bout de papier, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1990), pp. 13–15
– of implementing a massive communications and office automation project known as COSICS (Canadian On-line Secure Information and Communications System). For two years or so it has been in the discussion, planning and procurement stages, leading some to describe it as “air-ware” (to distinguish it from hardware, software and other things that exist in the real world). As of April 1989, no terminal had yet appeared on any user’s desk, no switch had been flipped, and no live messages had been composed or sent. By late 1989, a few terminals began to appear. In the absence of something to try out and work with, most members of the Foreign Service still have more questions than answers about what COSICS will mean to them and their work. This applies not only to those who have never used keyboard equipment, but to those who are familiar with office automation equipment of varying degrees of complexity — up to and including those who have used computers, either as stand-alone PCs or in networks. Members of the Foreign Service, who will eventually form the COSICS user community, may be divided roughly into two groups: those who welcome the new system to a greater or lesser degree, and those who do not. There are varying degrees of knowledge and experience within each group, ranging from the highly computer-literate at one extreme to, at the other, those who have never used a computer and don’t want to.
Those who resist the advent of COSICS are not to be dismissed as 20th Century Luddites. They have real concerns about, inter alia, the quality of life and work in the Foreign Service, the wisdom of putting so many of our eggs in one technological basket, the vulnerability of the system to a host of hazards including hostile intelligence services, the Kaos Klub and other hackers, viruses, power failures, communications failures, and other problems which could suddenly force a user back into “quill pen mode” without even saving the data. Will the system be sutficiently robust and reliable to function in the real world (especially the Third World), and still be subtle and sophisticated enough to cope with phrases like “inter alia”?
This article is intended to provide information and, hopefully, reassurance. It is written from the perspective of a mainstream Foreign Service Officer who, by virtue of a recent assignment had to become familiar with and use several of the keyboard instruments in the office automation orchestra, including a Digital All-in-1 office automation network very much like COSICS. Since I should not mention its name, I shall refer to it as “Ur-COSICS”
First, for the non-technical user, let me try to respond to a few of the questions which are most frequently put to members of the COSICS Users’ Subcommittee:
What I Have to Learn to Type?
Yes, after a fashion. “Hunt-and-peck” will do, but the better you can type, the better you will be able to use COSICS. Most officers (it being assumed that non-typers fall mainly into this category) will use the keyboard to control the system, and for drafting and revision, and will need to type only at the rate at which they formulate ideas and compose them into text. How many of us will have to meet the 40 words-per-minute SCY standard?
What is It Good For, Anyway?
Most of the things you already do at your desk. The basic concept of the software is to emulate in electronic form some of the most familiar objects on your desk or in your office: desk diary, Departmental telephone list, CANREPS, pen, pencil, lined pad, in-tray/out-tray, pending tray(s), hi-liter, scissors, tape, stapler, staple remover, diary file, working files, circ file, telegram pack, message slips, photocopier, wastebasket, shredder, typewriter, personal computer, telephone.
…and Departmental forms incluging memo, telegram, numbered letter and other more specialized forms).
If you use any of the foregoing, COSICS can make your work simpler, faster and more secure.
How Does It Compare to a Personal Computer?
COSICS will offer the functional equivalents of some of the most common PC software: word processing, spreadsheet, database, desk accessories and electronic mail. These are combined in an integrated package so that the same word processing functions, for example, apply to the creation or editing of a text in any of the applications. On the customized keyboard, word processing functions are printed on the fronts of the keys with which they are associated, minimizing the need to refer back to the manual.
Compared to PCs, COSICS will be relatively simple to operate. The All-In-1 software is entirely menu-driven, so there is no command language to learn: when a menu appears on the screen, one selects an option simply by keying the letter(s) associated with it. One is never faced with anything as uninformative as “C>_”. For security reasons, users will be denied access to the operating system; this pays windfall dividends in user-friendliness.
Will I Be Able to Load My Favourite PC Software into COSICS?
No, for two reasons: It is true that some of the friendliest, most powerful and flexible software (eg: the new generation of personal information managers) is written for IBM-compatible PCs, but COSICS is based on Digital VAX computers using the VMS operating system, so programs written for IBM-compatible PCs using the MS-DOS system are not compatible. One benefit of this is that MS-DOS viruses will not be compatible either: VAX/VMS will not recognize them as executable files.
The second reason is that a network of this type will not be able to function effectively unless everyone uses the same software and plays by the same rules. COSICS Will necessarily impose a fairly high degree of conformity on PC users, whose set-up and operating style can be as individual and idiosyncratic as their handwriting. Introduction of new or modified software, therefore, will be centrally controlled by system management.
