Storage technology costs . Scientific advance is dependent on the efficient communication of ideas. Given the developments described in the preceeding sections it is clear how the cheapness and availability of the technology has allowed people to get involved with computer-mediated conferencing. To provide an answer to this question it is useful to compare each of the media according to standard criteria. The written word allows the individual control over the rate and duration of the interaction.
Verbal communication places the control in the hands of the group.
Time and Space - does the group need to coincide either temporally or geographically in order for the communication to occur. Speed - speech cannot occur any faster than the average talking speed of the group whereas the written word moves at the average reading speed of the group. System delays - the medium can influence the time it takes a response to an individual's query or comment to be returned. The medium may or may not enforce synchronization of participants. Memory - the medium may or may not provide a mechanism to allow users to modify, append, reorganize or reclassify what has transpired and inform the other members that such changes have occurred.