#455  from Innovative Leader Volume 9, Number 3          March 2000

Cyber-Brainstorming and The Wild, Wild World of Internet
by Keng Siau, Ph.D.

Dr. Siau is a professor in the Department of Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Email: ksiau1@unl.edu. www.ait.unl.edu/doc2/faculty/siau/

The growth of the Internet has been phenomenal and now provides an excellent opportunity for cyber-brainstorming.  In cyber-brainstorming, using a keyboard, each participant contributes ideas to the other participants in the group with an option of not revealing his/her identity.  You might want to take advantage of one or more of the several Internet services that are available for cyber-brainstorming.

Bulletin Board (News Group or Usenet):  This allows users to post ideas and make them available for the others to build upon. Organizations can use the bulletin board to conduct cyber-brainstorming sessions.  These sessions have the advantage of overcoming time and geographical constraints. 

Emails and Listservers: Email permits users not only to send an electronic mail to a particular person or group, but also to enclose files as attachments. When the group is small, each participant can send emails back and forth to exchange ideas.  If there are a large number of participants, they could use a listserver, an aggregate of email messages.   To use the listserver, participants have to first subscribe to a mailing list.  Then, they will receive all the messages sent by the other participants.  In addition, listservers can compile all the ideas and send the participants one email containing the compilation instead of having each person sending emails to the other participants.  Cyber-brainstorming, using emails or listservers, allows for a large number of participants and has the benefit of spanning different time zones. 

Chat Group: This allows participants to communicate in real time.  They can log on to the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and are then able to talk to each other electronically and anonymously.  This service has no geographical constraint. 

File Transfer (FTP – File Transfer Protocol): File transfer enables users to transfer files from a disk on one computer to a disk on another.  For cyber-brainstorming, the participants can transfer file from a central computer where the ideas are stored, add new ideas to the file, and then transfer the file back to the central computer. 

Remote Login (Telnet): This allows a user to access and work on a remote computer.   For cyber-brainstorming, by using identification codes and passwords, authorized participants can log in to the account to participate in the session.

The Internet also provides search tools to help participants find information to enhance or stimulate their creativity.  These tools include Archie, Gophers, Veronica and WAIS. 

Archie is a search tool to find related topics.  You can search the files of all the Internet FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers that offer anonymous FTP access for a particular search string.  Archie is actually an indexing program that visits each anonymous FTP site, reads all the directories and file names, and then indexes them in one large index.  A user can then query Archie, which checks the query against its index.

Gopher is used to locate information using a hierarchy of menus.  It is an application protocol in which hierarchically organized file structures are maintained on servers. Gopher provides a way to bring text files from all over the world to your computer. 

Veronica allows you to search the files of the Internet's Gopher servers for particular keywords or a search string.  Veronica is an indexing program that visits the Gopher sites, reads the directories and file names, and then indexes them in one large index. A user can then query Veronica, which checks the query against its index. 

WAIS (wide-area information servers) locates files in databases using keywords.  Specialized subject databases are created at multiple server locations, kept track of by a directory of servers at one location, and made accessible for searching by users with WAIS client programs. The user of WAIS obtains a list of distributed databases. The client enters a search argument for a selected database and then accesses all the servers on which the database is distributed. The results provide a description of each text that meets the search requirements. The user can then retrieve the full text.

As can be seen, the Internet provides unlimited opportunity for stimulating innovation and creativity.  Although the potential is great, users should be aware of some its drawbacks.  Since there is no central authority, information should be verified by the reader.  When using the information, you need to understand copyright issues involved.  To prevent downloading viruses from the Internet, check whether the site is reputable.

Despite these shortcomings, organizations, groups, and individuals can take advantage of the Internet to enhance creativity.  The potential will continue to grow as more services and features are provided to this "wild, wild world."