Shouldn’t the Department Have Tried to Build on the Considerable PC Resources that Already Exist, instead of Trying to Replace Them with a New and Incompatible System?
The primary purpose of COSICS is not to replace PCs, but to replace the existing set of teleprinter links that forms the Canadian Diplomatic Communications System (CDCS). CDCS and COSICS, as well as PCs and PC networks will have to coexist for some years yet.
So don’t throw that PC out yet, especially if it forms part of WIN Exports or one of the other special local-area networks (LANS) that have been created over the past several years. At least in the initial stage, planning now calls for those PCs to function as terminals on the unclassified tier of COSICS, which will increase their functionality by providing a bridge for the transfer of data from one PC or LAN to another.
What Happens to the Spreadsheets, Databases and Text Files that Have Taken Me Years to Create on my PC?
For the time being, they will stay on the PC and, as noted above, COSICS will provide a means of transferring them to other PCs. There will be a utility to enable the transfer of data to the unclassified tier of COSICS; any uploading of data to the classified tier will have to be done by system managers under appropriate controls, using COSICS document transfer and conversion utilities.
But it may not be possible simply to transfer a Lotus 1-2-3 file into the COSICS spreadsheet programme and run it right away: once your files are in the system you may have to re-format them to make them compatible with COSICS applications. It should be possible, however, to avoid extensive re-typing of existing files.
That is Still a Royal Pain in the Posterior. What Has COSICS Got to Offer by Way of Compensation?
Speed, standardization, inter-operability and security. It’s a pretty good FLASH telegram that can get from originating to receiving com-centre in less than an hour, and it is likely to wreak havoc with normal traffic in the process. It will be a pretty poor COSICS message that doesn’t get from originating officer to addressee in less than fifteen minutes (if both are logged on). Everybody will be using the same software, so conversion of files and incompatibility of systems will be a thing of the past. And all messages will be protected in transmission.
It Seems That COSICS is Going to Result in FS and EX Officers Performing Typing, Clerical and Communications Tasks Which Could Be Done Just as Well by Support Staff at Half the Hourly Rate
– Is That Good Management?
If the premise were correct, it would be very poor management indeed. An essential principle for COSICS users to remember will be that your COSICS terminal is a tool on your desk for you to use in doing your job — not someone else’s. COSICS will provide you with the means and skills to do some of your subordinates’ jobs, but it would be poor management on your part if you succumbed to the temptation to use them in that way – with or without COSICS, if you spend your time doing someone else’s job you are probably not doing your own very well.
Are People Going to Be Able to Use COSICS to Go Over My Head and Behind My Back?
Yes.
Although formal messages will be channelled along an approval chain, informal messages may be sent to anyone by anyone. All the more reason, therefore, for Departmental managers to become keyboard virtuosi. But end runs are nothing that “they” can’t do already. Bear in mind that we already have a nonhierarchical on-line telecommunications system with terminals on every desk – the telephone.
In this age of power lunches, unminuted telephone conversations, blind distribution copies, corridor conferences and walks in the woods, the end run is an omnipresent risk. COSICS will add a new aspect to the threat, but it is not a new threat in itself.
To put it another way: If you are having trouble with end runs, then your problem is not COSICS, it is something more serious.
Aren’t We Gambling an Awful Lot on a New, Untried System?
Yes and no.
No, because all the elements of the system have been around for some time. Digital All- In-1 networks are quite common in the private sector. Environment Canada also have quite a large one. The black boxes that will protect COSICS transmissions have also been well-tried in other applications. In that sense, there is nothing new about COSICS.
Yes, because the whole is new even if the parts are not. Nothing quite like this has been done before on a global scale, putting classified and unclassified information on the same network and maintaining the appropriate degree of separation between the different classes of material. The technology is in fact evolving faster than the concepts and procedures which must be in place to make it secure. Security standards and guidelines for electronic mail networks handling multiple classifications have emerged only recently.
COSICS, therefore, will not employ the very latest hardware and software; only the very latest SECURE hardware and software. It will inevitably look rather old-fashioned in comparison with more advanced private sector networks.
Are We Going to Be Working in an “Electronic Sweatshop”?
That is up to us. “Audit trail” utilities will exist in COSICS for security purposes. It will be possible for a fairly detailed analysis to be made of any user”s activities on the system. There is no plan, so far as I know, for this to be used for anything but legitimate security purposes.
But look at it another way. The Department, as Ed Whitcomb pointed out in Vol. 6 No. 3 of bout, is heavily dependent on voluntary overtime worked by members of the Foreign Service. It would hardly be in management’s interest to watch the clock…
Some Features of COSICS
The electronic filing system is designed to resemble a paper file system, based on documents, folders and cabinets. Each document is given a user-defined title, folder name and (optionally) one or more keywords. Searches of a user’s electronic working files may be conducted on the basis of any or all of these.
