and your shopping will include a great many tv dinners.

The advantages:

• The attire required may be informal. A bathrobe can do until the computer goes down about 10 a.m. Then a shower while they reboot; you haven't really lost any time.
• The attire may be very informal in climes comparable to that of Phoenix. I like to put my terminal out by the pool in the summertime. That way I can get a good tan (all over, which is an advantage of a mountaintop where nobody can see you) while simultaneously doing useful work. When it gets unbearably hot, a quick back flip into the pool does nicely. (Always remember to dry your hands before returning to the keyboard). When I tell people of this they often ask, "Why don't you get a light pen and write underwater, so you can just stay in the pool?"
• The size of your office, and whether it has a door that closes, are of no consequence. Privacy and pecking order morale are assured.

• It is difficult to read a video terminal in bright sunlight. I do not think the designers have considered this problem yet. One must build a sort of enclosure and turn the brightness up as far as it will go. And there will always be somebody who writes programs using the faint intensity for emphasis.
• Services are distant. You may use up your last red marking pen. There is no secretary to send to a supply cabinet. If your terminal has problems you will have to haul it to work and back for repair. For hardcopy printers you must keep a good supply of paper handy, always remembering to stock up at the office when supplies are low.
• Services hardly exist on Saturday and Sunday, and you will surely be working then, so make up a Friday checklist in preparation for the exodus.
• If you are the type that goes to many meetings, in contrast to getting out the work, working at home will be a problem unless your office is very close to your home. Fortunately the electronic meeting software is advancing nicely, and this problem will disappear.

The advantages:

• For directed information transfer, working at home is ideal. You are free from disruptions, such as the casual walk-in to your cubicle. Such contacts may be deferred until a better time to read and answer our electronic mail, which is much more efficient and less time-consuming. Of course, if your motivation is to have fun at the office, rather than producing, then you should read this memoir no further!
• They really have to want you at a meeting before an invitation is sent, and they know it must be planned, not just spur-of-the-moment. Having the participants come in specially for personal meetings superimposes a needed structure on work.
• At the office, some offices are closer than others. At home, by electronic mail, all are equidistant. Zero, that is. I recall a particular example of what Sperry Rand used to advertise as "synergy", where the output was greater than the total of the inputs. I was working, from my home, on System X, about two miles away. Gerry Despain was at his office on Camelback Road, some 10 miles away, working on the same mainframe. He modified a program of mine and asked me, via electronic mail, to try the improved version. I did, saw how it could be even better, remodified it, sent him mail, and so forth. Back and forth, until we shortly obtained a joint product better than either of us would have done individually. Yes, people can approach this at the office, but the odds are smaller that they will do so. If you don't believe me, try to get two people to make the experiment. It is an exciting and stimulating method of working.

• One may read journals to keep up with developments in one's field, but the time lag to publication remains long. It will probably stay long, even though the obsolescence cycle in the computer field grows ever shorter. To really keep up you must not only read the trade papers, but mingle -- in the cafeteria and in conferences -- anywhere there is broadcast information. Don't depend upon electronic publishing as it is now. It is a joke. My eye takes in a printed sheet in a single frame. I may or may not opt to read anything there. The mechanics of how I scan this way need not be explained. The fact is that I do it, and there is no way today that I can scan an electronic page similarly, or as cheaply as a printed one.
• Electronic mail is also directed. There is no easier way to pick up information than gossip, or talking to friends. Face-to-face conversation can wander in free form, as electronic mail can never do (ever try interrupting electronic mail?). One thing sparks another; then someone mentions having heard from someone else that Joe Xyz has something that may interest you.

Before sending in this article for publication, I naturally composed it into a readable draft, and notified a friend or two by electronic mail, to get their usual good ideas and have them catch mistakes.

One was the Gerry Despain just mentioned. I thought his comments could add a certain flavor, and validate and augment my own experience:

"Being at Camelback, I sometimes feel left out of 'broadcast' information myself. There is not a large group of us, and some of the people I would like to be in closer communication with are at the Deer Valley Plant.

So even working in an office sometimes requires overt action to involve oneself in broadcast information. It is partly to satisfy these needs that I spend time every day in reading the Multics forums. Even for people at Deer Valley, the forums give access to discussions carried on by people all over the country (in fact, the world) that is more like broadcast than directed information.

One of the things I miss at home is easy access to a printer -- or in your case a high-speed printer. I have only one telephone line. My wife wishes I had 25.

Working at home you are more susceptible to problems. For example, parity errors and "RETRANSMIT LAST LINE" for 24 hours every time we have a heavy rain (or our neighbor waters his garden -- in the middle of which is our telephone post), or lightning hits on mountaintops.

Is Moon Mountain really of volcanic origin?"

Note: A later and more detailed historical perspective on working with computers from home is found in Home Terminals by Tom Van Vleck. If you read my piece this far, you'll love his.