MINUTES OF THE 25 AUGUST WSEWG MEETING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: September 1, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
1 September 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Members of the Workstation Environment
Working Group
SUBJECT: Minutes of the 25 August WSEWG Meeting
1. The Wcrkstation Environment- Working 3roup of the CIA
Information Systems Board held its third meeting on Thursday, 25
August 1983. Members and alternates attending were:
Also att
observer
and 25X1
25X1
2. The minutes of the 8 August meeting were approved with
some minor changes.
3. The Chairman stated that he would be willing to serve as
Recorder too, if the Group wished. The Group so wished, so
will record the proceedings and draft the meeting minutes for this
and future meetings until the Group tires of his prose.
4. The Group then turned its attention to its charter.
proposed that the Group consider its charter to be a 25X1
license to take up certain topics rather than tasking to do every-
thing that might appear in it. The Group agreed to this interpre-
tation. wondered whether "workstation/terminal envi- 25X1
ronment" ought to be defined and, more to the point, whether it
ought to include the physical environment including such things as
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
SUBJECT: Minutes of the 25 August WSEWG Meeting
lighting, acoustics, and furniture. After sion, the
Group agreed to both these suggestions and drafted some 25X1
language for the charter. The Group agreed to this language and
with its addition, the charter was approved. EI was to pro- 25X1
duce a final version and c_irculate it within a ay or so to give
the members one last look at it before he advertises it to the
Board as being approved.
5. The Chairman, drawing a deep breath, then took up the next
topic on the agenda: discussing his straw-man terms of reference
for, the workstation study requested by the Board. It became clear
almost immediately that the straw-man would require o
revision before being acceptable to the Group. 25X1
expressed her concern that it lacked focus. and was too negative
about current capabilities. She felt that the Group's immediate
tasking from the Board was to address the issue of combinir. word
and data processing in a single workstation and that 25X1
straw-man went considerably beyond this. explained that he L~DA]I
had hoped to produce just one paper which would satisfy a number
of needs, but agreed that it obably would not be possible to do
this in the time allowed; said the Board was 25X1
expecting a paper from us in October.
6. It was pointed out that we ought to distinguish between
the long term and the short term, a notion with which everyone
seemed to agree. suggested that we need to consider 25X1
stand-alone service too. Two more basic questions were raised and
discussed: "Should word processing and data processing be com-
bined in a single workstation?", and "Should every Agency employee
have his or her own workstation?". The Group agreed that the
answer to the first question is "yes", but that a rationale should
be given in the paper. The second question was discussed at some
length and it was pointed out that in the DO and the DI, at least,
present plans presume that the answer is "yes."
7. The Group began grappling with the question of require-
ments and the distinction between data processing and word pro-
cessing. wondered whether any studies have been done 25X1
on the changing role of secretaries. He opined that their role
would be rofoundly changed by the technologies we are consider-
ing. pointed out that this is an excellent example of the 25X1
difficu y o determining "requirements"; tools that we give peo-
ple to satisfy their requirements often cause them to radically
change what they do and how they do it, essentially invalidating
the original requirements.
8. With the meetings' alloted time rapidly running out,
proposed that he rework the straw-man outline trying to take
-2-
CONFIDENTIAL
25X1
25X1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1
CONFIDENTIAL
SUBJECT: Minutes of the 25 August WSEWG Meeting,
into account what had transpired during the meeting. He
encouraged everyone to contribute their thoughts on paper and
promised to have a revised outline a day or so in advance of the
next meeting.
9. The Group's next two meetings were scheduled for Thurs-
day, 1 Se to er beginning at 1400 and Monday. 12 September
a
to
a n
f
--
____
~ on
erence rooms and inform the Group.
-3-
CONFIDENTIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/18: CIA-RDP85-00142R000100030027-1