From a hardware point of view, COSICS represents a quantum leap beyond the PC. A typical PC features an 8- or 16-bit central processing unit (rarely, on more expensive new machines, a 32-bit cpu), up to 640 kilobytes of random-access memory, a 20-megabyte hard disk, and a medium-resolution display. The standard “Ur-COSICS” system unit has a 32-bit cpu, 8 megabytes of RAM, 71-megabyte and 456-megabyte hard disks, and tape backup; most COSICS installations will be much larger. At the terminal, the resolution of the display is approximately equivalent to the (monochrome) EGA standard.
The time management utility simplifies the process of calling a meeting. It is possible to check the calendars of all participants and identify the first mutually-available time slot before issuing the invitation. You can program your calendar with reminders, to-do lists, meetings, appointments and other time-keyed events.
The “electronic pack” should be a marked improvement on its paper-based predecessor. Today, anyone whose duties involve reviewing the incoming pack has to set aside about two hours per day to leaf through a two- or three-foot tall stack of paper, most of it irrelevant. The “electronic pack” will be a database from which the user will be able to select, on the basis of time-frame, origin, destination, program, subject or other criteria, messages of interest. The search will produce a display resembling a correspondence register, from which the user will then select messages to read in full.
Implications for the Foreign Service
I have described myself as an “Ur-COSICS user” because in my last assignment I had the advantage of using a local area network based, like COSICS, on Digital VAX/VMS and All- In-1. Although there are differences between the two systems, some of the implications for the Foreign Service can be discerned.
It is already evident that the introduction of COSICS will make possible major changes in Departmental procedures and practices and, through them, on what may be called the foreign service culture. One would almost have to go back to the introduction of the telephone to find a technological change with such major implications for the way we do business.
One advantage noted in “Ur-COSICS” has been a reduction in the incidence of telephone tag. Sending an E-mail message is no more difficult than placing a telephone call, and the addressee does not have to be present for the message to get through. An optional feature provides the sender with a system-generated delivery receipt, and a follow-up notice to advise when the addressee has seen the message.
A lot of time wastage, especially in the intra-departmental consultation process, can be cut out of the system, resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness both internally and in the Department’s responses to the requirements levied on it by Ministers, other departments and governments, and the general public. If you want it done yesterday, that may be possible, depending on the time zones…
I think that COSICS may also result in a gradual change in the flavour and character of Departmental correspondence. In the present system, messages are impersonal documents, addressed by one bureaucratic abstraction to another. The originator of a message must always cope with a degree of uncertainty about who the action officer will be, what that person needs, and how they will react. We can all recall instances in which extended series of telegrams between posts and headquarters have circled with mounting acrimony around a central uncertainty as to what the issue was and how best to resolve it. messages (particularly informal messages) will become more personal, addressed by individuals to other individuals. It will be possible for messages to be more precisely formulated to meet individual needs. As individuals, we will become increasingly aware of each other and how we think and operate. It has been some decades since the Foreign Service was small enough for all its members to know each other. Under COSICS, that may again be possible.
The reader who has persevered this far will have gathered that the author is an enthusiast. So I am, but I would be the last to deny that we have a challenging period of adjustment ahead of us. Our experience with “Ur- COSICS” has served to underline the importance of several principles:
• The system, both hardware and software, must be closely tailored to user requirements. “Ur-COSICS” “, aside from its security features, was acquired as a standard version of All-In-1, much like those found in the private sector. It is still being modified to meet the specific requirements of its user community who, in turn, are still learning how to use it.
• Training must be closely tailored, not only to the system as installed, but to the needs of a heterogeneous user community. “Ur- COSICS” users received a three-day basic course, which in most cases was an adequate prerequisite for the user to begin learning on the job, but no more that that.
• It must be demonstrated to the user community that COSICS will enable them to do their jobs more effectively, and that it can be relied upon. If users do not have confidence in the effectiveness and reliability of the system, they will not use it…and the Department will have acquired 4200 expensive desk ornaments.
Envoi
This article was first drafted on “Ur-COSICS”. The drafting process was interrupted by a posting, a relocation, a post opening and a small war. Drafting was eventually resumed (after retyping) on a Grid laptop whose battery ran dry during the first attempt, causing complete loss of the file.
All of which prompts a final reflection: When you are up the Swakop River without a communicator, and the ceasefire starts off with a major battle, and you are desperately trying to make a telex machine function as a word processor…COSICS is no bad thing to have.
I wish I had it.
* Editor’s Note: “Ur”, according to Oxford, denotes “primitive” or “earliest”
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1990), pp. 13–15. Read the rest of this issue →
