Previous Macintosh documents have made a case for the establishment of a communications network as being essential to the large-scale sales of personal computers. This realization is not unique to Apple, of course, but is being increasingly recognized by many segments of the computing community. The most important question is: How can Apple establish communications networks for our customers in a timely and economical fashion?
A communications network consists of addressors who generate messages and addressees for whom the messages are intended; and a set of potential pathways that join all possible pairs of addressors and addressees. Addressors and addressees are usually people. Each person in the network has both a sender and a receiver which are devices that effect the generation, transmission and delivery of message....
It is pretty clear from the amount of activity going on in the field that this is "hot" area. The reason that it is so popular is that there is not much most individuals can do with a single, isolated computers. Yet, with access to a number of data bases and message sending and receiving ability, it is possible to see many uses of personal computers that are neither esoteric nor difficult. A previous Macintosh paper discusses this issue.